Black Ditches is an earthwork close to the village of

Cavenham Cavenham is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England, northwest of Bury St Edmunds. It is in the local government district of West Suffolk, and the electoral ward of Icini. At the 2001 UK census, Cavenham Parish had a population of 127 ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, and part of it is a biological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

(SSSI). The earthwork is 4.5 miles long between the

River Lark The River Lark is a river in England that crosses the border between Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. It is a tributary of the River Great Ouse, and was extended when that river was re-routed as part of drainage improvements. It is thought to have be ...

Lackford Lackford is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around four miles north-west of Bury St Edmunds on the A1101, in 2005 it had a population of 270. The parish contains the Lackford Lake ...

and the

Icknield Way The Icknield Way is an ancient trackway in southern and eastern England that runs from Norfolk to Wiltshire. It follows the chalk escarpment that includes the Berkshire Downs and Chiltern Hills. Background It is generally said to be, within ...

. It is described by the Suffolk Historic Environment Record as having no direct dating evidence but "by analogy with other linear earthworks in the region it is usually assumed to be post Roman". Two sections of ditch remain visible, one to the north-east of the village and one to the south-east, covering a total of . An stretch south of Cavenham is designated as an SSSI. Access to the Black Ditches is limited, with no public right of way.

History

Cyril Fox Sir Cyril Fred Fox (16 December 1882 – 15 January 1967) was an English archaeologist and museum director. Fox became keeper of archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, and subsequently served as director from 1926 to 1948. His most ...

thought Black Ditches was the most easterly of a series of five earthworks that defended the East Anglian kingdom of the Wuffings along the

, the others being collectively known as the Cambridgeshire Dykes - Devil's Dyke,

Fleam Dyke Fleam Dyke is a linear earthwork between Fulbourn and Balsham in Cambridgeshire, initiated at some timepoint between AD 330 and AD 510. It is three miles long and seven metres high from ditch to bank, and its ditch faces westwards, implying inv ...

, Bran Ditch and

Brent Ditch Brent Ditch is generally assumed to be an Anglo-Saxon earthwork in Southern Cambridgeshire, England, built around the 6th and 7th Centuries . However most of its structure has been lost over time. The site is scheduled as an ancient monument by ...

.Fox.C (1923) ''The archaeology of the Cambridge region: a topographical study of the Bronze, Early Iron, Roman and Anglo-Saxon Ages, with an introductory note on the Neolithic Age'', pp.123-124. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
available online
. It is not as well preserved as the western defences. A small excavation in 1992 found that the Black Ditches had a ditch on either side of the bank. Only Iron Age pottery was recovered in this excavation. The total length of the ditches is around stretching from south of Cavenham towards

Icklingham Icklingham is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. It is located about north-west of Bury St Edmunds, south-east of Mildenhall and south-west of Thetford in Norfolk. The village is on the A110 ...

, although there is no evidence of the ditch crossing the

at Icklingham. The Icknield Way crosses the line of the ditch towards the central area. In this area the ditch is generally no longer visible. The northern section of ditch remaining is around in length running across the eastern edge of Cavenham Heath towards the River Lark. The section is less well preserved, although up to high and wide in places. This section is not designated as an SSSI although it lies on the boundary of the Breckland Farmland SSSI. This section lies entirely within the parish of Cavenham. The southern section of the ditch is long, extending southwards in some form across Risby's Poor Heath. This section forms the boundary of Cavenham and

parishes before it enters Risby parish to the south.

Plant and wildlife

The

covers the southern section of ditch and is in area. It is bordered on the west by the

Breckland Farmland Breckland Farmland is a 13,392.4 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in many separate areas between Swaffham in Norfolk and Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. It is part of the Breckland Special Protection Area under the Euro ...

SSSI. Black Ditches provides an example of chalk grassland on its banks.Black Ditches, Cavenham
, SSSI citation, Natural England. Retrieved 2013-01-29. A wide variety of species are present and the site is especially well preserved as it is believed that it has never been ploughed. The dominant grass species are Crested Hair-grass '' Koeleria cristata'', Timothy Grass ''

Phleum pratense Timothy (''Phleum pratense'') is an abundant perennial grass native to most of Europe except for the Mediterranean region. It is also known as timothy-grass, meadow cat's-tail or common cat's tail. It is a member of the genus ''Phleum'', consis ...

'' and Common Quaking-grass ''

Briza media ''Briza media'' is a perennial grass in the family Poaceae and is a species of the genus ''Briza''. Common name includes quaking-grass, common quaking grass, cow-quake, didder, dithering-grass, dodder-grass, doddering dillies, doddle-grass, eart ...

''. Herb species include the locally rare Heath Sedge '' Carex ericetorum'' and Bastard Toadflax '' Comandra umbellata''. Scrub has developed along the edge of the ditch where it is sheltered by woodland.

References

{{Authority control Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Suffolk Anglo-Saxon sites in England Scheduled monuments in Suffolk Linear earthworks Archaeological sites in Suffolk