Offa’s Dyke Centre, Knighton
This building was opened in 1999 to house a permanent exhibition and information centre dedicated to Offa’s Dyke and the Offa’s Dyke Path. It is the main source of information, maps, guides and memorabilia for people walking the path. See below for more about King Offa and the dyke.
The centre is run by the Offa’s Dyke Association, which leases the building from Powys County Council. It replaced an earlier centre in the old school next door, now the workshop of artist Andy Hazell.
The Offa’s Dyke Association was founded in 1969 by local historian, teacher and Offa’s Dyke enthusiast Frank Noble. The association campaigned successfully for the opening of the Offa’s Dyke Path. The opening ceremony took place in 1971 in Pinners Hole, which is the lower part of the park behind the centre. A commemorative stone in Pinners Hole stands on one of the few publicly-owned sections of Offa’s Dyke.
King Offa coin with Arabic calligraphy
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
The Dyke is an ancient earthwork built in the late 8th century on the orders of King Offa of Mercia to mark out the western edge of his kingdom. By tradition it has become the border between England and Wales, so that to “cross Offa’s Dyke” means to travel from one country to the other. About 130km of the Dyke can still be seen today.
A unique coin from King Offa’s reign, found in Italy, bears his royal insignia and Arabic calligraphy with an Islamic expression of faith ("There is no deity except God, alone and without partners"). Many have speculated how this coin came to be. Some consider it an imitation of an Abbasid dinar, known during the period for its consistent weight and value. Others, such as Professor Keith Ray, believe it to be an Abbasid dinar that was struck again with Offa's insignia. It is among the earliest archaeological evidence of contact and trade between the British Isles and the wider Muslim world.
With thanks to Jim Saunders, of the Offa’s Dyke Association, and to Azim Ahmed for the coin information
Postcode: LD7 1EN View Location Map
Website of the Offa’s Dyke Assocation
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