Page:VCH Kent 1.djvu/542

 A HISTORY OF KENT shallower and simpler in form than the deeper pits, and in many cases probably older. Good examples of these were discovered by Mr. Spurrell in a chalk cliff in Crayford brick-fields. * One of the pits measured from the surface to the chalk about 1 8 ft., thence to the floor 17 ft. 6 in. ' From this floor rose an obtuse cone of sandy clay, very hard, 6 ft. high, washed in very slowly and evenly by the rain. In the cone were found several flakes, worked scrapers and a " core," but no pottery ; above this lay coarser soil, several sorts of pottery, some made with shells, some with chalk, and ornamented by the finger-nail ; higher up still Roman pottery, a fine Samian plate, and bones and rubbish to the surface ' (fig. i). In 1883 I had an opportunity of descending one of the best pre- served deneholes of the neighbourhood of Lenham, which lies at the foot of the chalk escarpment of the North Downs, about nine miles east- south-east of Maidstone. All the pits shown me by Mr. J. T. Hatch were on the top of the chalk escarpment, and on the highest ground in the neighbourhood. They were scattered here and there in groups of s.nVmon teySr. two, threc, or more. Thus, there were two close together north of 11°!?!/^."''"°'"""^" Pivington Farm, near the north-eastern corner of the wood. One of F. Sand Old rait. them Still prcsctved its original shape and was about 27 ft. deep. Fig. I. Shallow North-east of Pivington Farm is a little cluster of houses called Warren ^P^"° Street. Two roads diverge from its southern end, one to Rayner's Farm, the other to Waterditch Farm. In the field in the angle between these roads two pits had tumbled in. They appeared as steep-sided circular holes, per- haps 12 ft. deep and 15 ft. in diameter. In another field west of Warren Street, and on the north side of the road thence to Pivington Farm were slight hollows marking the position of five more pits. This field is the one crossed by the parish boundary, which is generally on the lines of hedges. Towards the middle of the field west of that just mentioned the sites of three more pits were seen, one of them being of considerable depth. Proceeding in a north- westerly direction along the footpath which touches the southern boundary of Birch Wood, we saw (where the next wood comes close to the footpath) three pits close together. And on the eastern margin of the wood traversed by the footpath, and about lOO yds. north of the path, we came to an open pit. Here Mr. Hatch had been good enough to furnish the means of descent in the shape of a long ladder. The depth was found to be about 38 ft., the uppermost 5 or 6 ft. of the shaft being in loam with flints, the rest in chalk. The pit appeared to have been at one time of a simple bee-hive shape like that at Crayford (fig. i). From its sides, however, five galleries had been driven, which radiated from the centre at nearly equal distances from each other, but varied considerably in height and length. From their height at the entrance it is possible that these tunnels may have been begun before the cavern had quite attained its present depth. Measuring across from the ends of two nearly opposite near Lenham. chambers we found the greatest diameter to be about 40 ft. (fig. 2).^ On 4 April, 1906, I accompanied Mr. Sargent, Mr. Beeston and others to Lydden and Alkham. The district is one in which the chalk, with a gentle slope down to the north-east, is, on the higher ground, between 400 ft. and 500 ft. above the sea ; the villages (such as Lydden and Alkham) being mostly in the intersecting valleys. The highest ground is usually capped by a deposit of clay with flints, while at the bottom of the valleys are sometimes alluvial deposits of gravel, sand and loam. The group of pits visited at Lydden consisted of three close together, near the top of the hillside north-east of the village and south-west of Cane Wood, the height above the sea being about 420 ft. The depth from the surface to the bottom of the shaft in the first pit visited was 22 ft. or 23 ft. The symmetry of the chambers had been obscured by a ' pipe ' in the chalk, which had checked excavation in its vicinity, and by a fall of the roof in another quarter ; also by an operation which had been begun, but not finished, 1 Arch. Journ. xxxvii. under the title, ' Account of Neolithic Flint Mines at Crayford, Kent.' The author corrected the erroneous description of these pits .is ' fiint-mines ' in his subsequent paper on ' Deneholes,' etc., already referred to. 5 For being able to inspect some deneholes near Dover, at Lydden and Alkham, I am much indebted to the kindness of Mr. F. G. Sargent, residing at Shepherdswell ; while for the pLins and sections of those visited I am greatly obliged to Mr. W. Beeston, of Shepherdswell and Dover. Both gendemcn had long taken much interest in deneholes, and Mr. Sargent was good enough to invite me to visit those in his district, in which (so far as I know) their existence has not hitherto been recorded. 448