T. V. Holmes — On Deneholes and Bell Pits. 457 



made is required at the surface as in these examples. But whatever 

 may be the dlflferences in detail between the workings in Chalk for 

 flint at Grime's Graves and Cissbury, the Pen Pits or the Brightling 

 Pits, they are all palpably mines, and suggest no other explanation 

 to those acquainted with their structure. 



In the case of the deneholes of Stankey Wood and Cavey Spring, 

 Bexley, and of those of Hangman's Wood, Grays, the fundamental 

 differences between them and mines of the bell-pit class reveal 

 themselves simply in proportion to the closeness of the examination 

 they receive. We have ah'eady seen that the spots chosen as the 

 sites of each of these three collections " of pits are well suited for 

 hiding-places, but the worst possible situations for chalk-mines, being 

 where the Chalk is from 30 to 60 feet below the surface, though 

 there is plenty of bare chalk in each case within a mile. Now 

 though single pits might easily be of unusual depth without any 

 significance attaching thereto, no people ever deliberately concen- 

 trated their pits where they received the least return for their labour 

 — as they must have done at Grays and Bexley on the Chalk-pit 

 hypothesis. And there is no imaginable counterbalancing advantage 

 in their sites, from the Chalk-pit standpoint- 

 Passing from the sites to the structure of these three collections 

 of deneholes, the essential differences are these : — The shafts of the 

 bell-pit groups are necessarily broad to allow of the passage upwards 

 of a considerable amount of material at a single haul, as shown 

 by Mr. Dawson in his section of a Brightling pit. The shafts of 

 these groups of deneholes are, on the other hand, extremely narrow. 

 In some cases at Hangman's Wood we found them, in places, with 

 a diameter still under three feet, and with the footholes at the sides 

 so little obliterated that Mr. Miller Christy ascended and descended 

 several feet, in the Thanet Sand part of one shaft, by their aid. 

 The Gravel above and the Chalk below have not weathered so well 

 as the Thanet Sand, but when in use the shaft throughout must 

 have been somewhat narrower than the narrowest part of a shaft 

 to-day. The length (80 feet) and narrowness of the Hangman's 

 Wood shafts were indeed as unfavourable to the operations directed 

 by Mr. Cole and myself, as they would have been to seekers after 

 chalk for agricultural purposes. For when we considered how we 

 might remove from certain chambers the debris resulting from the 

 weathering of the shaft during centuries of disuse, it became obvious 

 that the length and narrowness of the shafts were fatal, on account 

 of the great expense involved, to any project for removing it to 

 the surface. 



Then, at the base of the denehole shaft, another contrast presents 

 itself. The bell pit simply widens out for a certain distance round 

 the shaft, as indicated in Mr. Dewson's plan and section of the 

 Brightling pit. The ' ancient Essex denehole,' on the same page, 

 however, gives an inaccurate notion of the plan of a denehole near 

 the shaft, as may be seen on comparing it with the ground-plan 

 of the Hangman's Wood pits visited, given in our Denehole Report. 

 As I have already stated, the Chalk at the base of the shafts has 



