6 



It may be remembered that a sum of £5 ^vas granted by 

 this Association to the Essex Field Club, in aid of their proposed 

 Denehole Exploration. It may therefore be of some interest 

 to the Association to learn what has been done, so far, towards 

 the investigation of the Essex Deneholes. 



The Exploration Committee having decided that Hangman's 

 Wood, near Grays, should be the scene of their first labours 

 (the open pits of that group having already been descended and 

 figured), work was begun there in October, 1884, and carried 

 on for a month, under the superintendence of Mr. W. Cole, 

 Hon. Sec. E.F.C., and of oiir President, Mr. Holmes. On the 

 surface two trenches were dug, each from 20 to 30 yards long, 

 and from two to three feet deep, in spots surrounded by Denehole 

 shafts. Below, tunnels were driven in three different directions 

 from the most favourably situated of the open-shafted pits, and 

 twelve distinct deneholes were by their means placed in 

 communication with each other. Lastly, the huge mounds of 

 rubbish at the base of the shaft in two of the open pits were 

 carefully removed, and their contents examined, and a similar 

 examination of the contents of two chambers of two of the closed 

 pits was also made. 



As regards the surface trenches, it was found that when 

 the shafts were begun the gravel occupying the surface had, 

 on removal, been carefully and evenly spread over the ground. 

 Then as the shafts grew deeper, the underlying Thanet Sand 

 was also evenly distributed. But the immense quantity of chalk 

 taken from the chambers beneath seems to have been entirely 

 deposited elsewhere, not a single fragment being visible in either- 

 of the trenches. Chalk is, as compared with gravel and sand, 

 a soluble material, and if carefully distributed in small quantities 

 over a large area, would entirely disappear in course of time. 

 Biit had heaps of chalk been anywhere allowed to accumulate 

 to a height of but three or four feet, they would not have 

 utterly vanished and left no traces of their former presence. 

 Of course this singular care for the preservation of the original 

 contours of the ground by an even distribution of tbe sand and 

 gravel, together with the careful removal of the much more 



