^'t5^»' ENGLISH LAKE DWELLINGS. 41 



tracts inland being below the sea level ; the natural drainage runs 

 inland, and is emptied into the Humber. 



In 1880, the Commissioners of the Beverley and Barmston Drain 

 deepened one of its brandies emerging at Skipsea. At Ulrome the 

 drain is cut through one of the ancient meres, and has exposed on its 

 surface the remains of a pile-dwelling. On the eastward edge of the 

 mere is some slightly rising ground which is at the present time twenty- 

 five feet below the sea-level. The pile-dwelling was erected on the 

 shores of the lake and connected with the rising ground adjoining by 

 a pair of large timbers extending parallel with each other, about five 

 feet apart. The upper surface of the timbers is hewn flat, and they 

 have been carefully fixed in position, evidently to form a means of 

 communication between the shore and the platform of the pile 

 structure. The latter consists, at the base, of a number of rough, 

 unhewn trunks of trees, from which tlie branches have been removed, 

 placed horizontally on the bottom of the lake. They are, in some 

 cases, twenty feet in length, and a foot and a-lialf in diameter ; they 

 extend in an east to west direction, and are held in position by 

 rudely pointed stakes. The addition of timbers placed diagonally 

 against the larger trunks appears to indicate that it may have been 

 necessary to resist the force of a current running in a northerly 

 direction. Between the larger timbers shorter trunks were placed 

 transversely, resulting in a rude but solid and compact framework. 

 This structure, fastened in position by stakes four to six feet in 

 length, driven firmly into the bottom of the lake, forms a rectangular 

 platform thirty yards in length from east to west, and eighteen in 

 breadth in the opposite direction. Oak, ash, birch, hazel, and willow 

 appear to have been used indiscriminately to form the platform. All 

 the interstices between the timbers were filled up level with the 

 top with broken wood and twigs until a level surface was obtained ; 

 this, in its turn, being apparently covered with fragments of bark 

 and sand. The eastern end of the platform rests on the gravel 

 shore of the mere, the opposite one is separated from the gravel 

 base by a varying thickness of peat. On the foundation thus securely 

 formed were erected the dwellings of the builders, though no 

 evidence remains of them to-day. 



Amongst the bark and sticks of this structure a number of im- 

 plements and some fragments of pottery have been found. The 

 pottery is dark-coloured, half-baked, and possesses all the charac- 

 teristics of Celtic origin at an early period. Flint flakes, which 

 may have been used as knives, and for such purposes as cleaning 

 skins, were found. Implements of stone, sharpened or pointed and 

 pierced in the middle, for the introduction of a wooden handle, were 

 used as hammers ; picks and hammers were also juade from the 

 antlers of the red deer. The large leg bones of the ox, broken diagon- 

 ally midway between the extremities and pierced near the joint with 

 a circular hole for the insertion of a stick, may have been used as 



