What is a bell pit?

What a bell pit is

Bell pits were used in the medieval period and later, and a few remained in use into the early 20th century around Ford in Northumberland. Spoil raised from the shaft was dumped around its mouth, forming a ring-shaped mound, and the shaft later collapsed or was filled, leaving a hollow in the centre. Historic England's scheduling of Alnwick Moor in Northumberland covers at least 100 pits and shafts of the 16th and 17th centuries spread over about 35 hectares, some with collars of spoil and with gin circles nearby. Bell pits recovered only part of the mineral and often flooded, so each pit had a short working life.

How bell pits look on LiDAR

Bell pits show as clusters or lines of small circular mounds of spoil, each with a hollow in the centre, so that each looks like a small ring. Sky-view factor and negative openness show the central hollows as dark spots, and positive openness or a local relief model shows the spoil rings. Lines of pits often follow the outcrop of a seam along the contour, and they survive best in woodland and on moorland where later farming has not levelled them.

See LiDAR visualisations explained for what each method shows.

What can look like one

Natural shake holes and sinkholes in limestone, bomb craters, small quarry pits, marl pits and round barrows with robbed centres can look like bell pits. Bell pits usually occur in dense groups or lines, with a raised spoil ring around each hollow.

Protection

Some well-preserved groups of bell pits, such as those on Alnwick Moor, are scheduled monuments, protected in England by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 and in Wales by the Historic Environment (Wales) Act 2023, but most are not designated.

Examples on the LiDAR

Where they are

Counties with the most bell pits that have a page here.

More examples