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PEN PITS. 
iiig below; they were rarely more than twenty feet deep, and are 
generally filled with water. Sometimes they were connected by levels.* 
It has been remarked that the so-called Pit-dwellings were so 
constructed in reference to soil that they will hold no water—an 
essential feature in the hypothesis. But, as Mr. Davey has pointed 
out, holes of all shapes and sizes have been termed pitsteads, from 
small and shallow excavations to pits 45 feet broad and 140 feet in 
depth! 
In many parts of Norfolk, where the Glacial sands and gravel cover 
considerable areas, and have given rise to tracts of heath, old Pit- 
dwellings have been described. Among the localities mentioned are 
Weybourn, Edgefield, Aylmerton, Marsham, Koughton, Beeston, 
Mousehold, and Eaton. At Weybourn, Mr. H. Harrod estimated that 
there were about 1,000 pits, some containing burnt bones and urns. 
The pits were stated to be bowl-shaped, from 8 to 20 feet in diameter, 
2 to 6 feet in depth, and mostly 12 feet by 3 in breadth.f The 
urns found were stated to be Celtic. 
In a communication made to the Norwich Geological Society in 
1868, the Rev. A. R. Abbott expressed his opinion that the pits in the 
neighbourhood of Runton and Weybourn were remains of early British (?) 
iron-workings, for the oxide of iron in the gravel. He obtained 
large lumps of iron silicate or slag. The pits were some of them 
circular, with the sides evidently formed of stones, and a hole in the 
centre, in which fires had been made.J Mr. Abbott has subsequently 
informed me (May 2nd, 1882) that the appearances were certainly such 
as would, in his opinion, have supported the view that there had been 
habitations on the same spot where smelting had evidently been 
carried on. 
On Marsham Heath are numerous shallow pits varying from about 5 
to 12 feet in breadth, opened in the Glacial gravel and sand, and now 
overgrown. I saw (in 1880) many of these in company with Mr. R. J. W. 
Purdy, who obtained the services of a resident keeper to dig in one of 
them. At the depth of a foot from the bottom of the pit undisturbed 
gravelly sand was reached, and nothing to indicate human occupation 
was observed. The man informed us he had been told by his father 
that “the soldiers” were encamped on the heath many years ago, and 
he pointed to some of the larger pits as belonging to officer’s tents. 
Such was the tradition of the place. 
Referring to the supposed vestiges of British residences in Norfolk, 
the Rev. George Munford has remarked that “ the conjecture is very 
doubtful.§” Even the excavations called Grimes Graves on Weeting 
Heath, near Brandon, which were supposed to be cave dwellings of the 
early inhabitants of the district, have been shown by Canon Green- 
well to be workings for flint that extend back to Neolithic times. And 
* “ Geology of the Weald,” p. 334. 
I “ Norfolk Archaeology,” vol. iii., i)p. 232—240,1852. 
X Norwich Mercury, Sept. IGth, 1868; see also C. Keid, “ Geology of the 
Country around Crouier” (Geol. Survey), p. 134. 
S “ Local Names in Norfolk,” p. 5. 
