Details

The monument includes a length of linear boundary earthwork located west
of Liddington Castle hillfort, on the northern scarp of the Wiltshire
chalklands with views north and west across the Thames valley and south across
the Marlborough Downs.
The boundary earthwork includes a ditch 3m wide to the north of which is a
bank 6m wide and up to 1m high above the base of the ditch.
The earthwork survives for a length of 49m running in a south westerly
direction. It continues further to the west for approximately 100m but has
been levelled by cultivation and is not included in the scheduling. The
eastern end of the earthwork has been truncated by chalk quarrying.
All fenceposts are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath
these features is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Linear boundaries are substantial earthwork features comprising single or
multiple ditches and banks which may extend over distances varying between
less than 1km to over 10km. They survive as earthworks or as linear features
visible as cropmarks on aerial photographs or as a combination of both. The
evidence of excavation and study of associated monuments demonstrate that
their construction spans the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although
they may have been re-used later.
The scale of many linear boundaries has been taken to indicate that they were
constructed by large social groups and were used to mark important boundaries
in the landscape; their impressive scale displaying the corporate prestige of
their builders. They would have been powerful symbols, often with religious
associations, used to define and order the territorial holdings of those
groups who constructed them. Linear earthworks are of considerable importance
for the analysis of settlement and land use in the Bronze Age; all well
preserved examples will normally merit statutory protection.

The surviving section of linear boundary earthwork west of Liddington Castle
hillfort is well preserved and has the potential to provide important
information relating to the monument and the landscape in which it was
constructed.

Source: Historic England