226 REPORT ON THE DENEHOLE EXPLORATION
Caves with Vertical Entrances" ("Archaeological Journal," 1881) ; in Mr. T. V.
Holmes's papers "On Deneholes" (Trans. Essex Field Club, iii. 49), and
"Miscellaneous Notes on Deneholes" (Trans. Essex Field Club, iv. 87), and in
Mr. W. Cole's reports of the visits of the Club to Hangman's Wood in 1882
("Proceedings of the Essex Field Club," iii., pp. 28 and 56, and iv., page 20).
—Ed.]
Having been empowered by the Denehole Exploration Committee, in
the Summer of 1884, to carry on the work at Hangman's Wood, we began
operations there on Oct. 13th, and carried them on during the next
four weeks. It was then deemed advisable, for many reasons, to leave
off work for the season, in the hope of being able to resume it in the
following spring. Various circumstances, however, prevented us from
going on with it in the years 1885 and 1886. Having been able to
continue our investigation this year for a fortnight, and having at
length brought it to a certain degree of completeness, we have
pleasure in laying before you the following account of our work and
its results. In this Report the whole of our labours are described,
whether executed in 1884 or in the present year. And in giving this
account of them, we have thought it better to state the nature and
results of each kind of work in turn, rather than to present the details
in chronological order, a confused impression being almost inseparable
from the latter course.
We began with four men, two above to work the winding-up
apparatus, and two below to tunnel through the chalk. Fixing upon
the open-shafted pit, styled No. 3,1 as the best base of operations, our
first work was to direct the two men below to tunnel in the direction of
the shaft of the closed-up pit we have called No. 7, while we our-
selves made a section across the conical mound at the base of the
shaft of N0.3, on the side most distant from the tunnel. Finding, as the
work proceeded, that it was desirable to have more men at work below,
we increased the total number to six, and, at last to eight; while we em-
ployed the men above, in the intervals of winding, in digging trenches,
from two to three feet deep, and about two feet wide,through the surface
material. And two of the men usually below were occupied above
ground for a day or two in endeavouring to ascertain whether a closed
shaft, round whose mouth the surface depression was much slighter
than usual, might not have been stopped up by rotting faggots sup-
porting but a slight quantity of sand and gravel. For to open out a
shaft thus closed would have been a most useful piece of work Not
1 The numbers given to the pits are purely arbitrary, and denote the order in which they were
entered during the explorations. See plan on plate iv. and map on plate iii.