Dead Woman's Ditch

Dead Woman's Ditch is an earthwork which has been scheduled as an ancient monument in Over Stowey, Somerset, England situated on the Quantock Hills.

Dead Womans Ditch (geograph 2880447)

A linear earthwork consisting of a bank with a ditch along the west side running for approximately 950 metres (3,120 ft) from a spring known as Lady's Fountain across Robin Uprights Hill and down into Ramscombe.[1] The earthwork is presumed to be of prehistoric origin and is of unknown purpose, but has been linked to Dowsborough.[2]

The 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) long earthwork has been cut through by later tracks and a road.[3] It is badly eroded in places and is on the Heritage at Risk Register.[4] Part of the earthwork is on land owned by the Forestry Commission.[5]

Dead Woman's Ditch is sometimes associated with the Murder of Jane Walford by her husband John in 1789 but the name predates the murder, appearing on an earlier map.[6] In 1988 the body of Shirley Banks was found at the site. John Cannan was found guilty of her murder.[7][8]

References
  1. Historic England. "DEAD WOMANS DITCH (189513)". PastScape. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  2. Trewin, Jane. "Dead Woman's Ditch and the Exmoor National Park". Everything Exmoor. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  3. Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1008254)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 7 September 2015.
  4. "English Heritage". Heritage at Risk Register. Historic England. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  5. "Dead Woman's Ditch". Some Quantock Items. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  6. Grinsell (1976). Prehistoric Sites in the Quantock Country. p. 19.
  7. "Prison breaches human rights, says killer of Bristol newlywed". Bristol Post. 5 June 2009. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  8. Whittington-Egan, Richard; Whittington-Egan, Molly (2011). Murder on File. Neil Wilson. ISBN 9781906476533.

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