Wansdyke (earthwork) - East Wansdyke

East Wansdyke

East Wansdyke in Wiltshire, on the south of the Marlborough Downs, has been less disturbed by later agriculture and building and remains more clearly traceable on the ground than the western part. Here the bank is up to 4 m (13 ft) high with a ditch up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft) deep. Wansdyke's origins are unclear, but archaeological data shows that the eastern part was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. That is after the withdrawal of the Romans and before the takeover by Anglo-Saxons. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the British as a defence against West Saxons encroaching from the upper Thames Valley westward into what is now the West Country.

Lieut.-General Augustus Pitt Rivers carried out excavations at the Wansdyke in Wiltshire in the late 19th century, considering it the remains of a great war in which the southwest was being defended. In 1958, Fox and Fox attributed its construction to the pagan Saxons, probably in the late sixth century. Its relationship to the expansion of the West Saxons was considered in 1964 by J.N.L. Myres, who maintained to the end a minority opinion that Wansdyke was constructed by some sub-Roman authority.