Details

The monument includes a roughly south west-north east aligned cross dyke
constructed across a chalk ridge projecting to the north west from St Roche's
Hill, which forms part of the Sussex Downs. The 240m long earthworks, which
gently curve to the south at each end, consist of a ditch up to about 6m wide
and 0.5m deep flanked to the north by a bank up to 8m wide and 0.8m high.
Two later woodland tracks and a minor road have partly levelled the
earthworks, and the eastern section of the monument has been partly disturbed
by past ploughing.
The modern fences which cross the monument, and the surface of the road and
tracks, are excluded from the sheduling, although the ground beneath them is
included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Cross dykes are substantial linear earthworks typically between 0.2km and 1km
long and comprising one or more ditches arranged beside and parallel to one or
more banks. They generally occur in upland situations, running across ridges
and spurs. They are recognised as earthworks or as cropmarks on aerial
photographs, or as combinations of both. The evidence of excavation and
analogy with associated monuments demonstrates that their construction spans
the millennium from the Middle Bronze Age, although they may have been re-used
later. Current information favours the view that they were used as territorial
boundary markers, probably demarcating land allotment within communities,
although they may also have been used as trackways, cattle droveways or
defensive earthworks. Cross dykes are one of the few monument types which
illustrate how land was divided up in the prehistoric period. They are of
considerable importance for any analysis of settlement and land use in the
Bronze Age. Very few have survived to the present day and hence all well-
preserved examples are considered to be of national importance.

Although partly disturbed by subsequent activities, the cross dyke 480m north
west of The Trundle hillfort survives well and will retain archaeological
remains and environmental evidence relating to the monument and the landscape
in which it was constructed. The cross dyke forms part of a group of broadly
contemporary monuments situated on St Roche's Hill, providing evidence for the
relationship between settlement and land division in this area during the
later prehistoric period.

Source: Historic England