Hi, I recently discovered a weird feature in the middle of a farmers field in Hampshire. Its a depression in the ground about 30-50m diameter and about 10m deep, looking a lot like a big bomb crater. The soil is chalk and very large flint so I was thinking along the lines of maybe a flint mine. The perimeter of this crater is perfectly surrounded by Ancient yew trees - trunks in excess of 6ft diameter and large thick root systems following the contours of the depression so the feature pre-dates the yew. The easiest route of entry to the bottom of the feature is by a North south path about 20ft wide starting about 100m at normal ground level - sloping gently down into the ground and south until it leads you into the "earthwork". Our metal detecting club who have permission to dig in this field have instigated a self imposed ban on detecting this feature as we feel it might be too important to be disturbed. The feature was pointed out to the local FLO but we were keeping him so busy with finds that im not sure if he had the opportunity to go and see it for himself - has anyone seen anything similar?
I take your point about the pond, but there is very little in the way of soil before you hit chalk, if this was a static pond would there not be a greater build up of soil from silt and other organic matter. Secondly the width of the path leading in would suggest it is a pathway and not the course of any stream that may have fed it and i also wondered about the ability to retain water as it is not clay lined in any way and was bone dry even though it had been raining near by for several days - I will try to get some photos over the coming weeks Lee
As you are no doubt aware, yew trees were once associated with pre-Christian pagan sites, and can be of great antiquity (in some cases pre-dating the churches with which they are associated). The theory that it may have been a pond or a well sounds plausible, but I wonder whether it could have beensome other kind of sacred site. It doesn’t seem very likely that there would be a building in a hollow so deep
In any case, the site may be worth some investigation. Photographs would certainly be helpful – are there any other features, or even placenames in the vicinity, that might give a clue? (I’m thinking especially of names like ‘Holywell’, etc, which can help identify possible religious sites).
Originally posted by NavyReg: Hi, I recently discovered a weird feature in the middle of a farmers field in Hampshire. Its a depression in the ground about 30-50m diameter and about 10m deep, looking a lot like a big bomb crater. The soil is chalk and very large flint so I was thinking along the lines of maybe a flint mine. The perimeter of this crater is perfectly surrounded by Ancient yew trees - trunks in excess of 6ft diameter and large thick root systems following the contours of the depression so the feature pre-dates the yew. The easiest route of entry to the bottom of the feature is by a North south path about 20ft wide starting about 100m at normal ground level - sloping gently down into the ground and south until it leads you into the "earthwork". Our metal detecting club who have permission to dig in this field have instigated a self imposed ban on detecting this feature as we feel it might be too important to be disturbed. The feature was pointed out to the local FLO but we were keeping him so busy with finds that im not sure if he had the opportunity to go and see it for himself - has anyone seen anything similar?
Well done to you all, the responsible attitude of forward thinking detectorists. Nice one.
Looking at the Victorian maps, there is a roman road about 750 metres east, 2 wells about 500m north. This feature is noted on the map but just as a small fuzzy circle. The nearest historic place is Otterbourne - Just google earthed it - and it looks just the same as any other small copse from the air
Originally posted by NavyReg: Hi, I recently discovered a weird feature in the middle of a farmers field in Hampshire. Its a depression in the ground about 30-50m diameter and about 10m deep, looking a lot like a big bomb crater. The soil is chalk and very large flint so I was thinking along the lines of maybe a flint mine. The perimeter of this crater is perfectly surrounded by Ancient yew trees - trunks in excess of 6ft diameter and large thick root systems following the contours of the depression so the feature pre-dates the yew. The easiest route of entry to the bottom of the feature is by a North south path about 20ft wide starting about 100m at normal ground level - sloping gently down into the ground and south until it leads you into the "earthwork". Our metal detecting club who have permission to dig in this field have instigated a self imposed ban on detecting this feature as we feel it might be too important to be disturbed. The feature was pointed out to the local FLO but we were keeping him so busy with finds that im not sure if he had the opportunity to go and see it for himself - has anyone seen anything similar?
Hi It could it be a solution hollow, They are pretty common on chalk. These features form sometimes overnight and can be very large. They are often circular and can be both old and new.
Please explain "solution hollow" to me (Google couldn't! ). I live in a very chalky area and these are very common, often in the middle of arable fields.
Going back to my o-level chemistry i am going to have a wild stab at this one(please dont scream if i am wrong)
Does acidity from rain / streams disolve a part of the chalk structure - leaving a fragile almost honeycome structure that overnight -with the help of a good downpour disintegrates leaving a hole to the depth that the acidic reaction reached - im sure i remember something fizzing away when we dropped a lump of chalk in it... can these look man made? maybe our pagan friends saw this, thought hang on a minute - lets plant some yew trees around it and we can dance a naked jig etc etc in the bottom of it and no-one will see us!
I'm not sure which comes first, the trees or the hollow. It may be that the roots contribute to the instability of the ground or, as you say, it could be superstitious planting habits! Most of the local ones in fields are primarily noticeable because of the trees but what type they mainly are I couldn't be sure (because when I was a little girl who went playing in the fields we were always told to keep away as they were dangerous - I guess because they've got a big hole in the middle!).
If they were yew trees they are of course poisonous. One mouthful is, so I'm told, enough to kill a cow or a horse. Whenever I prune the one in my garden any scratches I get invariably turn red and itch.
Sorry to disappoint, but this is probably more likely to be a simple extraction pit, albeit an old one, rather than anything more exciting like a pagan site.
From what you describe, it's likely that they were digging for the chalk. This was most often used as fertiliser, particularly on clay soils, or for making lime, or for spreading on roads in the past to reduce the mud problem. Depending upon it's date, if they were after flints, it could possibly be for making flint tools (probably unlikely), or if more recent then again for putting on roads or for building (i.e. knapped flints set in mortar; from memory there are flint buildings in the area around Otterbourne). Very often they got both flints and chalk from the same pit.
Regarding the yew trees, on chalk these are indicators of ground that hasn't been disturbed for some time. It's possible they could have been planted, but more likely that the area immediately around the pit was simply not grazed or cultivated for some time. From your description (they sound like magnificent trees), it would suggest that the pit is medieval or earlier.
It's very difficult to estimate the age of yew trees, but the best guide is John White's paper;
I've seen many pits like this which are surrounded by yew trees. Although I'm not a detectorist, I've also found quite a few Victorian ploughshares on the surface just by looking around the pits. My guess is that the ploughman just threw them into the nearest bushes when they broke, although some have been unbroken, so I wonder if ploughshares had a greater tendency to break off (they were only held on by wooden pegs) when they were turning the plough at the end of a furrow around features such as a pit.
). I live in a very chalky area and these are very common, often in the middle of arable fields.
).
