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VI.
Miscellaneous Notes on Deneholes, 1883.
By T. Vincent Holmes, F.G.S., M.A.I.
[Read October 27th, 1883.]
I. The Pits at Hangman's Wood, near Grays, visited by the Essex
Field Club and The Geologists' Association, June 15th and 16th,
1883.
On Friday, June 15th, the pit marked on the map1 as
No. 4 was inspected by four members of the Essex Field
Club, our Secretary, Mr. H. A. Cole, Dr. Cory, and myself.
Four visitors also descended in the afternoon, the Rev. T. W.
Embleton Thomas, of Greenwich, Mrs. Thomas, and two
other ladies. No. 4 was found to be of the double trefoil
pattern. Compared with No. 3, it showed a certain amount
of irregularity, and a want of finish. The chambers on one
side of the shaft were decidedly larger than those on the
other, and at the end of each chamber the floor was a rough
slope down towards the shaft, 12 or 13 ft. long, which
extended to the foot of the rubbish-mound; while in No. 3
the floor is level to the end, or very nearly so. The height
of the chambers was also very variable, the highest point
reached being about 16 ft. Two sand-pipes were seen above
the entrances to two of the chambers, a circumstance worth
noting, as pipes in the chalk are rare when there is any great
thickness of beds above the Chalk; the waste of the Chalk
under such circumstances being usually even and regular.2
Pits Nos. 5 and 6 were visited on Saturday by perhaps
twelve or fourteen persons, while the bulk of our visitors
were inspecting No. 3. No. 5 is the last of the open shafts.
On descending it the double trefoil plan was again disclosed.
The height of the chambers was about 18 ft., and the pit
1 Trans. Essex Field Club, vol. iii., pl. ii.
2 Whitaker, 'Guide to the Geology of London,' 3rd edit., p. 32.