:R:His/LJ^Ti:jsi& 



%ht tisit to t\}t iell fits {ox Bene 

 lote) at IBrigbtling, ^mux, 



BY 



Mr. C. DAWSON, F.G.S., F.S.A. 



THE method of bell-pit mining, as practised at Brightling, 

 Sussex, is one of the earliest forms of mining in the world. 

 It is mentioned by Pliny as existing in Britain at the commence- 

 ment of the Christian era. At Brightling the system is ex- 

 empUfied by the sinking of narrow shafts (three to four feet 

 in diameter) to a distance varying from twenty to sixty feet ; 

 the object being to obtain the limestone known as the Purbeck 

 "Greys" and "Blues" for road metal. The peculiarity of 

 these pits is that, after having dug out a bell-shaped cavity at 

 the bottom of the shaft of such diameter as the pit-man conxiders 

 safe, and the limestone has been extracted, the whole exca- 

 vation and shaft is abandoned, and a fresh one commenced 

 within a few feet away ; but care is taken that the new excavation 

 shall be disconnected from the old one. The science of mining 

 by timbered and propped sides is imperfectly understood. This 

 system of mining was largely adopted at one time throughout 

 England, and nearly always in chalk districts, where the chalk 

 lay a small distance from the surface, and where it was required 

 for manure. Even where the chalk crops out upon the surface, 

 within a mile away, it was found cheaper, in the last century, to 

 dig the chalk for use as manure in this manner rather than cart 

 it, because carting necessitated the maintenance of a team of 

 horses, vehicles, and labour, disproportionate to the amount of 

 business carried on by many farmers. The chalk manuring was 

 carried out from bell-pits, sixty loads per acre, for the sum of 

 thirty-five shillings, all expenses included. In more ancient 

 times the expense and labour would have rendered a system of 

 carting altogether beyond the means of the richest farmer, except 

 where water carriage was possible. In some counties the old 



