146 'I'HE ESSEX FIELD CF.UI! 



were used for the storage of food supplies in those early times when life and pro- 

 perty were equally insecure, and our land was frequently invaded by foreign 

 hordes. They were ancient in the time of Henry IV., and are mentioned and 

 figured by Camden, Blaeu, and others, some 300 years ago ; and at that time were 

 considered of extreme antiquity. A copy of Camden's woodcut, 16 10, roughly 

 represents the plan of those at Tilbury, and appeared, with other views and 

 coloured plans, in the Report of the Denehole Exploration. 



The men were early on the ground on the Friday, but the day was largely 

 occupied in erecting shears and tackle, and clearing out the shaft of one of the 

 pits, marked No. 3 on the plan, which had been nearly choked by dead branches 

 of trees, brushwood, and rubbish, during the thinning which has recently been 

 made in the wood, the "roughs" from Grays and the neighbouring docks appar- 

 ently finding special delight in casting down even tree trunks and branches into 

 the shafts, and thus causing great trouble to the explorers an i damage to the pits. 

 In consequence of this senseless damage very considerable difficulty was experi- 

 enced in entering " No. 3 pit," and when at last, by removal of rubbish and 

 faggots, Mr. Shipman, Junr., and Mr. Cole were enabled to crawl down by the side 

 of the timber obstructions into the pit itself, the destruction caused was only too 

 apparent. During the explorations in 1884, the conical mound of earth in this 

 pit had been removed, and the pit cleared (see Report, etc., Essex Naturalist 

 i., pp. 235-36 ).i Now we found a heap of debris, mainly lumps of chalk, and fag- 

 gots, reaching quite to the opening of the shaft, and evidence of serious and even 

 dangerous damage to the roof of the pit. A diagram (fig. 2) will make this 

 clearer. The symmetry of the pit is completely destroyed, and the whole of the 

 mass of chalk between a and b broken down. Mr. Holmes suggested that the 

 destruction occurred in some such way as this : " The throwing down of the tree 

 trunks, which had damaged the Thanet-sand part of the shaft to some extent, 

 must have knocked away many masses of chalk, and have suggested to some 

 playful idiots who descended either by this or some other shaft the entire removal 

 of the mass of chalk between a and h by the use of the tree trunks as battering 

 rams. It is probable that the hole, about 3 feet by 2 feet, between c and c, was 

 the result of the concussions attending the destruction of the pillar of chalk 

 between a and h. It shows how easily similar holes elsewhere may have been 

 formed centuries after the disuse of the pits." It may be that the vibration 

 caused by the forcible descent of the tree trunks may have caused the whole 

 damage — the wilful battering down of the chalk by intruders in the pit would 

 have been a very dangerous piece of mischief. The directors fear that No. 3 pit 

 will not be a safe one to descend in the future. Captain Whitmore saw the damage 

 that had been done, and expressed his intention of checking the descents of unau- 

 thorised persons in the future, and if possible of securing the open pits against 

 wilful injury by fencing them in. Mr. Cole and Mr. Holmes were pleased to 

 find that the other pits bad not been damaged, and w-ere in much the same con- 

 dition as when left at the termination of the explorations in 1887. It was very 

 satisfactory to observe that the Thanet Sand everywhere stood well, and was 

 unchanged, even in the shaft of "No. 11 " pit, where the chalk is very much 

 shattered and full of cracks. And the unchanged state of the chalk in that and 

 some other pits suggests that in places where the chalk seems to have flaked 

 away considerably (as in the tunnel between Nos. 3 and 2 pits) the result may be 



I A diagram and section of this pit (one of the best examples known) will be found on Plate 

 I., vol. iii. of Trans. Essex Field Club. 



