[TQ 76316601] Dene-holes [O.E.] (Site of) (1)
During the excavations in 1890-91 for the glacis of Luton Fort, workmen uncovered the following lying in a line south to north:- (i) Three skeletons, one accompanied by the bones of a dog. (ii) At 36 paces away and higher up the bank, "a small neatly cut cist 3ft x 1-1/2ft. x 2ft 10ins deep containing only a piece of burnt wood. (iii) At 42 ft away an oval chamber cut in the chalk 27 ft 7 ins E-W. and 15ft. 8ins N-S with a passage [on its east side] 7' 8" wide at the chamber end and 6' 8' wide at its entrance. The floor gradually deepened from 3' at the entrance to 6'7" at the west wall of the chamber. When the north side of the 'passage' was dug away towards the edge of the chamber, at a foot below the surface, portions of a contracted human skeleton were found, without a skull but with a small black ware urn. A stag's antler, a few fragments of bone and some five Roman potsherds were the only finds made in the 'passage' (iv) At 5-1/2 ft from the mouth of the 'passage' a cremation deposit of a thick coarsely made cinerary urn with calcined bones and a smaller urn. (v) At 13ft. away, another oval chamber 12ft N-S 15-1/2ft E-W. Three bowl shaped depressions, scooped out of the chalk where the mouth of the entrance probably was, yielded nothing but a few fragments of coarse pottery covered with charred matter, and a burnt flint. Outside the chamber, on the south side, an urn-shaped hole in the chalk was burnt matter. Noted as probably Bronze Age (4) and initially reported as pre-Roman ware (3) but VCH include it under 'Romano-British'. (5)
No further information. (6)
Additional biography [7].

<1> O.S. 6" 1938.9 (OS Card Reference). SKE47826.

<2> Peoc Soc Antiq London 2nd Series 14 1891-3 pp29-32 (G. Payne) (OS Card Reference). SKE48503.

<3> Archaeol Cantiana 21 1895 x lviii-l (G Payne) (OS Card Reference). SKE37267.

<4> Maidstone Museum Gazetteer (card index) (OS Card Reference). SKE46465.

<5> V.C.H. Kent Vol 3 1932 p160 (M.V. Taylor & R.F. Jessup) (OS Card Reference). SKE50751.

<6> F1 CFW 04-NOV-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE42421.

<7> Field report for monument TQ 76 NE 33 - November, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE4056.