Cross Dyke reave

Historic England's scheduling record (list entry 1010811) describes Cross Dyke, a reave about 600 metres long that climbs the south slope of Lee Moor towards Cholwich Town Reave North, a major contour reave. The bank is earth with some stone, up to 2 metres wide and 0.5 metres high, with a ditch along its east side. It is closely tied to a standing stone known as the Hanging Stone and ends at a cairn at its north end. It lies in the parish of Shaugh Prior, about 0.8 km south-east of Great Trowlesworthy Tor and 3.2 km north-east of Wotter.

Historic England puts the Dartmoor reaves in a highly elaborate and extensive system of land division begun about 1700 BC, simple banks of stone and earth that mark out territories, some of them tens of kilometres across, with parallel, contour and watershed reaves dividing the lower land from the grazing on the higher moor. Cross Dyke is part of a parallel reave system and is thought to have had a territorial role, dividing the Cholwich Town reave territory from that of the Plym valley.

Sources: Historic England list entry 1010811, which cites Fleming and Collis, 'A Late Prehistoric Reave System near Cholwich Town, Dartmoor' (Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings 31, 1973), page 5, and the Devon County Sites and Monuments Register (SX56SE-075, SX56SE-21 and SX56SE-226).

• Period: Bronze Age
• Status: Scheduled monument (Historic England list entry 1010811)
• Grid reference: SX 5836 6373 (approximate, from the listing's coordinates)