08 
PEN PITS. 
REMARKS ON THE PEN PITS AND OTHER 
SUPPOSED EARLY BRITISH DWELLINGS. 
BY HORACE B. WOODWARD, F.G.S. 
At the western end of what was once the great forest of Selwood, 
and near the junction of the three counties of Wilts, Dorset, and 
Somerset, a considerable tract of country is found to be broken up by 
numerous circular hollows, which are generally known as the Pen Pits. 
Their more precise situation is between the towns of Mere in Wilt¬ 
shire, and Wincanton in Somerset, and just in the hounds of the latter 
county. 
Of their antiquity there is for the most part no question. Indeed it 
has been asserted that they were overgrown with large oaks in the 
time of the Saxons; but their purpose has been a fertile source of 
controversy among antiquaries ever since much attention was bestowed 
upon the subject. The more commonly received opinion has been 
that the excavations were originally intended as Pit-dwellings, and 
that hence we have evidence, at this place, of one of the earliest and 
one of the largest British villages in the country.* Sir John Lubbock 
has observed that “ Many of the dwellings in use during the Bronze 
Age were no doubt subterranean or semi-subterranean. On almost all 
large tracts of uncultivated land, ancient villages of this character may 
still be traced. A pit was dug, and the earth which was thrown out 
formed a circular wall, the whole being then probably covered with 
boughs.”t 
That the Pen Pits were British habitations was the view taken by 
Sir Richard Colt Hoare, whose residence at Stourhead gave him ample 
opportunities for investigating the matter, and in his “ Ancient History 
of South Wiltshire ” (1812), and “ History of Modern Wiltshire ” (1822), 
he has given many details about the pits. In form they are like 
inverted cones or “punch-bowls,” varying from three to forty feet in 
diameter, in some instances being double, with a slight partition of 
earth, and they exhibit great regularity. He observed that formerly 
they extended over 700 acres of land. Another explanation is that the 
Pen Pits were simply opened for the purpose of obtaining stone, and 
this view has recently been supported by members of a Committee 
appointed by the Council of the Somersetshire Archfeological and 
Natural History Society. The members were—General Lane-Fox (now 
Pitt-Rivers), the Revs. Prebendary Scarth, J. A. Bennett, J. H. 
Ellis, H. H. Winwood, T. W. Wilkinson, and Mr. W. Muller. The 
ground in which the pits have been made, is formed of the Upper 
Greensand, which was ascertained to comprise a top layer of chert and 
T. Kerslake: “ A Primaeval British Metropolis,” Bristol, 1877 ; and T, 
Wright: “ The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon,” edit. ‘1,1B75, p. 115, 
I ” Pi-ehistoric Times,” edit. 2, p. .52. 
