89 



ON CEOCKETT'S HOLE, AND HOENE, THE NEWENT 

 MAETYE. 



By G. H. PiPEE, F.G.S., President of the Woolhope Field Club. 



[Read at a MeetiuK of the Woolhope Field Club, at Newent, May 27th, 1S86.] 



On Cugley Farm, in the parish of Newent, some 300 yards west of the highway 

 leading from Newent to Huntley, may be seen a large excavation in the New 

 Red Sandstone, locally known as "Crockett's Hole." It is in the corner of a 

 field near to the farmhouse, and until the year 1884 was a spacious cavern cut out 

 of the solid rock, which is here very soft and easily worked. It could be 

 approached only by means of a hole in the bank of the hedgerow of the 

 adjoining field, which is on a much lower level ; but, unfortunately, in the wet 

 season of that year, the weight of some horses on the upper surface broke in the 

 roof, and for ever ruined an object of great local wonderment and interest, 

 sanctified by traditions of incidents which occurred more than three centuries 

 ago ; a long period ; but one that would, probably, represent a fraction only of 

 the antiquity of the excavation. 



The principal cavern would appear to have been some 14 feet by 12, and 

 nine or ten feet high, but the dimensions at present are .somewhat obscure. I 

 satisfied myself about the height by pushing a pole down into the soft sand that 

 had fallen from the roof. 



Near to the summit of May Hill, on the eastern side, not far from the 

 keeper's lodge, is another lar!,'e hole in the earth. The distance thence to Cugley 

 is about a mile and and a half as the crow flies, and an ineradicable belief exists 

 that a subterranean passage leads from one point to the other ; and persons now 

 living relate how their own immediate friends and relatives have endeavoured to 

 prove the truth of the tradition, and clear up the mystery whereby it is 

 surrounded. 



The belief in this myth is supported by the circumstance that a large 

 opening at the base of the cavern, at Cugley, may yet be seen. It is many feet 

 below the surface of the field, and at the part of the cave nearest to May Hill : it 

 inclines in that direction, but its length or continuance is quite problematical. 



Respecting the earliest known occupants of Crockett's Hole, Rudder gives 

 the following particulars :— "Near the top of the same hill (Yarleton Hill, sic), is 

 Crocket's Hole, so called because one Crocket and his companion Home used to 

 hide themselves there in the persecuting reign of Queen Mary. Home was taken 

 and burnt in the yard belonging to the Priory House, in Newent, which is not 

 mentioned in Foxe's Acts and Monuments. His story is briefly thus, as related 

 by Home's son, who had it from his mother. Home was a Papist and a man of 

 parts, and meeting with several Protestants who had assembled near the side of 



