All Saint's Church, Silverley (NGR TL 705 602)
The ruined church of All Saints lies in a small wood at a road junction about a mile to the south of the village of Ashley. The earliest reference to a church at Silverley dates to AD 1254, but by the 16th century the settlement had contracted northwards to its present site and the church at Silverley had fallen out of use. In 1586, the chronicler William Harrison noted that one of the churches in Ashley had been converted into a barn, and that the parishioners were using a chapel on the village green as their place of worship.
Accounts and sketches made in 1752 show that the church had fallen into complete dereliction by this time, with only the tower and a few scattered ruins surviving. During the mid 19th century a new church was constructed in the village of Ashley, whilst the churchyard at Silverley was used for tree planting.
Remains visible today include the church tower, dated to the later 14th century, built in the Decorated style from flint rubble with limestone dressings. The tower is three stories high, standing to a height of 12.5m, with remains of an internal spiral staircase and some plaster surviving on the walls. The plan of the remainder of the church can be traced as a low bank in the undergrowth to the east of the tower. |
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Burwell Castle (NGR TL 587 660)
Burwell Castle lies to the immediate west of the church, in an area of pasture known as Spring Copse. In AD 1143 King Stephen constructed a chain of fortified posts along the edge of the fens, in an attempt to contain the rampages of the rebel Earl of Essex, Geoffrey de Mandeville. Burwell Castle was almost certainly one of these fortifications. Part of an earlier medieval village was cleared to make way for the castle and traces of houses can still be seen as earthworks to the north and east. The castle itself was never finished, as Geoffrey de Mandeville was fatally wounded when he laid siege to the site in 1144. In the 13th century the castle area was granted to the Abbot of Ramsey, who erected a small chapel and associated structures. Excavations were carried out at the site in 1935 by the famous Cambridge archaeologist T.C Lethbridge. He found traces of a Roman building on the rectangular castle mound, as well as evidence for medieval structures and architectural fragments.
Remains visible today include a series of impressive and well-preserved earthworks, including the motte (castle mound), an unfinished rectangular moat, defensive outworks and the earthwork footprints of medieval houses.
Burwell Castle is a Scheduled Ancient Monument - please treat it with respect and do not use metal detectors there. |
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Devil's Ditch, Reach to Woodditton (NGR TL 681 649)
The Devil's Ditch or Dyke stretches 7 miles between the fen edge at Reach and the claylands at Woodditton. Car parking is available where the monument crosses the B1102 between Swaffham Prior to Burwell. Devil's Ditch is the largest and most easterly of the Cambridgeshire dykes. It is believed to have been constructed in the early Saxon period (AD 410 - 600), a time when conflict was rife between adjacent populations and incoming Saxons. The massive earthwork, up to 10 metres high and 35 metres wide, may have demarcated the territory of a local warlord, providing control of the movement of people and goods across this strategic corridor. Limited excavations have taken place along the course of the dyke and it has been suggested from the small quantity of silt in the ditch fills that the dyke went out of use shortly after it was constructed.
The full length of the dyke can be walked between Reach to Woodditton, and the ditch and bank survive to a considerable height for the majority of the route.
The Devil's Dyke Restoration Project is a five year Heritage Lottery Funded Restoration Project to restore Devil’s Dyke to its former glory and establish long-term management practices that are financially sustainable. For more information please consult the Devil's Dyke Restoration Project webpages.
Devil's Dyke is a Scheduled Ancient Monument - please treat it with respect and do not use metal detectors there. |
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