Monument record 0127301000 - PITSTONE HILL

Plan Form - Linear.
BOUNDARY DYKE I DESCENDS HILL TOWARDS JUNCTION OF HOLLOW WAYS AT S END OF BROOKS STATNALLS WOOD. NO EVIDENCE HAS ANY CONNECTION WITH ANY OTHER DYKE TO N (BUT SEE DYER, B1); SEEMS EMBANKED ON W SIDE, N OF ALDBURY NOWERS. IS IT AN ACTUAL DYKE, OR AN IMPROVED HOLLOW WAY? (B2).
Detailed topographic survey carried out by TimeScape and Network Archaeology between January and March 1999 recorded surviving earthworks including 4 profiles across earthwork (B9).
Dyer's Dyke I. Long length of ditch and bank of Grim's Ditch on western slope of Pitstone Hill. Emerges from woodland, drops down hillside below quarry pits and then rises to top of escarpment, where it meets upper ditch and bank, before descending obliquely across slope and terminating on slope abruptly. To the S for 100m the bank is much damaged by slumping and erosion leaving it uneven and undulating, ditch much silted as well, all resulting from use as Ridgeway footpath. Amplitude from base of ditch to top of bank typically 0.5-1.0m on S part. The earthworks are in much better condition to N where profile is well preserved and consistent. Amplitude os 1.0-1.5m (B10).
NT SMR No 152749, not recorded by Dyer. Terrace continuing line of 'Grim's Ditch' system, but lack of evidence ditch and bank indicates it may be later terrace to carry path extending line of 'Grim's Ditch'. S end starts middle of escarpment beyond end of 'Grim's Ditch'. A level terrace runs along slope, then a terrace runs obliquely down slope. Upper 8m of this terrace is slightly sunken with a low bank downslope, but remainder shows no hint of a ditch or bank. Continues along base of escarpment, defined by low, 1m scarp cut into hillside. 5m wide terrace. No suggestion of former bank and ditch. To N interrupted by length of slumped hillside. Continues to N of this but lost in undergrowth before it reaches hollow-ways (B10).
A stretch of ditch with a continuous bank lying outside it. The curving course suggests that it may have formed part of an enclosure, the rest of which has been levelled by ploughing. The earthwork is probably prehistoric, but the suggested causeways in the ditch are more likely to represent post-medieval damage. The identification [as a causewayed enclosure] was based partly on the proximity of alleged Neolithic flint mines, which have also been discredited (B13).