Living after Offa: Place-Names and Social Memory in the Welsh Marches

Williams, Howard

doi:10.23914/odj.v2i0.274

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In addition, in areas where Wat's Dyke has been encroached by development, sometimes leading to its destruction in the last century, it is cited through toponyms (Figures 26 and 27). These place-names refer to both 'Offa' as well as 'Wat', and are discussed in the context of Offa's Dyke's contemporary placenames elsewhere (Williams 2020b).…”

Section: Contemporary Landscapes Of Wat's Dykementioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting Wat’s Dyke in the 21st Century

Williams¹

2020

Public Archaeologies of Frontiers and Borderlands

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Linear monuments offer special challenges in the context of the public archaeology of frontiers and borderlands. This chapter tackles the interpretive neglect of Britain's second-longest early medieval earthwork, Wat's Dyke, showing how its sparse and sporadic archaeological attention is reflected in poor and out-dated public archaeology and heritage interpretation. I evaluate the current media and mechanisms by which various publics -including global digital audiences, visitors to the Anglo-Welsh borderlands through which the monument runs, and local communities living in the Dyke's environs in Flintshire, Wrexham and Shropshire -can access, experience and learn about Wat's Dyke. Having identified how Wat's Dyke is fragmented and obscure in the landscape despite its monumental presence, and how its digital resources are inadequate, I then propose new avenues for developing innovative interpretations of Wat's Dyke for both existing and new audiences which aim to provide upto-date and engaging resources and connect the monument to the rich cultural landscapes, past and present, through which it runs. I argue these recommendations provide the basis for both enhancing awareness and knowledge. I also argue they provide a more robust resources for current and future generations of research and public engagement. I also suggest they serve to combat the risk of pseudo-archaeological narratives and extremist political appropriations of Wat's Dyke.

show abstract

Section: Contemporary Landscapes Of Wat's Dykementioning

confidence: 99%

Interpreting Wat’s Dyke in the 21st Century

Williams¹

2020

Public Archaeologies of Frontiers and Borderlands

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Indeed, it is under-represented in print and online maps, guides and other repositories and resources with few exceptions (see Burnham 1995;Lewis 2008). Counterintuitively, it is more readily apprehended by visitors and locals via naming practices of houses and streets, as well as schools, parks and a long-distance walking trail (Wat's Dyke Way) than as a monument in itself (see also Williams 2020b). Meanwhile, even when interacting with popular publicly accessible heritage sites, including the later prehistoric Old Oswestry Hillfort, the National Trust property of Erddig Hall and Gardens, and the industrial heritage landscape of Greenfield Valley, Wat's Dyke receives sparse, limited, vague and often inaccurate attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drawing the Line: What’s Wat’s Dyke? Practice and Process

Swogger¹,

Williams²

2021

OD Journal

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Often neglected and misunderstood, there are considerable challenges to digital and real-world public engagement with Britain’s third-longest linear monument, Wat’s Dyke (Williams 2020a). To foster public education and understanding regarding of Wat’s Dyke’s relationship to the broader story of Anglo-Welsh borderlands, but also to encourage the monument’s management and conservation, we proposed the creation of a comic heritage trail (Swogger and Williams 2020). Funded by the University of Chester and the Offa’s Dyke Association, we selected one prominent stretch where Wat’s Dyke is mainly damaged and fragmentary and yet also there remain well-preserved and monumental sections. Around Wrexham, Wat’s Dyke navigates varied topographies including following and crossing river valleys, and it is accessible to the public in the vicinity of North Wales’s largest town. In this article we outline the dialogue and decision-making process behind the map and 10-panel comic: What’s Wat’s Dyke? Wrexham Comic Heritage Trail (Swogger and Williams 2021; Williams and Swogger 2021a–b). In particular, we consider the stages taken to adapt from the initial plan of producing a bilingual map guide in response to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. This digital resource, published online in Welsh and English, guides visitors and locals alike along a central stretch of Wat’s Dyke around Wrexham town from Bryn Alyn hillfort to the north to Middle Sontley to the south. The comic heritage trail thus responds to the highly fragmented nature of the monument and utilises the linearity of Wat’s Dyke as a gateway to explore the complex Anglo-Welsh borderlands from prehistory to the present day. Building on earlier discussions (Swogger 2019), What’s Wat’s Dyke? illustrates the potential of future projects which use comics to explore linear monuments and linear heritage features (from ancient trackways and roads to railways and canals) constructed across the world from prehistory to recent times.

show abstract

Public Archaeologies from the Edge

Williams¹,

Clarke²,

Gleave³

2020

Public Archaeologies of Frontiers and Borderlands

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The chapter serves to introduce the first-ever book dedicated to public archaeologies of frontiers and borderlands. We identify the hitherto neglect of this critical field which seeks to explore the heritage, public engagements, popular cultures and politics of frontiers and borderlands past and present. We review the 2019 conference organised by Uiversity of Chester Archaeology students at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, which inspired this book, and then survey the structure and contents of the collection. We advocate that public archaeologies should seek to incorporate and foreground perspectives 'from the edge'. By this we mean public archaeology should make frontiers and borderlands -including the people living with them and seeking to traverse them -paramount to future work.From IndyRef and Brexit, to the Refugee Crisis and Trump's Wall, frontiers dominate our news. In exploring both past and contemporary frontiers and borderlands, archaeological research can provide innovative perspectives and insights, revealing their creation, use, translation, removal, subversion, circumvention and reinvention. Sustained archaeological investigations can identify how frontier monuments and landscapes are not merely lines on a map, but zones that might possess topographic, economic, social, political, religious and ideological dimensions and may acquire biographies and significances contrasting from those intended and long after their creation (e.g. Hingley 2012). Borderlands, meanwhile, need not relate to clearly defined zones either side of a coherent 'border', but creative and fluid 'third spaces' distinct from core territories of polities; they can be networks where communities and social relations are transformed and re-fashioned (e.g. Naum 2010). Frontiers and borderlands can thus operate as zones of interaction and creativity as much as barriers and blockades. In these environments, new identities and societies can be fostered and reproduced.

show abstract

Living after Offa: Place-Names and Social Memory in the Welsh Marches

Cited by 3 publications

References 8 publications

Interpreting Wat’s Dyke in the 21st Century

Interpreting Wat’s Dyke in the 21st Century

Drawing the Line: What’s Wat’s Dyke? Practice and Process

Public Archaeologies from the Edge

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About