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I came across this site whilst trying to identify a mound I had seen on the skyline looking east from Darwen Moor. The mound turned out to be Little Hameldon (SD 79456 29371) which appears to be very similar to Dry Hill on Oswaldtwistle Moor.
Moleside Moor (SD 782290)is covered with circular reed-filled pits. 15 to 20 can be seen on Google Earth in the field around 53.756191, -2.330471. On inspection the pits were found to be surrounded by a stoney embankment up to 10 metres diameter. The only mention I have found on the internet is the following from from the Transactions of Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Vol 16 (1898) pages 221-2
Early Pit-Dwelling Settlement.
On the moors above Accrington (Lanes, ord. sheet Ixiii., S.E., Moleside Moor) there are a number of circular hollows in the ground, twenty-three having been noticed, commonly accounted for as "pit-sinkings." Their similarity to the external appearance of well-known pit-dwellings of the pre-Roman people of the north, as those on Pickering Moor in Yorkshire,
Recent excavations suggested, however, the probability of their being the rem-
nants of an early settlement of the kind. A sounding made through the centre of one of them disclosed two feet of modern accumulation (earth and bones of cattle), next three to four feet of " marl," likewise the product of a longer period of time, and, finally, at a total depth of twelve feet below the modern surface a layer ten inches thick of burnt twigs, cinders, and decayed vegetable matter. It is proposed shortly
to make a more complete examination. Superficially, the orifice at the surface is thirty feet wide, narrowing at a depth of four feet to fifteen, then sinking almost vertically two feet to the level at which the excavation began. Some earth has
been piled around the orifice on the exposed sides. The pits are not, apparently, arranged in any definite form, though roughly representing two concentric semi-circles. The evidence regarding them at present renders it quite possible
that they formed the homes of an early settlement. The dwellers in such caves are supposed to have arranged boughs and thatching in a conical form over the opening, in the centre of which would bp a small hole for the escape of smoke from
the fire kindled below.
Superficially the pits look a bit like quarry or mine workings which may account for the lack of interest in them. The site is well-worth a visit and can be accessed by a boggy path from a lay-by on the south-bound carrageway of the A56. A new excavation would be very interesting.
Moleside Moor (SD 782290)is covered with circular reed-filled pits. 15 to 20 can be seen on Google Earth in the field around 53.756191, -2.330471. On inspection the pits were found to be surrounded by a stoney embankment up to 10 metres diameter. The only mention I have found on the internet is the following from from the Transactions of Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society Vol 16 (1898) pages 221-2
Early Pit-Dwelling Settlement.
On the moors above Accrington (Lanes, ord. sheet Ixiii., S.E., Moleside Moor) there are a number of circular hollows in the ground, twenty-three having been noticed, commonly accounted for as "pit-sinkings." Their similarity to the external appearance of well-known pit-dwellings of the pre-Roman people of the north, as those on Pickering Moor in Yorkshire,
Recent excavations suggested, however, the probability of their being the rem-
nants of an early settlement of the kind. A sounding made through the centre of one of them disclosed two feet of modern accumulation (earth and bones of cattle), next three to four feet of " marl," likewise the product of a longer period of time, and, finally, at a total depth of twelve feet below the modern surface a layer ten inches thick of burnt twigs, cinders, and decayed vegetable matter. It is proposed shortly
to make a more complete examination. Superficially, the orifice at the surface is thirty feet wide, narrowing at a depth of four feet to fifteen, then sinking almost vertically two feet to the level at which the excavation began. Some earth has
been piled around the orifice on the exposed sides. The pits are not, apparently, arranged in any definite form, though roughly representing two concentric semi-circles. The evidence regarding them at present renders it quite possible
that they formed the homes of an early settlement. The dwellers in such caves are supposed to have arranged boughs and thatching in a conical form over the opening, in the centre of which would bp a small hole for the escape of smoke from
the fire kindled below.
Superficially the pits look a bit like quarry or mine workings which may account for the lack of interest in them. The site is well-worth a visit and can be accessed by a boggy path from a lay-by on the south-bound carrageway of the A56. A new excavation would be very interesting.
