CONCLUSION

Grim’s Ditch still forms a dramatic boundary feature in the landscape today despite considerable erosion of its features since it was first constructed in the late Bronze Age.

The function of the earthwork is unclear but in our investigation we noted that:

• The earthwork lies just below the Ridegway running along the escarpment of the Berkshire Downs overlooking the Vale of the White Horse. In this position it seems to mark a boundary between different soil types. No offshoots of similar construction are visible which suggests that it was always supposed to be an effective demarcation feature in its own right. Therefore it could have been constructed to form a boundary defining upland pasture and separating this from more arable land use on lower slopes.
• There appears to be no obvious relationship between Grim’s Ditch and other contemporary features in the landscape such as hillforts or enclosures, which could help determine whether the earthwork was constructed to define the territory relating to the political or social organisation of a particular group. Significant energy and communal organisation was required to create and maintain the earthwork during its lifetime which in itself suggest some form of belonging to a group and power status.
• Grim’s Ditch has several idiosyncrasies, such as the ‘dogleg’ turn we discuss in this investigation. Does this mean that the Ditch was constructed within an already defined landscape and the original builders needed to respect something else in the landscape, such as field boundaries? The north-south section of the ‘dog-leg’ corresponds to a much later township boundary which perhaps suggests the relevance of the Ditch at this point continued within a system which was still in use in later periods.