408
JOINT EXCURSION OF THE ESSEX ARCHAEO-
LOGICAL SOCIETY AND THE ESSEX FIELD
CLUB TO THE DENEHOLES IN HANGMAN'S
WOOD, NEAR GRAYS THURROCK.
Saturday, October 8th, 1898.
Many members of both the Essex Archaeological Society and the Club
having expressed a desire to view the Deneholes which had not been visited
by the Essex Field Club since August 12th, 1893, the present meeting was
arranged, by the kind permission of Captain Whitmore, the owner of the
wood.
Directors :—Messrs. T. V. Holmes, F.G.S.; Miller Christy, F.L.S ; G. F.
Beaumont, F.S.A.; and W. Cole, F.L.S.
The details were arranged by Mr. Cole on much the same lines as on
previous descents. The Meeting was a whole-day one, and members and
visitors began to assemble in the wood somewhat early in the fore-noon.
The pit down which the entrance to the workings was effected was that
known as "No. 4" in the two plans illustrating the account of the explora-
tions in the first volume of the Essex Naturalist. Shears and a stage were
erected over the pit, and the descent was made in a wooden "cage" as on
previous occasions. It is quite unnecessary to report the adventures of the
day which were but a repetition of those of the former visits. We may
reprint from the programme of the meeting a few details for the information
of those who may not have seen the papers published in the Transactions of
the Club, nor the elaborate report of the explorations (extending over six
weeks) carried on by Mr. Holmes and Mr. W. Cole for the Club in 1884 and
1887 (Essex Nat. I. pp. 225-276) : —
"The deneholes in Hangman's Wood are more than fifty in number.
They consist of narrow shafts about 80 feet deep, which give admission to the
pits in the Chalk, which are from 14 to 20 feet high. The shaft is usually in
or near the centre of the pit, and from it, in most cases, three chambers
branch out on one side and three on the other, in a kind of double trefoil
pattern. The largest chambers are those which are opposite the openings at
the bottom of the shaft, and the greatest length of each cavern is that
obtained by measuring the length of a straight line passing through the centre
of the shaft to the ends of the opposite chambers. Originally separate, these
deneholes are so close together that the thin chalk partition betweeen two
chambers in adjacent pits has sometimes been accidentally fractured.
Though there are, as already stated, more than 50 separate deneholes in
Hangman's Wood, only five shafts are now open, the rest having fallen in at
various periods. As a result of the explorations of the E.F.C, fourteen adjacent
deneholes are now connected by underground tunnels, and it requires at least
25 minutes to ramble through the whole of the workings.
"The shafts are narrow, and were originally less than three feet in
diameter. The geological section of each varies only in the slightest degree.
The chalk appears to be lying nearly flat, but the thickness of the old river
gravel at the surface varies slightly; so does that of the chalk roof of the