2
It has long been felt that, if systematic study were devoted to the
Red-hills, further light would be thrown on questions of deep interest,
connected not only with early industries, but also with the physical and
geological changes through which this country has passed. With this
in view, Mr. I. Chalkley Gould suggested to the Council of the
Essex Archaeological Society, on the 19th April 1906, that the Society
should appoint a Committee to invite the co-operation of the Essex Field
Club (which had previously had the matter under its consideration) in
setting on foot a systematic scientific examination of the whole problem.
Ultimately, your Committee was constituted as a Joint-Committee of
both the Societies named, and with power to add to its number. At its
first meeting, it elected Mr. I. Chalkley Gould as Chairman, Dr. Henry
Laver as Director of Excavations, and Mr. H. Wilmer as Hon.
Secretary and Treasurer.
To provide immediate funds, the Essex Archaeological Society
voted £10 and the Essex Field Club an equal amount (payable in two
equal portions during 1906 and 1907). The Society of Antiquaries also
granted £10, and other smaller sums were subscribed. In order to
facilitate the accurate mapping of the Red-hills, the Director-General of
the Ordnance Surveys of England and Wales has presented ninety-one
six-inch maps showing the Essex coast. It is hoped that the work your
Committee is doing will enable the Ordnance Survey to indicate the
sites of the Red-hills on its maps in future.
In September last, your committee commenced the work of excavating
in the parish of Langenhoe, Dr. Laver having secured permission to
examine some characteristic Red-hills existing there. The work extended
over five weeks, during the greater part of which time three men were
employed. The scene of the digging was visited constantly by various
members of your Committee, but the detailed personal supervision of the
work was carried out from beginning to end by Mr. Francis W. Reader,
whose training in the systematic examination of prehistoric sites and
settlements, acquired under the late General Pitt-Rivers, Inspector of
Ancient Monuments, renders his assistance of the greatest value.
Of the three mounds which were examined systematically, the first
proved the most interesting. It was, unlike most examples, quite
complete, no portion of its soil having been removed for agricultural