Abstract

AbstractThis paper, written at the invitation of the editors of Landscapes, responds to the re-interpretation (published in this issue of Landscapes) following new field survey of the date of a linear earthwork which formed part of my thesis that an early English ‘kingdom’ can be identified in the upper Swaledale valley. The purpose of the response is not to challenge the new dating, but rather to place both it and the former chronology into local context – and perhaps more importantly to consider the landscape significance of Yorkshire's dykes in more general terms in the light of recent thinking by other scholars.