4;j0 MORTIMER: PRE-HISTORY OF THE VILLAGE OF FIMBER. 
and depth (which may be due to the shght variations in the surface 
level of the land, and from the makers endeavouring to keep the 
bottom of the trenches tolerably clear) but they averaged about 5 feet 
in depth, and varied in width at the tops from 6 to 14 feet, and at 
the bottom from 1 foot to 2i feet. 
It is difficult to understand the special purpose this system 
of trenches served. But the single trench running north- 
westw^ards may at times be traced by a green strip in the growing 
corn, extending all the way along the valley bottom to within a mile 
of Burdale, where a surface stream of water from a fine spring there 
disappears beneath the turf. I obtained a section of this trench 
(July, 1884) at a point only half-a-mile from the sinking end of this 
stream. Therefore this trench may have been connected with the 
Burdale spring, whose water it conveyed (probably througli pipes 
made of hollowed trunks of trees) to the series of trenches at 
Blealands Nook to supply with water a settlement there. If this 
surmise be correct, we have indications of a system of waterw^orks 
greatly in advance of any recent arrangement to supply this 
neighbourhood with good water. This extended line of trench, 
running towards the Burdale spring, has shown itself in the corn 
crops every dry summer since I can remember. Indeed its green 
appearance was noticed by the old men of the neighbourhood, 
especially my father, whose land it crossed about 1^ miles west 
of Blealands Nook, and was thought to be the result of a subter- 
raneous stream or watercourse which existed beneath and gave 
moisture to the land above. If these trenches were not made to 
convey water, might they have been for a defensive purpose ? viz., 
a series of trenches from the shelter of which slingers and javelin- 
men cast their projectiles in protecting this crossing of roads and in 
defending their dwellings, some of which may have been arranged 
in rows in the spaces between the trenches, whilst the trench ex- 
tending westwards may have been a covered w^ay. 
These trenches, as before-mentioned, were filled with dark soil, 
containing many animal bones, and much broken Roman pottery, 
showing this spot to have been occupied in Roman times. Besides 
these we found a disc of bone (fig. 1), having on one side eight 
