Devil's Dyke Restoration Project

History and Archaeology

The Devil's Dyke is thought to have been constructed by Penda, the Saxon king of the East Angles during the late 6th or early 7th centuries to protect the East Anglian Saxons from the Britons to the west and may have later been used as a defensive barrier against a threat from the Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

Stretching across the open chalk lands between the impassable fenland to the north and the thickly wooded land to the south, it would have formed an effective barrier. The construction of a dyke (and ditch) was a common tactic used by the Saxons when fighting the Britons. The Britons often fought on horseback, while the Saxons usually only fought on foot, and thus the ditch would have prevented the use of cavalry. The ditch may well have been filled with thorny bushes to act as further defence. It is possible that the monument may have been built over an earlier prehistoric dyke on a similar alignment.

There have been several archaeological excavations through the Dyke in the 20th century. In 1973, during the construction of the A14, an archaeological section was excavated and this helped to reveal how the Dyke may have been constructed. It showed that the first stage was a marker bank using topsoil from the immediate area. Material was then quarried from the ditch and was hoisted to the top of the bank in great tips on earth hauling ramps. Gangs of workers were responsible for different sections. However, it is thought that the defences went out of use after only a few years.

Devil's Dyke formed the last defence in a series of similar, smaller defensive earthworks to the south-west, including Fleam Dyke, Brent Ditch and Bran Ditch. These ditches controlled both the ancient Icknield Way and the Roman Roads (e.g. the modern A11) that passed through them. Thus the Dyke was constructed to control trade and access as well as a military or defensive barrier. The Cambridge Green Belt Project carries out management on the Fleam Dyke. For further information about this and other wildlife sites in and around Cambridge please visit the Cambridge Green Belt Project

There is an interesting history to the name of the monument. During the Middle Ages it was regularly known as 'St Edmunds Dyke', because it marked the limit of the jurisdiction of the abbots of Bury St. Edmunds. There are also Middle Ages references to the 'Great Ditch'. During the 11th century siege of Ely by William the Conqueror, it is referred to as 'Reach Dyke'. Devil's Dyke or Ditch is a post-medieval name, probably deriving from a belief that such landforms must be of supernatural origin. One local legend is that the Devil came uninvited to a wedding perhaps at Reach church and was chased away by the guests. In anger the devil ran away and formed the groove of the Dyke with his fiery tail.