56 
On Deneholes. 
adjacent unopened one—as suggested to me by our Secretary 
—would probably be the means of decisively settling the 
question of their age and use. 
As the Charlton and Blackheath Deneholes must have 
been, judging from the greater difficulties attending their 
construction, of later date than those of Bexley and Grays, 
it may on similar grounds be considered probable that small 
and shallow pits in the chalk alone, such as Nos. 7, 8, and 9 
in Mr. Spurrell’s plate, are the oldest of all. Mr. Spurrell 
mentions one at Crayford, thirty-six feet six inches deep, 
which was examined. Part of the flint forming the floor had 
been taken up and piled in a heap on one side of the cave. 
The heap at the base of the shaft showed many flint flakes 
and scrapers ; above these was primitive pottery, and above 
that Roman pottery. But though this primitive pit was thus 
shown to have originated in the Stone Ages, the age of the 
deeper ones still remains to be ascertained, and will, I trust, 
yield itself to the explorations of the Essex Field Club. And 
our investigations at Grays will have the advantage resulting 
from the fact that the primary purpose of pits solely in the 
chalk can never be so satisfactorily established as that of pits 
sunk through fifty .or sixty feet of Thanet sand, where there 
is plenty of bare chalk within a mile. It seems probable 
that experience may have shown Thanet sand to be a 
better material for shafts than chalk. Mr. Spurrell describes 
some caves in the chalk near Rochester, and remarks :— 
“ The shafts have been much enlarged by the action of 
frost, which detaches large blocks of chalk”—a serious 
consideration in the case of caves intended for permanent 
stores and refuges, though immaterial as regards temporary 
flint-workings. 
That these Deneholes are very ancient—that they certainly 
date from a time when the art of building can scarcely be 
said to have existed in this island, and when invisibility 
formed the best security against the sudden attacks of an 
enemy—seems, to me, evident. And their position, as 
regards those at Bexley and Grays, at Blackheath and 
Charlton, points to the conclusion that the enemy feared 
