Fieldwork on Offa's Dyke

Members of the Travel and Communication in Anglo-Saxon England project carried out fieldwork on Offa's Dyke (Herefordshire, Powys, Shropshire) between 31 May and 4 June 2016.

One of the themes of the Travel and Communications in Anglo-Saxon England project is to explore the transportation geography of border regions; examining issues such as: the continuity/discontinuity of routeways; the form of transit locations; the relationship of economic and military activities to borders; the role of routeways in extending spatial cohesion and occupation. With these issues in mind, members of the team carried out fieldwork on Offa's Dyke between 31 May and 4 June 2016. Along a stretch of the monument between Knighton and west of Oswestry, the team recorded the topological relationships between the dyke, routeways, and other linear features. We examined the nature and location of gateways through the dyke, and recorded the form and aspect of the monument in relation to the principal routes of movement through the border region.