Offa's Dyke, Part 1: Tracing History

What a massive earthwork undertaking this was, and who really knows of it?  The Romans had their Hadrian's Wall, the Chinese the Great Wall, both less of an earthwork project and more of a masonry rampart.  The Mercia Kingdom had their dyke - Offa's Dyke.  We are following that undertaking with one of our own, hiking 87 miles from Knighton to Chepstow, Wales, the southern half of the 177 mile length of this trail.

The dyke, clearly discernable between Knighton and Kington

The Anglo-Saxon's, of northern Germanic and Danish descent, gradually filled the vacuum left by the Romans departing England in 406 AD with seven "kingdoms".  Following a civil war in 757AD, Offa became the ruler of the Mercian kingdom, somewhat brutally, of what we now know to be central England. Though desiring the rich territory of  Wales, west of England and representing the "native" English who migrated away from the Anglo-Saxon invaders at the time, two forays into Wales to expand his territory failed due to the fierce independence of the Welsh.   So if you can't fight 'em, build a barrier, as much a protection of Mercia from the Welsh as protecting the Welsh from further forays into Wales by the Mercians (and they did not have to "pay" for it!).  Offa undertook this massive rampart for 59 miles of the 64 mile border between Powrys (in Wales) and Mercia, north to south.

The "logo" for the trail: Offa's image from the penny coin

Though not merely a ruthless ruler, Offa did have larger global ambitions for trade, and existing records indicate a correspondence and visit with Charlemagne, thought to be the first record of a meeting between two European leaders, as well as a visit by the Pope in 786AD.  He also established the English penny to facilitate trade, which bore his likeness and the phrase "Rex Anglorum" - King of England, which is the basis for the Offa's Dyke logo, seen on many signposts.  He died in 796AD, and thereafter his accomplishments were superseded by more famous Kings, including it is supposed, King Arthur (or is that merely legend?)

One theory on how it was constructed (Hill and Worthington) suggests that  a total of 5000 men were needed, divided among village leaders each being responsible for the peasant labor to build a section of the dyke that is roughly 4' long of a deep and wide ditch per man, from which the spoils would build an equally high dike, up to 8 meters high, atop which a palisade wall was placed.  With a lot of rock as well as clay soils, personally evidenced along the walk, a variety of materials and techniques were likely used, the bulk of which was pure manpower. 

More dyke walk - defining a boundary between fields and nations

Today, this dyke has, except along certain stretches, mostly disappeared, but has defined, more or less, the boundary between Wales and England, and over the southern half, created a "crossover" area called the Welsh Marches, where the boundary seems arbitrary, and the people identify both as Welsh and English - peaceably now at least!

Remains of the dyke in the uplands - well worn and diminished

What has been so interesting about walking this dyke is the sense of some man no different than me in every earthly respect, actually building this.  It is as if I am walking in their shoes, imagining the alignment across this varied landscape, the organization of the workforce, the sheer logistics to getting this accomplished, especially in the very high and barren Black Mountains area, themselves a significant barrier.  Even to see a farm fence and thick hedgerow, and in places enormously large oak trees that themselves could be almost as old as the wall, seems to validate the historical significance of this barrier.

And the prevailing question is, even as you walk it, did it really matter any more than simply as a political boundary - a "line in the sand"?  A monument to a royal ego? A "make work" defensive infrastructure project with limited value in actually accomplishing its goals, whom the locals routinely circumvented to trade among each other within the synonymous agricultural lifestyle on each side of the wall? 

Questions that sound as eerily applicable today as 1200 years ago. . .