168 Excavation of a Rowan Well near Silbunj Hill. 



A fragment of the " nether " stone of a quern, completely worn 

 through, a large double hook of iron (such as is now used in 

 butchers' shops), together with several pieces of red brick tiles, 

 were also found. It may be noted in passing that broken tiles of 

 a similar character are to be found freely strewn over the surface of 

 the field in which the well is situated. Several large sarsen stones 

 and flints were taken out, some of the former no doubt forming the 

 steining of the well. One stone in particular had a round hole 

 about 1 Jin. in diameter bored through it, having been worked from 

 both sides. This appears to have been used as one of the supports 

 for the windlass. 



On the second day we came upon some large sarsen stones, 

 weighing several hundredweights each. These greatly retarded 

 progress, as they had first to be securely lashed with ropes, and for 

 safety the workers in the well had to climb out before the stones 

 could be raised. Each stone was in turn hauled to the surface, one 

 of them — the largest — requiring the combined efforts of seven men 

 and four of the Marlborough College students to land it on terra 

 firma. Immediately beneath these stones we came upon water, 

 and after a short while further progress was found to be impossible. 

 Among the principal finds of this day's work were the second 

 bronze coin already mentioned, three massive Romano-British 

 pitcher handles, one blade of a species of shears, a small iron stylus 

 with its flattened end in good preservation, and the teeth of horse, 

 fox, pig, &c. 



On leaving off work the total depth excavated was 19 Jft., 2ft. of 

 which was filled with water. 



On the third day we fixed up a hand-pump with a 2in. suction 

 pipe, and, although our first efforts were fairly successful and the 

 depth of water was reduced a few inches, it soon began to run in as 

 fast as we could pump it out. Finding our efforts in this direction 

 useless we gave up pumping, and all our exertions were devoted to 

 raising some of the large sarsen stones, which we succeeded in 

 doing. After clearing out a few bucketsfull of loose rubbish, the 

 water remaining about 2ft. deep, we raised some more large stones, 

 two of which showed evident signs of having been cut and squared, 



