You are probably all aware of the Wansdyke, the eastern section of which starts at Morgan’s Hill and stretches eastwards for about 12 miles to the far side of Savernake Forest. What is surprising for such a large and impressive structure is that that nobody is sure who built it and why. If you have ever walked along it, especially near Tan Hill, you will have been impressed by the sheer scale of it. To add to the mystery is that realisation it would have taken a massive organisational effort to build it, in terms of people, provision of food to feed the workers etc.
Very little dating evidence has been found to pinpoint when it was constructed but by studying what does exist, and its relationship with the roman road, in that it cuts across it rather than the other way round, it has been assumed that it was built in fifth century or sixth centuries. This adds to the mystery as this is in the Dark Ages, shortly after the Romans left and it has been assumed that there was little social order during this period. Two archaeologists, Bruce Eagles and Michael Allen, have come up with a potential solution. They suggest that the eastern part of the Wansdyke was in fact a refurbishment, and joining, of earlier boundary earthworks created in Bronze Age and Romano-British times. The effort required to do this would be significantly less than that required to build it from scratch.
The next question is why bother to build it? The answer to this could lie in the fact
that this area was an important frontier region for hundreds of years, from before the Romans invaded up to the time when Wessex and Mercia were unified.
The Wansdyke formed part of the boundary between the Britons of the Dobunni tribe in the north and the Belgae in the south. Later it formed the border between the West Saxons and the Dobunni and then, for a short period, between the West Saxons and the Mercians (around 730ad). Note that the real name of the Dobunni tribe is unknown. Dobunni is the Latinised name given to the tribe by the Romans. Whilst the relative shortness of the Wansdyke would not have stopped a determined aggressor, as they could just go around it, it would of deterred “hit and run” raids which may have been the norm, rather than full blooded battles. During this 800 year period I can imagine that at times the area covered by the Oldbury Benefice would have been like the wild west with competing groups of people making incursions into the others territory.
Our villages were border areas occupied by the ancient Britons of the Dobunni tribe doing their best to keep out the invading Belgae from Belgium and later the Saxons from Saxony in Germany. The Dobunni were primarily peaceful farmers and craftsmen, some of whom probably lived in Oldbury hillfort (Castle) for hundreds of years. They had their own coinage and their capital was Cirencester. They peacefully accepted the Romans and adopted their culture and lifestyle. After the Romans left they found themselves in conflict with several groups but their identity was lost as they were incorporated into the Mercians and subsequently the Anglo Saxons.
Next time you walk up to the Lansdowne Monument think that you are visiting a village of the Dobunni tribe of Celtic Britons. They were probably constantly watching over the downs to the south for signs of the next raid! You will be standing in one of the last southerly fifth century strongholds of the Britons!
If you are interested in finding out more about the Wansdyke and the dark age history of our area I would strongly recommend a book called “From Roman Civitas to Anglo-Saxon Shire” edited by Bruce Eagles (2018)
PS. I really like Stukeley’s drawing showing the Wansdyke and Calstone. It shows the earliest representation of Calstone church that I am aware of (from 1724). The setting doesn’t look to have changed much over the last 300 years! It also shows a gibbet complete with corpse at the top of Morgan’s Hill. Maybe that was a warning to Devizes folk if they were thinking of causing mischief in our area—or vice versa!