450 T. V. Holmes — On Deneholes and Bell Pits. 



the spot at whicli the battle took place, the Danes Hole being 

 only mentioned as having a possible bearing on that question. 



If we look at a map of South Durham, the reason why Danes 

 Holes were especially numerous about Embleton becomes obvious 

 on the supposition that they were hiding-places from the Danes 

 and earlier piratical marauders, but utterl}' unintelligible from the 

 mining point of view. The ground slopes to the east and south- 

 east, towards the sea and the valley of the Tees. Between Embleton 

 and Hartlepool, the surface rock is Magnesian Limestone; south of 

 Embleton, to Stockton-on-Tees, an equal distance away, most of the 

 ground is occupied by Triassic beds. There must have been 

 a natural harbour at Hartlepool one or two thousand years ago, 

 while the Tees, three or four miles southward, offered every facility 

 for piratical expeditions inland, to and beyond Stockton. Hence 

 Embleton would afford hiding-places for the fishermen of Hartlepool 

 and the inhabitants of the lower part of the Tees Valley, at 

 a convenient distance both from the river and the sea. 



Here it seems worth while to remind the reader that the southern 

 and eastern shores of Great Britain were especially subject to 

 piratical attacks both before and for centuries after the Eoman 

 Occupation. Eor the country was inhabited by scattered tribes and 

 clans but little in the habit of acting in concert, and without any 

 common system of defence. While during the Roman Occupation, 

 the 'Count of the Saxon Shore' appears to have concerned himself 

 almost wholly with the defence of the coast from the Wash 

 southward, increased distance from the Continent forming the chief 

 protection to the people of the Humber, the Tees and the Tyne. 

 In short, the inhabitants of the shores of the British Isles probably 

 suffered as much from piratical marauders before the Norman 

 Conquest as did those living in the islands of the Mediterranean, 

 many centuries later, from the attacks of the Barbary corsairs. 



I now pass to the deneholes of Kent and Essex, more especially 

 to those of the last-named county. Here we have three highly 

 concentrated groups of pits, two of them at Bexley in Kent, and 

 a third in Hangman's Wood, near Grays Thurrock, Essex. In each 

 case there are some fifty or sixty pits, close to each other, yet 

 without connection below the surface, except where the wall of 

 separation has here and there been made too thin for permanent 

 stability. The two Bexley groups, at Cavey Spring and at Stankey 

 Wood, are about 600 yards apart. For some account of the Bexley 

 deneholes the reader may be referred to a paper by Mr. E. C. J. 

 Spurrell, F.G.S., which appeared in the Arch^ological Journal, 

 vols, xxxviii and xxxix (1881 and 1882). Mr. Spurrell was, indeed, 

 the first person to make any personal exploration of deneholes and to 

 consider the probable purposes of their makers in a scientific spirit, 

 and his paper is a storehouse of facts either about the pits themselves 

 or the uses for which they were probably designed ; his opinion 

 being that they were mainly ancient granaries. 



These three groups all occupy positions analogous to those of the 

 Durham deneholes. In each case they are near, but not close to 



