Found brick pit? Need help please

[Rock22]

Hello,
I recently found a brick lined pit in the woods on my property. The pit was hidden under a lot of dirt and leaves but after clearing it I have a 3 foot deep pit that is lined with larger bricks that form 4 sides. It is pretty much 4 foot by 4 foot square. It was dug about 10 feet away from a very old cattle trail that once ran from the old barn on my land back to the grazing area along a ridge. The land was 1st settled in 1835. I currently do not have a metal detector to search around it but will soon have my new Tesoro Tejon once I pay it off. I am more interested in finding out what it may have been. The bricks are not hand made so I don't know how old they really are. It shows no sign of burning so I don't think it was a fire pit. Maybe a water trough? If anyone has any ideas please let me know. All I do know is whoever dug this really killed themselves. It took me days and a lot of sweat trying to dig this thing up.

Thanks, Bill

 

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[namxat]

namxat

Nice catch on the hollow bricks/blocks. I thought for a minute that would narrow down a date. However, I did a little research and it appears that various forms of hollow bricks/blocks go as far back as the 1700s. This pdf link is to an article that covers the history of building blocks with chapters nine through eleven (pages 274-357) focusing specifically on hollow bricks/blocks. The attached image is from one of those chapters and shows hollow bricks from 1849. Of course the ones in the mystery pit are a little different, but with a little more research someone might be able to date them more accurately.

http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/4248/1/DX094368.pdf


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Thats the cool thing about tresurenet, you learn something everyday. I read this and also googled and found ballast bricks which were hollow. So, I take it back. Could be older.

If there was a structure once or event temporary it could be just a rainwater catchment for the roof. But basically I am out of wits what it could be else besides the possibilities already mentioned.

Greets Namxat

 

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[Rock22]

Still a mystery but shine hide seems like the fun thing to believe that it was. Just an odd shape/size in my opinion to allow animals to drink from.

 

[Reanm8er]

Perhaps a springbox. My dad always said that if a spring ever got filled in it would stop flowing.

If you are correct in saying the blocks covered the top then it was probably filled in and capped off for safety purposes. I agree with the speculation that it probably was something for watering cattle since it sets along the trail. One question, is it up hill from the house?

If the bottom is filled with clay or is into the shale layer it would hold water for quite some time.

 

[invent4hir]

How deep? It might be a box where an old furnace once stood. I recently detected a property where the original part of the home was built in the 1840s, and it had a similar box. Also those bricks look narrow, like fire bricks. Probe the area with a metal rod to see if there is a foundation below the surface.

 

[creskol]

Maybe a ......