Quick History — Offa's Dyke
King Offa’s ‘sea to sea’ ditch
Quick History — This blog is the first of many pieces of writings, aimed at being…you guessed it, a ‘quick history’ blog, enjoy and keep an eye out for more!
Written by Louis Binns (21.03.2024)
You may know Offa's Dyke; currently it is sustained and looked after by English Heritage, and is a famous walk undertaken by numerous walkers, family picnickers and history buffs. It was built/dug by King Offa, who (and this might surprise you) did not dig the ‘sea to sea’ ditch to attract walkers or tourists. No…in 780s Mercia, Offa’s dyke would have looked very different.
I’d like to point out first that this blog post will be full of mainly speculation, and opinions. The real reason for the digging of this dyke is very much a guess. The dyke stretches essentially across the then Saxon Mercian Kingdom boarder and the Welsh boarder, where the “Britons” resided. Most sources state that the dyke was dug, similar to why Hadrian's wall was built; to denote a boarder and to deter raiders.
The dyke is said to at some point, have had a wooden wall and in some places possibly stone built walls. The dyke actually was never garrisoned, but would have been manned by relatively small local forces. In 796 King Offa died in battle against the Welsh, trying to establish the final section of the dyke, at the Irish Sea in the north. My observation is that the dyke was never really finished. It had on the most part been fully dug from coast to coast, however the intended stone wall had only been built in certain places. It was a working progress when Offa had died, and his descendants never kept up with the build, as the Mercian kingdom crumbled after Offa’s death.
In places, the dyke actually runs absolutely straight for miles; proof of the technical skills of its engineers. Offa’s dyke I think is a great way of summing up King Offa’s reign as a whole. The dyke itself, like Offa’s reign, was a big idea; full of technical and organisational prowess. It was started and came closes to being finished, but like Offa’s reign never fully came to fruition and then suddenly fell into decline.
King Offa’s Reign
Offa was a very successful and capable King; meaning he was very violent and just generally a horrible bastard, but was clever and used all these characteristics to secure a largely stable Kingdom. Offa’s kingdom was funded and made rich by the trade coming out of the Londinium docks (London). Londinium had mainly been abandoned due to the Saxons inability to govern a mega city on that scale, and also because they believe ghosts inhabited it. A trading post however, on the river Thames, outside the city walls had developed, and was bringing in all kinds of riches from across the seas and beyond. This made Offa very rich.
King Offa was a great admirer of Charlemagne, the Frankish Emperor (France), and corresponded with him for many years. King Offa tried to model himself on his idol. This is quite an interesting fact, as King Offa’s idol was not only alive, but also a sort of friend; kind of like when at school everyone thought they were best mates with the coolest kid on the block, and would tell everyone they were friends with, Billy Big Bollocks McCool Mister.
What makes this interesting however, is many Kings before and after Offa had idols who they had never met. King Alfred and his son Edward, tried to model themselves on various Roman emperors, like Augustus or Tiberius, the glory days of Rome. These men had died hundreds of years before Alfred and his sons rule, and thus resulted in Alfred and Edward stupidly dressing in tattered purple robes with some battered bits of old Roman gold, swanning around, calling themselves ‘Rex’ (Ruler in Latin) and pretending to be an emperor. Offa is different, as he actually knew and corresponded first hand with an emperor. Charlemagne’s kingdom was far smaller and less grand than the original roman empire, but he was the biggest player in the European ruling structure of the time.
King Offa however had a lot of enemies, mainly the Welsh, on his western boarder…hence, Offa’s Dyke.
Construction/Dig of the Dyke
In today’s standards, amassing hundreds of JCB diggers and workers to dig a massive trench across the country, would be a massive task. In 780, it would have seemed impossible; thousands of workers, digging by hand, but then also having to contribute to the Kingdom of Mercia in their day jobs. However, the Dyke was essentially finished. The fact that it was dug in many places in a complete straight line, rivalled that of the Romans abilities to construct and excavate, showing the organisation skill of Offa and his administration. The digging was not random and was carefully throughout.
Because of this, I think the dyke was definitely dug as a deterrent; a defensive boarder aimed to slow raiders. From a phycological point of view, the dyke was built to show the Welsh the limit of their lands, to physically lay out the boarder between the two Kingdom’s, and to show off Offa’s ability to defend and govern the boarder. It is a well thought-out piece of phycological warfare and a show of strength towards his enemies. Drawing on the comparison of Hadrian's wall again, Offa was seen to be using inspiration from the Roman’s, and possibly was showing off to Charlemagne; like a kid presenting his new bike to Billy Big Bollocks McCool Mister.
