early and middle pleistocene landscapes of eastern england

Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 120 (2009) 3–33

Early and Middle Pleistocene landscapes of eastern England

James Rose *

Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK

A R T I C L E I N F O

Article history:

Received 6 March 2009

Received in revised form 17 May 2009

Accepted 17 May 2009

Available online 21 June 2009

Keywords:

Neotectonics

Bytham River

Glacial stages

Interglacial stages

Palaeolithic archaeology

Climate forcing

A B S T R A C T

This paper reviews the pattern of climate and environmental change in eastern England over the period

of the Early and Middle Pleistocene, focussing especially upon northern East Anglia. Particular attention

is given to the climate and tectonics that have brought about these changes and the distinctive geology,

topography and biology that has developed. Throughout, an attempt is made to describe the new models

that have been proposed for the Early and Middle Pleistocene of eastern England, and explain the reasons

for these changes. The Early Pleistocene experienced relatively high insulation and relatively low

magnitude climatic change and is represented primarily by non-climatically forced processes in the form

of tidal current- and wave-activity which formed shallow marine deposits. It is possible to recognise a

tectonic control in the distribution of deposits of this age because the surface processes do not have the

power to remove this signature. The early Middle Pleistocene was dominated by higher magnitude

climatic change involving, occasionally, climatic extremes that ranged from permafrost to mediterra-

nean. The landscape at this time was dominated by the behaviour of major rivers (Thames, Bytham,

Ancaster) and extensive coastal activity. In the latter part of the early Middle Pleistocene and the Late

Middle Pleistocene the climate experienced major changes which resulted in periods of lowland

glaciation and short intervals when the climate was warmer than the present. Details of tectonic activity

are difficult to identify because they are removed by powerful surface processes, but it is possible to infer

uplift focussed on the major interfluves of central England and subsidence in the North Seas basin. In the

areas of glaciation the landscape changed radically from an organised terrain dominated by large rivers

and extensive shallow coastal zones to complex, with small valleys, disrupted drainage and often

discontinuous river, slope and coastal deposits. Likewise the switching off of the North Sea Delta and the

opening of the Strait of Dover, separating Britain from continental Europe can be attributed to the onset

of lowland glaciation. The case is made that eastern England was glaciated four times during the Middle

Pleistocene: during MIS 16, 12, 10 and 6, and attention is given to recent evidence contradicting this

model. Over the period of the Middle Pleistocene there is evidence for high biomass production occurring

over short intervals coinciding with the climatic optima of MIS 19, 17, 15, 13, 11, and 7c, 7a and during

most of these warmer periods, extending back to c. 750 ka (MIS 19/17), there is evidence in the region for

the brief appearance of humans.

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1. Introduction

Eastern England provides some of the most complete evidencefor Middle and Early Pleistocene terrestrial and shallow marineenvironments in northwestern Europe. The evidence is quiteoutstanding, with shallow marine sediments (Red and NorwichCrags), high and low energy river deposits (Kesgrave and BythamSands and Gravels and Cromer Forest-bed), organic lake muds(interglacial deposits at sites such as Hoxne and Marks Tey) andglacial deposits (chalky Lowestoft Till) being exceptionally welldeveloped (and in many cases, exposed). The study of these

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doi:10.1016/j.pgeola.2009.05.003

deposits has contributed to the development of Quaternarythought (Wood, 1848–1882; Reid, 1882, 1890; Blake, 1890;Harmer, 1909; West, 1956), and influenced especially the thinkingabout the Quaternary history of Britain and northern continentalEurope. It is also the region where most of the type sites for theBritish Quaternary stratigraphy are defined (Table 1). The EarlyPleistocene is defined here as the period from 2.6 Ma (MIS 103) to0.78 Ma (MIS 19) (see Bowen and Gibbard (2007) for discussion ofthe currently contentious issue of the base of the Pleistocene andretention of the term Quaternary) and the Middle Pleistocene isdefined as between 0.78 Ma (MIS 19) and c. 0.13 Ma (base of MIS5e). The boundary between the early Middle and late MiddlePleistocene is placed at c. 474 ka (base of MIS 12) (see Fig. 4).

The region is also important because it was the focus of theoutstanding work by Harmer (1909) who published an explanatory

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Table 1British Stratigraphic Tables recommended by the Stratigraphy Commission of the Geological Society of London (1973 and 1999).

(a) Mitchell et al. (1973) (b) Bowen et al. (1999)

Stage Type Locality when in Northern

and Central East Anglia

Lithostratigraphy Stage Lithostratigraphy MIS

Flandrian Not given Not considered

Devensian Not given Devensian Halling Mb. 2–5a

Stockport Fm.

Upton Warren Mb.

Cassington Mb.

Ipswichian Lake muds Ipswichian Trafalgar Squ. Mb. 5e

Wolstonian Sands, gravels and clays Wolstonian Ridgacre Fm. 6–8

Kidderminster Mb.

Strensham Court Mb.

Bushley Green Mb.

Hoxnian Hoxne, Suffolk Lake muds Hoxnian Hoxne Fm. 9–11

TM 175767 Spring Hill Mb.

Swanscombe Mb.

Anglian Corton Lowestoft Till Anglian Lowestoft Fm. 12

Suffolk Corton Sands

TM 543977 Cromer Till/Norwich Brickearth

Cromerian West Runton, Norfolk Estuarine sands and silts and freshwater peat Cromerian West Runton Mb. 13–21

TG 188432 Waverley Wood Mb.

Kenn Fm.

Grace Fm

Beestonian Beeston Gravels, sands and silts

Norfolk

TG 169433

Pastonian Paston Estuarine silts and freshwater peat

Norfolk

TG 341352

Baventian Easton Bavents Marine silt

Suffolk

TM 518787

Antian Ludham Marine shelly sand

Norfolk

TG 385199

Thurnian Marine silt

Ludhamian Shelly sand

Waltonian Marine shelly sand

J. Rose / Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 120 (2009) 3–334

summary of his work in the Jubilee Volume of the Proceedings of the

Geologists’ Association. This paper shows immense insight into thetopic of the glacial history of the area and identifies many of theproblems that still concern us today.

For many years these pioneering publications influenced andindeed directed subsequent work so that the further publicationsabout the region were written within the concepts that shapedthese early models. Essentially these models invoked ‘preglacial’shallow marine and fluviatile systems (Red and Norwich Crags,Cromer Forest-bed; West and Norton, 1974; West, 1980a)followed by a period with infrequent Middle Pleistoceneglaciations and a limited number of temperate stages (Anglianand ‘Wolstonian’ glaciations, Hoxnian and Ipswichian Intergla-cials; West and Donner, 1956; West, 1980b; Perrin et al., 1979;Hart and Boulton, 1991). This evidence was considered to coverthe Early and Middle Pleistocene history of Britain and formed thebasis of the main part of the Geological Society Correlation ofQuaternary Deposits (Table 1a) (Mitchell et al., 1973). Thisconcept persisted up to 1999 with the second edition of the abovepublication (Bowen, 1999a,b) despite the severe reservations ofthe editor and an omission of much of the Middle and all of theEarly Pleistocene from the stratigraphic scheme (Table 1b)(Bowen, 1999b, Table 2). Furthermore, aspects of the Early andMiddle Pleistocene of East Anglia have been considered to besufficiently important to justify the allocation of the name

‘Cromerian’ to a segment of the Dutch Quaternary succession(Zagwijn et al., 1971) (Fig. 1).

It is remarkable to consider that these views were elaborated andmaintained while a significant component of the Quaternarycommunity had begun to take on-board the evidence of globalclimate change represented by marine core records (Shackleton andOpdyke, 1973; Shackleton et al., 1990; Bassinot et al., 1994) and longterrestrial sequences (Wijmstra and Groenhart, 1984), an issue firsthighlighted by Bowen as long ago as 1978. Despite the exceptionalevidence in the region, highlighted above, its limitations began to berecognised and, in 1975, Zagwijn first proposed that Britain lackedevidence for a substantial part of the Early and Middle Pleistocene(Fig. 1). This issue was debated at a very rewarding meeting inNorwich in April 1988 and the outcomes were subsequentlypublished (Gibbard et al., 1991) (Fig. 1), demonstrating differentviews and conflicts of interpretation arising from different types ofevidence. It was not until 1995 that Funnell presented a scheme inwhich the Early and Middle Pleistocene of eastern England wasconsidered in terms of global climate forcing (using sea-level as aproxy of climate) (Fig. 2). Since then, a number of papers haveaddressed this issue with respect to both the biosphere (Preece andParfitt, 2000; Preece, 2001; Schreve and Thomas, 2001) and surfaceprocesses in the form of glaciation, river activity and sea-levelchange (Hamblin et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2004a,b, 2006; Clark et al.,2004). This concept has since been challenged (Banham et al., 2001;

Fig. 1. Stratigraphy of British and Dutch Early and Middle Pleistocene sediments. This figure is constructed from Fig. 8 of Zagwijn (1975) and Fig. 8 of Gibbard et al. (1991)

which revised and updated the earlier work. The palaeomagnetic data is that of Van Montfrans, 1971 with revised ages taken from Funnell (1995) which is based on sources

cited in Funnell (1995). The correlations and their reliability are taken from Gibbard et al. (1991). The hiatus identified on the British scheme follows the proposal of Zagwijn

(1975) but it should be noted that there are abundant Quaternary sediments, in the form of the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels and Wroxham Crag that were deposited over this

period of time. This matter is discussed in Gibbard et al. (1991) with respect to the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels, but the Wroxham Crag had not yet been identified when these

works were published.

J. Rose / Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 120 (2009) 3–33 5

Gibbard et al., 2008; Preece et al., in press; see Hamblin et al., 2001and Lee et al., 2008, for responses).

Over the last c. 15 years the issues of Middle Pleistoceneclimate and environmental change have become especiallyimportant for the study of human origins, and have consequentlyreached the attention of the public and a much wider academiccommunity. This is because of the discovery of human artefactsassociated with the early Middle Pleistocene lithostratigraphy(Ashton et al., 1992; Rose and Wymer, 1994; Parfitt et al., 2005)and the recognition that humans had been in northern Europe c.750,000 years ago, at least 200,000 years earlier than previouslyrecognised.

The text below provides an overview of the history andpalaeogeography of the Early and Middle Pleistocene of easternEngland taking into consideration recent publications. It assumesthat the physical and biological processes which operate in easternEngland are part of an integrated Earth system (something that hasbeen absent from earlier models which have considered Britainand northern Europe in isolation), and that the evidence for theEarly and Middle Pleistocene of eastern England can be related toglobal climate change. It also draws attention to the fact thatalthough the evidence in this area is of exceptional quality, it isvery fragmentary in nature, and evidence that is the basis of theclassical British Quaternary stratigraphy represented in Mitchell

Fig. 2. The relationship of the British stage names and lithostratigraphic units to evidence of global climate change represented by the calcium carbonate abundance from

ocean sediments (Ruddiman and Raymo, 1988). Taken from Rose et al. (2001), Quaternary International with modifications.


et al. (1973) and Bowen (1999a,b) (Table 1, Figs. 1 and 2) representsbut a very small fragment of Early and Middle Pleistocene time.This paper is based on that published in the Quaternary ResearchAssociation Field Guide (Rose, 2008), for a field meeting innorthern East Anglia (Candy et al., 2008), and is presented here asan opportunity to outline many of the views expressed at thatmeeting to the wider scientific community. All locations cited inthe text are shown on Fig. 3, if not shown on the figure thatillustrates the particular topic.

2. Stratigraphic and dating methods

2.1. Dating methods

As with all attempts to reconstruct Earth history, it is essentialto have a methodology by which it is possible to date events andcorrelate rocks, landforms and environment. The terrestriallandscapes of the Early and Middle Pleistocene are particularlydifficult to reconstruct because very few dating methods provide

Fig. 3. Localities named in the text.


reliable ages for this interval. The magnetic reversal around theBrunhes/Matuyama boundary (780 ka) (Maher and Hallam, 2005a)and Ar/Ar dating are available, but material suitable for dating israre in the first case and, hitherto, not known to be available in thesecond. Cosmogenic radionuclide dating (Ivy-Ochs and Kober,2008), and in particular burial dating (Dehnert and Schluchter,2008) are possible, but have not yet been used in the region. Aminoacid racemisation (AAR) is proving to be both applicable andreliable for calcite mollusca (Preece and Penkman, 2005; Penkmanet al., 2008), but has only moderate (although relevant) resolution.Dating by luminescence (Preusser et al., 2008) and ESR (Schell-mann et al., 2008) may extend across the whole MiddlePleistocene, but results from this period have low resolutionand are not necessarily reliable. Like AAR, large numbers of OSL orESR dates, suitable for statistical treatment, are needed to provideages that may progress the science. U-series (Scholz and Hoffmann,2008; Geyh, 2008), especially with AMS technology (Candy andSchreve, 2007), has reliability and fine resolution but is not suitableearlier than the late Middle Pleistocene. The time period is beyondthe range of 14C (see Walker, 2005 for a review of dating methods).Within these constraints these methods have been used whereverpossible to derive a timescale and correlate elements of thelandscape, but other methodologies using the litho-, bio- andmorphostratigraphy have necessarily played the major role in thereconstruction of Early and Middle Pleistocene landscapes ofeastern England.

2.2. Biostratigraphy

First and Last Appearance biostratigraphy (FAD, LAD) hasplayed an important part in correlating elements of the Early andMiddle Pleistocene succession with horizons ‘dated’ elsewhere. Anumber of species including terrestrial and marine mollusca,mammals, rodents and insects have been widely used and their use

is discussed in Preece and Parfitt (2000, 2008). This methodologyhas a long pedigree in geological work, but is empirical so that anynew discovery may change the stratigraphic position of the first orlast appearance. Furthermore the dates ascribed to these datumsare derived from materials that are subject to the same problems asdescribed in the preceding paragraph, except that there may bematerial suitable for magnetic reversal or Ar/Ar determinations.Nevertheless, FAD/LAD biostratigraphy has played, and continuesto play a major role in resolving the patterns of landscapedevelopment in the Early and Middle Pleistocene (Preece andParfitt, 2008).

Pollen assemblage biostratigraphy developed as an alternativebiostratigraphic method based on distinctive pollen assemblagesthat were ascribed to particular temperate episodes. This schemeused the concept that a particular pollen assemblage wouldrepresent a position in a simple cycle of climate change fromglacial through temperate back to glacial (Turner and West, 1968).These climatic cycles were then defined according to ‘character-istic’ pollen/vegetation assemblages (West, 1980b) and namedfrom a type locality (Mitchell et al., 1973). Characteristic pollen-assemblages were then placed in stratigraphic order by relation-ship to other evidence such as glacial, fluvial or marine sedimentbodies, or their position on the landscape. Hence, the temperatestages of the Early Pleistocene were named, from oldest toyoungest: Ludhamian, Antian and Bramertonian, and the MiddlePleistocene consisted from the oldest to the youngest of Pastonian,Cromerian and Hoxnian (Mitchell et al., 1973; West, 1977, 1980b)(Table 1).

Subsequent correlation with the Netherlands demonstratedthat the British scheme did not include all of the Early and MiddlePleistocene temperate stages (Zagwijn, 1975), but there is no doubtthat this methodology was critical in developing a realisticstratigraphy for the British Isles and providing an initial under-standing of landscape development throughout the Quaternary.


Nevertheless the role of pollen-assemblage biostratigraphy inunravelling the British Quaternary stratigraphy has meant thatthere has been a pre-occupation with stratigraphic signaturesrather that a systematic evaluation of the British temperate-stagepalaeoecology (Sutcliffe, 1976; Bennett, 1988; Seppa and Bennett,2003). The result has been that even when attempts have beenmade to take a biogeographical approach to the characteristics oftemperate episodes/interglacials (West, 1980b), problems havearisen because the reconstruction assumed a simple climaticwarming–cooling–warming cycle and the reconstructed palaeo-biogeography often mixed assemblages from different temperateepisodes, giving meaningless results. At present the most usefulreview of this evidence is in Jones and Keen (1993).

The nature of this problem can be illustrated by comparison ofthe pollen stratigraphy from the type site of the ‘Cromerian’ Stageat West Runton in north Norfolk (West and Wilson, 1968; West,1980a) with an ecological study of the sediments, pollen and thestable-isotopes from the associated freshwater mollusca (Davieset al., 2000; Rose et al., 2008). Pollen analysis of the Cromer Forest-bed has been interpreted, biostratigraphically, as the warming partof the Cromerian Interglacial stage (West and Wilson, 1968; West,1980a,b). In contrast a palaeoecological interpretation of the pollencontent and spectrum indicates that the vegetation represents atypical seral development on a floodplain, with a new surface beingcolonised by temperate-climate woodland. A period of c. 100 yearswould produce a similar vegetational succession. In support of thisecological interpretation, relatively coarse-grained sedimentation(organic sand with diamictic lenses) indicates relatively rapidsedimentation—in the order of 10–100s years, and not 1000s ofyears (Rose et al., 2008). Finally, the oxygen isotopes from thefreshwater mollusca that exist throughout the succession indicatethat there has been no change of temperature over period in whichthe sediments were deposited (Davies et al., 2000; Rose et al.,2008).

Although the above text may appear critical, it needs to beplaced in perspective. Pollen assemblage biostratigraphy wasessential for our early understanding of the British Quaternarystratigraphy and the nature and dynamics of British Quaternaryenvironmental change. Richard West (who is cited above) was theoutstanding scientist responsible for steering this science, but thescience has now moved-on, and the palaeoecological approachthat now typifies Holocene studies must be applied to earlier partsof the Quaternary. This aspiration will be difficult to fulfil becauseof the absence of fine resolution dating methods, but to retain thepresent approach of correlating like-with-like without indepen-dent dating or multi-proxy evaluations, will remain an exercise infutility.

2.3. Lithostratigraphy

Lithostratigraphy inevitably forms the building blocks ofstratigraphy and landscape reconstruction, but in terrestrialregions such as eastern England long, stacked sequences areabsent, lithologies are regionally very variable and such sequencesthat do exist are dominated by hiatuses. The result is thatdepositional models need to be very complex.

This is highlighted best by reference to glacial deposits whichare particularly important for Quaternary stratigraphy because oftheir spatial extent, their association with powerful surfaceprocesses and the fact that they can be very distinctive. However,glacial deposits change across a region according to the direction ofthe ice flow path, the lithology of the underlying bed, the behaviourof the ice at the glacier bed and the process of depositing theglaciogenic sediment. The nature of this problem can well beillustrated by work in which I was involved, which proposed thatthe glacial deposits throughout midland and eastern England are of

one age and were deposited in a single glacial episode (AnglianStage) (Perrin et al., 1979; Rose, 1989c). This study was based on astatistical analysis of lithological properties of a very large sample(>200) of tills from across the region. The results showed uniformtrends which could be interpreted to show a single (if complex inplaces) pattern of ice flow, and residuals that indicated anomaliesthat needed particular explanation, but did not deflect from thegeneral model. However, subsequent detailed analyses across theregion have shown that this single glacial model is invalidated bynon-glacial materials within the ‘single till’, and the fact thatdifferent parts of a ‘single till’ have quite different ice-flowdirections (Rose, 1992; Hamblin et al., 2005) (see below).Nevertheless, systematic regional studies of glacial deposits suchas that of Harmer (1928) and Madgett and Catt (1978), or a clearunderstanding of the glaciogenic processes responsible for tilldeposition (Hart and Roberts, 1994; Lunkka, 1994; Lee and Phillips,2008; Lee, 2009) do enable glacial deposits to play a very importantpart in the reconstruction of patterns of landscape development.

River deposits have much less variability and have been thesubject of considerable work by Hey (1965), Gibbard (1985) andBridgland (1986, 1994). The relative lack of variability reflects thedisintegration of the less durable rocks by bedload and saltationtransport along the river channel, so that a pattern of rock typesrelated to the catchment bedrock geology can develop withfrequencies reflecting the proximity to the source rock and thedurability of the rock type. Following this principle is has beenpossible to identify distinctive lithological signatures for fluvialdeposits along a catchment such as the Bytham (Rose, 1987), andbetween catchments such as the Thames and Medway in Essex(Bridgland, 1980; Bridgland et al., 2003).

Glacial meltwater deposits typically differ from those depositedfrom subaerial river catchments (Rose and Allen, 1977). This is due,primarily, to the inclusion of quantities of non-durable lithologieseroded by glacial processes and derived from glacial sediments, andthe relatively short distances that glaciofluvial materials weretransported prior to deposition, so that comminution of the non-durable lithologies is restricted. The result is that these deposits mayalso have a distinctive lithological signature, quite different fromthat of adjacent river deposits. This property was one of the criteriaused for differentiating the preglacial Thames deposits (KesgraveSands and Gravels) from the Anglian age glaciofluvial meltwaterdeposits (Barham Sands and Gravels) in East Anglia (Rose and Allen,1977). In a similar fashion Lee et al. (2004a) was able to identify theonset of glaciation within the Bytham River catchment in the regionof Bungay, from the first appearance of substantial quantities ofheavy minerals derived from the glacial source regions in Scotland asopposed to heavy minerals derived primarily from the Bytham rivercatchment in midland and eastern England.

Despite the convenience of this lithostratigraphic method, careneeds to be taken to understand the processes involved in thedeposition of any particular sediment body as non-durablelithologies can be eroded from the river channel, or introducedinto the channel by mass flow from the river bank or valley sideand transported limited distances before deposition, producing asignal that could be interpreted as glaciofluvial. This situation hasbeen observed in the second aggradation deposits of the BythamRiver at Warren Hill northeast of Newmarket where chalk has beenincorporated from the channel and valley side and mixed with far-travelled rocks from midland England. The ability to distinguishbetween glaciofluvially and subaerially sourced drainage is furtherconfused when a subaerial river catchment has been glaciated andsubsequent river erosion entrains glaciogenic deposits. For thisreason, this methodology is most effective in resolving elementslandscape development in the early Middle Pleistocene. In theThames catchment, for instance, Gibbard (1977, 1985) was able todifferentiate pre-Anglian deposits from the Anglian age Maiden-


head Formation and, for the pre-Anglian deposits of the samesystem Whiteman and Rose (1992) were able to differentiate theearlier Sudbury Formation from the later Colchester Formation onthe basis of the proportions of far travelled materials and theweathered state of the quartzose clasts.

Shallow marine sediments have similar characteristics to thepreglacial subaerial river deposits, reflecting persistent reworking ofthe sediment body and disintegration of the less durable materials.Hence the Wroxham Crag of northeastern East Anglia is, in the main,lithologically similar to the source materials transported by theBytham and Thames river systems (Rose et al., 2001). Consequentlythese deposits have similar stratigraphic significance to thepreglacial river deposits. In contrast, slope and beach depositswithin the area covered by this paper are of limited lithostrati-graphic value because they have either a very variable lithologicalsignature or are very limited in extent. In particular, slope depositsvary according to source material. Beach, estuarine and nearshoredeposits can be lithologically distinctive (Gale et al., 1988; West andWhiteman, 1986) but are very patchy in distribution. Thus, unlessthese deposits are separated by uplift, as in West Sussex (Bates et al.,1997), they are likely to suffer from substantial reworking, and theirstratigraphic significance can be very difficult to disentangle (Hoareet al., 2009). Slope, estuarine and some beach deposits do, however,benefit from the likelihood of containing organic material whichmay have palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphic significance(West, 1980a).

2.4. Morphostratigraphy

Morphostratigraphy is effective where landforms are welldeveloped by powerful processes and not subsequently modifiedby other less powerful processes. Moraine ridges, raised beaches,glaciofluvial and fluvial river terraces and lake shorelines can beanalysed and traced across substantial regions. Morphostratigraphicdifferentiation is based on relative position on the landscape, so thatmoraine ridges increase in age proportional to the distance from thesource of the glacier or ice sheet, and raised beaches, shorelines andterraces increase in age proportional to their height above thepresently forming landform. Complications to these simple rulescause the burial or erosion of landforms and make the application ofmorphostratigraphy more difficult or impossible. Ages can be placedon the landforms by appropriate dating methods of which radio-nuclide cosmo dating has made a significant contribution in recentyears (Rinterknecht et al., 2006). The relative degrees of modificationby lower energy subaerial processes since formation have been usedto determine the relative ages of landscapes, such as thedifferentiation of the Last and earlier glaciations into the ‘older-’and ‘newer-drift’ (Wright, 1937). Morphostratigraphy has restrictedvalue for the Early and Middle Pleistocene of eastern England,because most landforms that would have stratigraphic significance(moraine ridges, river terraces) have been degraded beyondrecognition by surface and soil forming processes. Nevertheless,two features do require consideration: the Cromer Ridge, andstaircases of river aggradations.

The Cromer Ridge is unique in the region under consideration inthat it demonstrates a relief that does not relate to surface runoff—in other words it is not composed of river valley and interveningridges, but of a ridge that is independent of the drainage and has aninternal composition that indicates a powerful glacial force fromthe north (Hart, 1990). Outwash fans or sandar at the west end ofthe ridge, and an associated esker also appear to be part of thisglaciogenic landform complex, and can be used in infer an ice-marginal position and subglacial and proglacial meltwater flow(Sparks and West, 1964; Gale and Hoare, 2007). The uniquesurvival of these landforms may also have temporal significanceand is discussed below.

The staircases of river aggradations have stratigraphic sig-nificance derived from the relative elevation of the body ofsediment along the catchment long profile (Gibbard, 1985; Leeet al., 2006). The stratigraphic significance is not derived from thedetails of the landform, as with typical morphostratigraphy,because in the region under consideration these landforms are soheavily degraded that surfaces cannot be recognised except by thepresence of a palaeosol. The ability to use this method arises fromthe fact that uplift in interior England has elevated and separatedthe terraces over time, and the relative elevation is an indication ofthe relative age (Maddy, 1997; Westaway et al., 2002). The fact thatthe river deposits may contain a distinctive lithology orbiostratigraphy, or materials suitable for dating means that thistype of morphostratigraphy can be reinforced by additionalstratigraphic methods, enhancing the quality of the results andinterpretation (Schreve, 2001a,b; Schreve et al., 2007; Howardet al., 2007). This methodology has been very effective in resolvingthe stratigraphy of the Thames (Gibbard, 1977, 1985; Bridgland,1994), Solent (Allen and Gibbard, 1993; Westaway et al., 2006) andBytham (Lee et al., 2006) rivers, all of which have survived througha long part of Quaternary time. In the areas of eastern and MidlandEngland where glaciation has destroyed the landscape theaggradation/incision system only represents the period since thelast ice cover (Maddy et al., 1991; Howard et al., 2007).

Palaeosols link morphostratigraphy with lithostratigraphy andprovide a key, in lithostratigraphic successions, to the existence offormer land surfaces (Rose et al., 1985b). Soil properties haveplayed a key part in identifying both mediterranean andpermafrost type climates within the British Early and MiddlePleistocene (Rose et al., 1976, 1985a,b; Kemp, 1985a,b; Candy et al.,2006; Candy, 2006; Candy, 2009), although they have been lessimportant in identifying cool temperate climate conditions asthese do not have the same survival potential as the permafroststructures and coherent argillic horizons that formed in periglacialand mediterranean soils, respectively. Palaeosols also have thepotential of demonstrating climate change through the micro-scopic study of soil structures (Kemp, 1987a,b; Kemp et al., 1993).In this way it has been possible to determine patterns of landscapedevelopment in eastern England when both sediment and land-form evidence is not available.

2.5. Climatic stratigraphy

Although the above review gives the impression of abundantmethods of dating, correlating and resolving Quaternary strati-graphy and landscape change, the reality is that the scarcity of sitesfor successful dating and the complexity of the lithological,geomorphological and biological models means that debateremains rampant and numerous problems remain to be solved.It is in these circumstances that a climatic stratigraphic scheme hasbeen developed in which the litho-, bio- and morphostratigraphyhave been linked to climatic episodes, and a sequence of climaticchanges (essentially glacial/interglacial cycles) have been devel-oped to form the basis of the stratigraphic and palaeoenviron-mental reconstruction.

As outlined above, climatic stratigraphy developed aroundglacial/interglacial cycles defined by pollen stratigraphy related tointervening lithostratigraphy, and these building blocks led to thedevelopment of the stratigraphy proposed in Mitchell et al. (1973)and to a large degree Bowen (1999a). However, as stressed byBowen (1978) the long marine core records provide a better proxyfor climate stratigraphy, with the terrestrial stratigraphy beingseen as a part of an integrated Earth system. The result is thattoday, Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) derived from ocean cores,provide the template for global climate change (Rose et al., 2006)and the issue is not so much how to correlate with the global signal

Fig. 4. A 1070-ka time series of Northern Hemisphere, showing modelled surface air

temperature deviation from the present for the area over the continents between

408 and 808N. Taken from Bintanja et al. (2005), Nature, with modifications. Also

shown are the MIS stages (and substages for MIS 5e, 7a and e, and 15a and 15e)

taken from Bassinot et al. (1994) back to MIS 22 and from Lisiecki and Raymo (2005)

prior to MIS 22. The column to the right of the MIS numbers indicates the likelihood

of net aggradation or net incision in the lower parts of large catchments, based on

the premise that periglacial processes would generate high peak discharges and

course grained sediment.


(although this does remain an issue in many cases) but tounderstand the regional variations from the global model.

In addition to providing a template for climate change, the longclimatic records have the advantage that they can be linked to anumerically calculated orbital timescale (Shackleton et al., 1990;Bassinot et al., 1994), and thus, numerically calculated ages can beplaced on climatic events, both changes and extremes. Hitherto themost useful climatic signal is that of Bintanja et al. (2005) which isan integration of fifty-seven sediment records and presented interms of the deviation of mid-latitude, Northern Hemispheretemperature from the present (Fig. 4). This record can be correlatedwith a numerically calculated July insolation record for 658N whichcan provide a timescale for the global climate changes (Bassinotet al., 1994; Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005).

These changing climatic signals can therefore provide aframework against which the regional or local signal can becorrelated. The most obvious method of linking the two is bynumerical ages derived from dating methods, but as outlinedabove, very few dates are available. A number of terrestrial climaticsignals have the potential for correlation against distinctivecharacteristics (peaks) of the marine isotope curve. For easternEngland, glacier expansion, high sea-level, river aggradation andtemperate climate vegetation and fauna, all have the potential ofrelating to a warming or cooling peak. However, none of theseprovide a robust unique signal that may be given a temporal statusand their greatest value is to provide a stacked sequence thatwould allow wiggle matching or counting forwards or backwardsfrom a distinctive MIS signal or age determination.

Thus, high sea-levels and temperate climate vegetation andfauna have the potential to mimic the warm climate events (oddnumber MIS events except MIS 3), but sea-level records are subjectto reworking by the recurring geomorphic event (unless uplift canseparate shorelines as in West Sussex (Bates et al., 1997), andvegetation and fauna have poor preservation potential, andwithout a litho- or morphostratigraphic framework they cannotindicate any sequential development. Glacial deposits are dis-tinctive and spatially extensive, but suffer from reworking bysucceeding glacial events, except at chance localities. Riveraggradations and incision in the lower parts of large, upliftingcatchments offer the greatest potential for deriving a sequence ofdistinctive climatic events. This climatically driven process is asimplified version of the Bridgland Model for river aggradationhistory (Bridgland, 1994; Rose, 2006).

By this simplified model, sediment aggradation in the lowerparts of river catchments is attributed to net deposition during MIcold stages due to a supply of coarse-grained sediment from theupper parts of a catchment, transported by rivers with highstream-power. Net incision in the lower parts of the largecatchments is attributed to the temperate episodes when sedimentis locked-up by vegetation, stream power is lower and availableriver energy is concentrated on river channel erosion (Rose, 2006).Thus in a typical eccentricity cycle (c. 100 ka), aggradation isdominant in the lower parts of the catchment during the coldepisodes when physical disruption of the land surface wasdominant and peak discharges from snow or ice melt were high.In contrast, the periods of incision in the lower parts of thecatchment take place when vegetation cover is thick, soils are deep,interception is high and coarse-grained sediment and highdischarges are rare. In a catchment not experiencing uplift, therivers rework existing deposits over time and only chancefragments survive, but with persistent uplift the deposits areseparated by altitude and hence have a good chance of survival.This scheme has been tested by independent dating andcomparison with mammal and mollusc assemblage stratigraphyin the lower part of the River Thames, and appears, as a result ofrigorous testing, to validate the process (Shreve, 2001a,b; Bridg-

land and Schreve, 2001, 2004). The likelihood of when periods ofnet aggradation and incision should have place are indicated inFig. 4.

It is important to stress that this model only applies to the lowerparts of large river systems which integrate all the catchmentprocesses. This model does not apply in localities where complexresponse determines erosion and deposition due to factors such as

Fig. 5. The history of river aggradation and incision in the upper part of the Wensum catchment, northwest Norfolk. The river activity has been allocated to British Quaternary

Stages on the basis of pollen assemblage stratigraphy, and was assumed to cover all the temperate and cold stages and sub-stage within the interval between the Hoxnian

Stage and the Holocene. Taken from Rose (1995) and based on West (1991).


local relief, local tectonics or the input of substantial quantities ofglaciofluvial material. Thus, for instance, this scheme does notapply in the upper part of river systems or of small rivers, and itdoes not apply with the MIS 12 terraces in the Middle Thames(Maddy and Bridgland, 2000a,b), where there is glaciofluvial inputof material from the Anglian (MIS 12) Stage glaciers and possiblyalso glacio-isostatic crustal deformation.

In order to place this concept in perspective, it is helpful to notethat the detailed work on the Wensum river system northwest ofNorwich (West, 1991; Rose, 1995) (Fig. 5) which is in the upperpart of the river catchment. Here the river re-works its ownsediments at roughly the same level (within 7 m) throughout thelate Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene (Fig. 5) and thepatterns of river aggradation and incision in this area clearlydemonstrate the effects of autogenic processes and complexresponse, independent of sea-level and tectonic activity (Schummand Parker, 1973, Rose, 1995).

What this means is that changes in the behaviour of the river(aggradation, incision, minimal fluvial activity with biologicalprocesses dominant), are a function of factors such as climatewhich controls discharge, vegetation cover which controlsdischarge and sediment supply, local relief which controls slopeand channel and hillside sediment supply, and antecedent reliefwhich controls slope. Thus, for instance, periods of densevegetation cover can lead to a lock-up of sediment, local channelincision and local downcutting, but deposition of the erodedsediment downstream. Equally an increase in vegetation cover canlead to the local build-up of organic deposits on a floodplain behindchannel-side levees, or in ox-bow lakes, even while the activechannel is incising. Climatic change from warm-with-vegetation-cover, to cold-with-bare-frost-disturbed slopes can lead initially toincision, in response to peak snow-melt discharges, but after aperiod of time, this can be followed by aggradation as sediment istransferred from the valley sides to the channels by gelifluction.Another scenario must involve the effects of tributary valleys. For

instance fan development in the main valley by a steeper tributarystream can lead to steepening of part of the main channeldownstream of the fan, and a reduction in gradient of the mainchannel upstream of the fan. These changes will, therefore, causeincision through and upstream of the fan and deposition down-stream. Likewise a progressive sorting of the sediments within thechannel can lead to adjustment of the stream long profile byincision and aggradation. These permutations are numerous, hencethe term ‘complex response’ (Schumm and Parker, 1973).However, all these processes and responses are relatively small-scale and typical of the order of the changes recorded in theWensum. They do not relate to uplift or to sea-level change andcannot be used as a general model of climate-driven river activity.This fine-resolution study provides a clear illustration of thebehaviour of the upper parts of river systems. It emphasises thedifference with the lower parts of large rivers where all elements ofcomplex response are integrated and generalised into substantialbody of sediment or, alternatively, into net erosion. The featuresdescribed in the upper Wensum are typical terraces formed bycomplex aggradations and incisions and are not the aggradationsused as an eccentricity-scale morphostratigraphic method. The fullBridgland Model attempts to take issues of complex response intoconsideration (Bridgland, 2006).

3. Tectonic context

The tectonic setting for the region is the western edge of theNorth Sea basin (Caston, 1979) and there are two tectonic styles.(1) Early and early Middle Pleistocene folding involving bothdifferential subsidence and uplift. (2) Late Middle Pleistoceneuplift, increasing inland to the central England watersheds. Thismeans that the effects of Quaternary neotectonics varies across theregion with, over the Early and Middle Pleistocene, predominantsubsidence at the east coast, uplift in central and western EastAnglia and, remarkably, very little change in the area of West


Runton, Happisburgh. It is assumed that this region has acted as ahinge or pivot over a long period of Quaternary time. Work by theBritish Geological Survey (Hamblin et al., 1997), inferred faulting ofthe Early and Middle Pleistocene sediments, and hithertounpublished work has revealed what a appears to be a earlyMiddle Pleistocene fault at Salhouse northeast of Norwich.

The form of the Early and early Middle Pleistocene deformationis shown in Figs. 6 and 11 which record contours at the base of theshallow marine deposits (Crags) (Zalasiewicz et al., 1988). Thewestern edge of these deposits runs approximately north–southfrom Weybourne, through Norwich to around Diss. To the west theChalk outcrops. To the east of this boundary the crag thickens tomaximum values in basins at Stalham, Bungay and Stradbroke, allof which have a base at about �30 m OD. The maximum thicknessis however around Winterton and Lowestoft where the westernedge of the North Sea Basin proper extents below �50 m OD. Anumber of ridges separate the small basins as, for instance to thewest of Reedham and east of Stradbroke. This distribution meansthat the base of the Crag sediments rises from below �50 m OD toabove 10 m OD at a number of localities at the western margin(20 m OD recorded at Chapel Hill, south of Norwich (Read et al.,2007)). As there is no evidence for global sea-level significantly

Table 2Evidence of sea-level and sea-level change during the Cromerian Complex and ‘Pre-Pa

Area Site (localities defined

in West, 1980a)

Biozone

(after West, 1980a)

Sediment type

Skelding Hill Pa1b Stone bed and clay

Beeston BV to BC Gravel and sand

Beeston BR-S PaIII Gravels and clay

Beeston BQ PaII

Beeston BW PaII

Beeston BE Pre-Pa a Stone bed

West Runton BCa CrIIIa Marine gravel

West Runton BZb CrIIIb Marine gravel

West Runton BQ CrIIIb Marine gravel

West Runton WRAYa CrIVa

West Runton 25m W* Gravel and sand

West Runton 50 m W* PaII, III Sand

West Runton 105m W* Cr? and Pa II, III Gravel and sand

Sand

West Runton WRCNA PaII, III Sand

West Runton WRF Pa II Brackish mud

West Runton WRBN Pre-Pa a Stone bed

Overstrand OB CrIIIb and PaIVb

Overstrand boreholes PaII, IVb Sand and clay

Overstrand b/hole 1B Pre-Pa a Stone bed

Trimingham BHT16 PaIb Sand and clay

Mundesley MU CrIIIa Marine gravel

Mundesley MAK CrIIIb Marine gravel

Mundesley MAM CrIVa Brackish mud

Mundesley MAU CrIIIb

Mundesley MB CrIIIb

Mundesley MAT Pre-Pa a Stone bed and clay

Paston PE PaIVa

Paston-Mundesley PaII, III, IVa Sand and clay

Happisburgh HC, HA PaI-IV Clays

Happisburgh HC Pre-Pa a Sand and clay

Happisburgh HF PaII Tidal mud

Corton CL, CK CrIIIa Marine gravel

Corton CrIIb Marine clay

Corton borehole 3/11 PaII Sand and clay

Bacton BH CrIVa Marine sand and clay

Pakefield Marine laminated clay

Pakefield borehole PL PaII Clay

Pakefield Pre-Pa a Sand and clay

Covehithe Ba, Lu 4b Clay

Easton Bavents Ba, Lu 4b Clay

Derived from West (1980a, Tables, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41). Although the Stage names d

significance, they allow the sea-level or sea-level change to be related to a particular ec

‘Cromerian’, ‘Beestonian’, ‘Pastonian’ and ‘Baventian’ stages are shown on Figs. 1 and 2. S

marine sediments (such as Pakefield PC) are not included. The list is organised accord

*West of the datum point at West Runton—defined in West (1980a).

higher than the present throughout the period in which the Cragswere deposited (Funnell, 1995), this means that in addition todeformation forming basins and ridges in the east, uplift has raisedthe general elevation of the land in the west where the base of theCrag is >10 m OD. Local studies in the area between Norwich andBungay/Beccles (Rose et al., 2002) and in the region just south ofNorwich (Read et al., 2007) have attempted to unravel the nature ofthis neotectonic activity. In the former area, shallow marinesediments reach an elevation of between 20 and 25 m OD, and thesuccession and elevation of these deposits indicates both uplift andsubsidence before a final period of uplift (Rose et al., 2002, pp. 65–66). In the latter area the shallow marine sediments reach anelevation of 28.5 m OD and the evidence of shallow marinedeposits suggests uplift in excess of 30 m since deposition, which,at this locality, was at c. 600/500 ka BP (Read et al., 2007),indicating a net uplift rate of about 1 m per 19 ka.

These studies need to be placed in context with evidence fromthe Cromer Forest-bed sites around the coast (West, 1980a; Parfittet al., 2005; Lee et al., 2006). At these sites there is abundantevidence to indicate that the upper limits for sea-level have notextended much above the present (Table 2). Although it is difficultto make direct comparisons with the inland sites because of the

stonian’.

Trans-gression

contact level m OD

Reg-ression contact

level m OD

Maximum elevation of

marine sediment m OD

6.5–9.5

4.4–7.8

5.1 4.4–6.2

c. 4.8

c. 5.7

3.4

5.1

4.3

2.0

7.5

3.0–4.9

4.4

5.0–6.7

5.0

3.9

c. �1.5

1.9

c. 5.3 c. �2.5

�2.0 to 1.2

�4.2

�9.0 to �1.5

c. 2.0

2.6

2.9

3.7

2.5

�11.5 to �4.8

2.0

�3.2 to 2.4

�1.5 to 2.4

�16.6 to �3.0

�0.5

c. 0.5

c. �6.0 to �4.0

�6.7

c. 2.0–4.0

�2.9 to �2.2

�5.7 to �3.0

�10.0 to 5.0

4.0–6.0

erived from pollen assemblage stratigraphy no longer have any chronostratigraphic

ological system and possibly a climatic signal. The previously assumed ages of the

ites which show a tendency towards marine conditions but do not actually include

ing to location from east to west.

Fig. 6. The extent of marine sediments (Crag) in northern and central East Anglia, with the contours at the base of these sediments showing the nature of deformation in the

region. The distribution of the marine sediments is taken from Zalasiewicz et al. (1988).


lack of any fine-resolution dating, it is possible to state that whileuplift of c. 30 m has taken place around Norwich, there has beenvery little change in elevation around West Runton, Happisburghor Lowestoft. Clearly, significant subsidence in the Lowestoft areaoccurred before the deposition of this Cromer Forest-bed.

Uplift can also be estimated from the elevation of riveraggradations. The pre-glacial Bytham River in central East Anglia(Fig. 7) provides evidence for the elevation of the aggradations thathave been uplifted through Quaternary time. The maximumrecorded elevation is in the order of 50 m OD in the area north ofBury St. Edmunds (Fig. 7). This surface is c. 40 m above the surface ofthe Castle Bytham aggradation that formed in MIS 12 around 430 ka.The age of the oldest terrace is very hard to determine but could be inthe order of c. 1 Ma, implying an uplift of around 1 m per 15 ka. Withthe quality of the information used to determine the rates, this iscomparable with the value from near Norwich, bearing in mind thatmore rapid uplift would be expected near Bury which is closertowards the centre of uplift. These aggradation levels are differentfrom those proposed by Westaway (2009), but as those aggradation/terrace groupings are unconstrained by palaeosol surfaces, and aremixed with glaciofluvial and postglacial aggradations/terraces of theRiver Waveney system (Coxon, 1993), the interpretations presentedin that paper are not suitable for further consideration.

The explanation for this tectonic activity is far from clear (Wattset al., 2000; Blundell, 2002; Westaway et al., 2002), but theproposals of Westaway, as applied to the Thames catchment,

appear to explain the geomorphological evidence within the regionconsidered by this paper. In this case the tectonic signal describedabove is explained by the mobility of the upper mantle and the linkbetween regional erosion in catchment headwaters, lowland andoffshore sedimentation and Quaternary sea-level changes (West-away et al., 2002). Recently, an alternative explanation for thetectonic pattern described above has been published by Leeder(2008). In this paper, the case is made that uplift of the formdescribed above can be explained by erosion (c. 100 m) of the Washand Fen Basin by Middle Pleistocene glaciation (ascribed to theAnglian Stage (MIS 12) following Perrin et al., 1979). This is a mostinteresting explanation using the process of erosional isostasy, andcertainly accommodates aspects of the regional variations in upliftacross northern and central East Anglia, but it is difficult (at thepresent stage of knowledge) to apply this explanation to the upliftevidence from other parts of Britain, such as the Thames basin(Westaway et al., 2002), or continental Europe (Antoine et al.,2007). Clearly this is an issue of considerable importance that isworthy of further research. Hopefully this work will involve furtherexplanation of crustal geophysics and be constrained by indepen-dent dating methods.

Thus, regional tectonics play an important role in determiningthe location and scale of uplift, stability and depression acrosseastern England and the details of the Early Pleistocene structuralbasins and ridges and the patterns of uplift of Middle Pleistoceneriver systems.

Fig. 7. The aggradations of the Bytham River. Taken from Lee et al., Journal of Quaternary Science (2006), with modifications. The location of the sediment bodies is shown by a

vertical line and the sites with evidence of a land surface, such as a palaeosol are shown with a horizontal mark. These palaeosols are critical for determining the surface of the

aggradational sediment correlating the sediment bodies.


4. The period of major rivers and oscillating sea-levels

The Early and early Middle Pleistocene deposits comprise rivergravels and sands, sometimes containing organic remains, especiallyin the deposits long known as the Cromer Forest-bed (Funnell et al.,1979; West, 1980a), and shallow marine sands, gravels, silts andclays, often with a high marine shell and occasional terrestrial andmarine mammal content (Mathers and Zalasiewicz, 1988; Zalasie-wicz et al., 1988). These two depositional assemblages are theproduct of terrestrial and shallow marine processes that dominatedeastern England prior to lowland glaciation (although there is aperiod of overlap as discussed below). The river systems weretypically large relative to rivers flowing across Britain at the presentday. They are eastward flowing (Figs. 8 and 11) and preserveevidence of both cold and temperate environments. The shallowmarine deposits represent both estuarine and offshore environ-ments and were also formed in both temperate and cold climateenvironments. Associated with both of these deposits are palaeosols,formed on land surfaces after the depositional processes had ceased(Rose et al., 1985b).

4.1. The shallow marine systems

The shallow marine deposits, which are found in the easternpart of the region, consist from the older to younger, of the RedCrag, Norwich Crag and Wroxham Crag. The Red Crag is restrictedto the southeastern part in the area (Fig. 8A) and consists of a basalgravel overlain by very shelly sands, except where these aredecalcified. The Norwich Crag (Fig. 8A) is predominantly of sandswith sands and gravels and silty sands and clays. The type section isat Bramerton (Fig. 3) and this has recently been described byFunnell et al. (1979) and Rose et al. (2002), although recent studiesby Riches et al. (2008) have shown that the earlier descriptions andinterpretations of this site are incomplete. The Norwich Crag sandsare typically a yellowish brown with sedimentary cross-bedding

that indicates bimodal flow directions. At localities where thesediments are not decalcified there may be abundant marinemollusca and foraminifera, but terrestrial animal and plantremains are also found (Taylor, 1823; Woodward, 1881). TheNorwich Crag is defined lithostratigraphically by its predomi-nantly flint-rich clast content. Typically there is >95% localmaterial which takes the form of either chattermarked flint orangular/sub-angular flint. The remaining rocks are typically tracesof white vein quartz and white quartzite (Figs. 9 and 10).

The lithological properties of the Norwich Crag are attributed todeposition by tidal currents in shallow seas or estuaries. Thematerial constituting these deposits is predominantly local rocksderived from rivers that have transported terrestrial materialsfrom the adjacent land areas, or from coastal erosion. Theterrestrial component is clearly demonstrated by the presenceof far-travelled palynomorphs from pre-Quaternary rocks thatindicate an influx of suspended sediment from all parts of the rivercatchments (Riding et al., 1997, 2000). The extent of the NorwichCrag and the associated major rivers is shown on Fig. 8A. Althoughthis figure shows a coastline it should be remembered that theNorwich Crag formed over a long period that will include a greatnumber of climatically and tectonically driven sea-level changesand the shoreline is only indicative of the coastline zone. The majorrivers associated with the Norwich Crag (Ancaster and Bythamrivers) are inferred from the palynomorph content and there are noterrestrial deposits in the area that can be correlated directly withthe Norwich Crag. The reason for this is that the river deposits weremost probably fine-grained and hence have low preservationpotential.

The Wroxham Crag overlies the Norwich Crag and the boundaryis represented by a sharp lithological switch, such as that at DobbsPlantation (Rose et al., 2001) (Fig. 9). The flint-dominated lithologyin the gravel fraction changes to a lithological assemblage withsignificant quantities of far travelled rocks. The far travelled rocksinclude vein quartz, quartzite, cherts from Carboniferous, Jurassic

Fig. 8. Early Pleistocene and early Middle Pleistocene fluvial and offshore palaeogeography of midland and eastern England and the adjacent North Sea basin. The heavy lines

indicate main drainage trajectories based on long-established valley systems and Early and early Middle Pleistocene sediments. Over this period, eastern England acted as a

depositional centre for drainage from the Thames, Bytham and Ancaster catchments. The distribution of lithostratigraphic units is given, along with the location of outcrop of

distinctive indicator lithologies that were transported by the river systems to the coastal zone. (A) Shows the drainage system and extent of coastal deposits at the time of

deposition of the Red and Norwich Crag Formations. (B) Shows the drainage system and extent of coastal deposits at the time of the deposition of the Dobb’s Plantation and

How Hill Members of the Wroxham Crag Formation. (C) Shows the drainage system and extent of coastal deposits at the time of deposition of the Mundesley Member of the

Wroxham Crag Formation. Taken from Rose et al. (2002), Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association.


Fig. 9. The boundary between the Norwich Crag, which has a small proportion of far travelled clasts, and the Wroxham Crag which has a higher proportion of far-travelled

rocks. This figure shows the frequency distribution of Carboniferous chert, Triassic quartzose rocks, Rhaxella chert, flint and other lithologies in the sediments at Dobb’s

Plantation pit near Wroxham, Norfolk. Taken from Rose et al. (2001), Quaternary International.


and Cretaceous sources and igneous and metamorphic rocks,although the proportion of the last two types is very small. TheWroxham Crag is subdivided into three members on the basis ofthe far-travelled rock content, with the older Dobbs PlantationMember having c. 10% white vein quartz and quartzite and theyounger How Hill Member having c. 30–40% white quartz andquartzite. The Mundesley Member is the youngest with a lowerproportion of far travelled rocks (Rose et al., 2001, 2002) thatappear to be due to derivation from a tributary catchment ratherthan the main river. The distribution of these Members, thecontrasting lithologies and the lithological groupings can be shownon Figs. 8–10.

The Wroxham Crag occurs in the same region as the NorwichCrag, except that it is far more extensive and above the NorwichCrag. Historically it was known as the Weybourne Crag (Woodand Harmer, 1872; Woodward, 1882) and the Bure Valley Beds(Baden-Powell and West, 1960; Funnell, 1961, 1980; Cambridge,1978a,b). The new name was introduced to give a consistentterm that could be defined adequately within the type areaaround Wroxham north of Norwich (Rose et al., 2001). TheWroxham Crag is characterised by interbedded sand and gravelswith silt and clay beds and laminations in its upper part.Frequently the cross-bedding dip has a bimodal orientation.Where the deposit is not decalcified it contains a shallow marineand estuarine molluscan fauna characterised by the presence ofMacoma balthica (Cambridge, 1978a,b). The coarser units of this

deposit reflect deposition associated with the main tidal-currentchannels and bars, while the finer fractions are considered torepresent still water deposition in the less active parts ofestuaries.

In places, palaeosols are developed on the surface of the marinedeposits indicating periods when the sea-level has fallen and theseshallow marine deposits were exposed to atmospheric and surfaceprocesses. At some localities, such as Trimingham the soils arerepresented by ice-wedge casts and involutions indicating coldclimate and even permafrost conditions (Briant et al., 1999),whereas at other localities such as West Runton (Gammage, 2004)and Aldeby red argillic soils indicate the effects of seasonal warmthand moisture. These, are typical of the Valley Farm Soil of Suffolkthat formed in a mediterranean style climate (Rose and Allen,1977; Kemp, 1985a,b). This variety of climatic signals indicates thefact that the Wroxham Crag developed over a wide range ofclimates, and the presence of reversed and normal magnetism inthe deposit confirms that it formed over a long period ofQuaternary (Van Montfrans, 1971; Hallam and Maher, 1994;Maher and Hallam, 2005b; Lee et al., 2006).

The Wroxham Formation is the shallow marine lithostrati-graphic unit, equivalent to the terrestrial Cromer Forest-bedFormation. The Wroxham Crag is defined by its lithologicalcontent, whereas the Cromer Forest-bed is defined by its biologicalcontent, typically the pollen assemblages (West and Wilson, 1968;West, 1980a). The Wroxham Crag is more extensive throughout

Fig. 10. Bivariate plot of lithological properties of clast assemblages from the Norwich Crag, Wroxham Crag (Dobbs Plantation and How Hill Members), Bytham Sands and

Gravels and glaciofluvial gravels (Corton Sands, Leet Hill Sands and Gravels, Aldeby Sands and Gravels). The variables used are percentage flint which is mainly from East

Anglia on the vertical axis, and percentage quartzite, vein quartz and schorl from the Midlands on the horizontal axis. The three groups can be seen clearly although there is a

small area of overlap due, largely, to glaciofluvial processes entraining Wroxham Crag or Bytham Sands and Gravels. This problem of overlap of clast signature can largely be

overcome by study of the heavy minerals (Lee et al., 2004a,b).


East Anglia than the Cromer Forest-bed because it was developedin spatially extensive shallow marine environment rather thanalong linear floodplains. The extent of the Wroxham Crag and theassociated river patterns is shown on Fig. 8B and C and, as with theNorwich Crag, it is associated with a changing coastline driven byclimate change (glacio-eustacy) and long term tectonic deforma-tion. The periods of relatively low sea-level or uplifted land levelare illustrated by the palaeosols and terrestrial Cromer Forest-bedunits, while the Wroxham Crag represents periods of high sea-levelor low land level caused by tectonic subsidence (Rose et al., 2002;Read et al., 2007).

4.2. The major river systems

The Cromer Forest-bed is associated with fluviatile depositionby two river systems: the Ancaster River in the north of the regionand the Bytham River in central East Anglia (Figs. 8 and 11). TheAncaster River was identified and reconstructed in Clayton (2000)using a quantitative reconstruction of rockhead relief (Fig. 11).Support for this geomorphological reconstruction is shown by thepebble content of the fluvial Cromer Forest-bed and shallowmarine Wroxham Crag deposits exposed along the north Norfolkcoast, which are dominated by white quartzite and vein quartz,with significant quantities of Carboniferous chert, all indicatingderivation from the region of what is now the southern Pennines(Walsh et al., 1972). Hitherto no high-level terraces of the AncasterRiver have been discovered and this is attributed largely toextensive glacial erosion of the higher land in the area that is now

the North Sea, north of the north Norfolk coastline. Terraces are notpresent in the Ancaster Gap largely due to the confined nature ofthis feature, in a similar fashion to the way that terraces formed bythe River Thames do not survive in the region of the Goring Gap.

The Bytham River was first identified by Hey (1965) who notedan increase in frequency of vein quartz and quartzite rocks in thearea of central East Anglia in deposits that are now known asKesgrave Sands and Gravels (deposited by the River Thames). Heconsidered that this pattern indicated the position of a tributaryriver that flowed into the River Thames from Midland England.Further details about the form of this river were published by Clarkeand Auton (1982) as a result of the British Geological Survey MineralAssessment project. The wider significance of these deposits wasexplained by Rose (1987) who traced the vein quartz and quartzite-rich deposit across midland England to the sites already identified inEast Anglia. The recognition of a single geomorphological andlithological unit that had formed before lowland glaciation, and waseither buried or eroded by glaciation provided a link between twoparts of England, as well as the identification of the largestabandoned Quaternary river system in Britain. Subsequent workon the Bytham River (Rose, 1989a, 1994; Ashton et al., 1992; Lewis,1993; Bateman and Rose, 1994; Brandon, 1999; Lewis et al., 1999;Rose et al., 1999; Stephens et al., 2008) confirmed a major valleydraining from the area of Stratford-upon-Avon through the regionsof Coventry, Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Bury St. Edmunds, Diss andLowestoft to the region of the present North Sea. The course of theBytham River throughout the Early and early Middle Pleistocene isshown on Figs. 7, 9, 11 and 20.

Fig. 11. Rockhead topography of east midland and eastern England. The western part of this figure is derived from Clayton (2000, Fig. 6) and represents the reconstructed pre-

Anglian relief. The elevations represent the mean altitude for each kilometre square. The eastern part of the area is derived from Zalasiewicz et al. (1988, Fig. 1) and represents

the contours on the base of the shallow marine Crag deposits. These two elevation levels do not match as they represent different properties, but they do give the best-

available indication of rockhead relief for the area. Also shown are the main trajectories of the Ancaster, Bytham and Thames rivers. The position of the present coastline is

given for location.


Detailed work by Lewis (1993), Rose (1994), Rose et al. (1999)and Lee et al. (2004a,b) revealed a number of river sedimentaggradations beneath the glacial deposits in central East Anglia,and these have been attributed to river development associatedwith progressive tectonic uplift of the region (Fig. 7). As discussedin the stratigraphy section of this paper it is possible to use asimplified version of the Bridgland Model for river aggradation/incision history (Bridgland, 1994; Rose, 2006) to estimate the ageof these aggradations. The lowest and youngest aggradation isattributed to MIS 12 because in the area of Castle Bytham in southLincolnshire the Bytham River valley can be shown to be blocked,over-ridden and then obliterated from the landscape by Anglian(MIS 12) age glaciers (Rose, 1989b). This aggradation is thedistinctive signal that is linked to the MIS timescale, and using theprinciples set out in Section 3 of this paper, the six aggradations of

the Bytham River can be allocated to MIS stages 12 to around 20.The reason for the caution about the ages of the earliestaggradations can be seen in Fig. 4. The duration of the coldepisodes suitable for aggrading a substantial body of sediment islimited, relative to the duration of the cold episodes in most of theMiddle Pleistocene, and the robustness of the simplified BridglandModel is therefore diminished.

Typically the Bytham River sediments (Bytham Sands andGravels) are quartz- and quartzite-rich gravels dominated by whitecoloured clasts in the oldest aggradations and by brown clasts in allthe four younger aggradations (Fig. 10) (Rose et al., 2002). Thislithological content, along with the palynomorphs in fine grainedunits (Riding et al., 1997, 2000) confirm that the river systemflowed from west Midland England, through East Anglia to theregion that is now the North Sea. In most places the gravels are

Fig. 12. The major changes in the landscape of eastern Britain and northern Europe following lowland glaciation. (A) The landscape before lowland glaciation. (B) The

landscape following lowland glaciation. This figure shows the changes from a landscape in which Britain is linked to the Continent, and is drained by large rivers such as the

Baltic River in Europe and the Thames and Bytham in England, to a landscape in which Britain regularly becomes an island and is drained by much smaller rivers. This change

also sees the Southern North Sea Delta cease to operate as a single aggrading system due to the absence of sediment from the Baltic River and the absence of sediment from the

small British rivers. The pattern of the Baltic (Eridanos) River is taken from Overeem (2002) and Overeem et al. (2002) and the maximal limit of glaciation is taken from Ehlers

and Gibbard (2004).


heavily decalcified so that sedimentary structures are diffuse.However, where structures are visible, cross-bedding and sub-horizontal bedding is typical, indicating deposition at the front andsurface of mid-channel and channel-side bars of a braided riversystem. Where decalcification has not occurred, such as at WarrenHill (Figs. 3 and 20) the sedimentary structures are exceedinglywell developed and at this locality they indicate bar-foresets andpoint-bar structures formed in deep water with abundantsediment supply derived by valley side erosion and long distancetransport from west midland England. Ice wedge casts, oftenintraformational, are common features throughout the BythamSands and Gravels indicating that at least some of the aggradationtook place in a permafrost climate (Lewis, 1989, 1993).

Fine-grained Bytham River sediments are quantitatively smallbut not rare. Fine grained and organic deposits have been recordedat Waverley Wood (Shotton et al., 1993; Keen et al., 2006; Coope,2006) and Brandon in Warwickshire (Maddy et al., 1994) Brooksbyin Leicestershire (Engineering Geology, 1985a,b,c; Rice, 1991;Brandon, 1999; Coope, 2006; Stephens et al., 2008), Witham on theHill in Lincolnshire (Gibbard and Peglar, 1989), High Lodge (Ashtonet al., 1992; Rose, 1992; Coope, 2006) and Pakefield (Parfitt et al.,2005; Lee et al., 2006; Coope, 2006) in Suffolk and NortonSubcourse in Norfolk (Lewis et al., 2004). These finer grained andorganic materials represent, respectively, overbank sedimentationby a single-thread river channel system or pool/channel infills onthe surface of the floodplain or between bars on the channel-track.Palaeobotanical proxies indicate that the climate at the time thesesediments formed ranged from cool temperate (Coope, 1992, 2006)to mediterranean (Coope, 2006; Candy et al., 2006) and the riverflowed through a landscape with a dense and prolific biomass.Further evidence for temperate climate conditions is recorded bypalaeosols at the surface of the Bytham River deposits. At a numberof sites in East Anglia including Ingham (Read, 1994) argillic soilsare developed at the surface of the gravels, and at Pakefield acarbonate soil has revealed structures and oxygen stable signa-tures that indicates a mediterranean style climate (Candy et al.,2006).

In summary, the Bytham River represents what was once one ofthe largest rivers in Britain that flowed eastwards from the westMidlands to the region of the present North Sea. Survivingsediments indicate deposition over a period in excess of 0.5 Ma, but

the origin clearly goes back to pre-Quaternary times although noneof the fine-grained material transported at this time has survived.The system experienced progressive uplift in the inland regions,like all the other rivers of southern and central England. Like theAncaster River, the Bytham River drained into the contemporaryNorth Sea and supplied coarse-grained material to the shallowmarine environment to provide a sediment source for theWroxham Crag. In the lower part of the Ancaster and BythamRivers the temperate climate, fine-grained fluviatile and estuarinesediments formed on low energy floodplains and survive as theCromer Forest-bed. The Bytham River ceased to exist when thelandscape in which it flowed was overridden by lowland glaciationduring the Anglian stage of MIS 12, although it was modified byglaciofluvial activity prior to this stage (Rose et al., 1999). Itappears that the Ancaster River ceased to exist at an earlier stagewhen northern East Anglia was overridden by the HappisburghGlaciation of MIS 16.

5. Major landscape changes

Glaciation of lowland eastern and midland England resulted inmajor landscape changes. The landscape of the major rivers andshallow marine deposits was either eroded or buried, and replacedby glacial terrain (Rose et al., 1985a). This was part of a continental-wide change. The Baltic/Eridanos River which previously flowedfrom western Russia and Scandinavia to the North Sea wasreplaced by the Baltic Sea (Overeem, 2002; Overeem et al., 2002)(Fig. 12); the southern North Sea Delta, which had contributed tothe stack of sediment between Britain and Denmark ceased tooperate (Cameron et al., 1992) and was replaced by a number ofsmaller sediment sources and with sediment redistribution ratherthan accumulation (Cameron et al., 1984) and the landbridgebetween Britain and the Continent was replaced by sea and theformation of the Straits of Dover (Gibbard, 1988, 1995).

The eroded areas, such as the Fen Basin, the Wash, Vale of Belvoirand North Sea north of northwest Norfolk remain basins today orhave now become part of the shallow coastal region. The Chalkescarpment that trends south from the northwest Norfolk coasttowards the Chiltern Hills is much degraded relative to the relief onFig. 11. The remainder of East Anglia and much of midland England iscovered with relatively thick glaciogenic deposits and after


glaciation these areas must have been a typical glacial landsystemwith drumlins and flutes across most of the deformable tills,moraine ridges in some places, subglacial meltwater tunnel valleys,and ice-stagnation topography with kames and kettle holes inothers. These glacially formed landforms have been degraded bysubsequent subaerial erosion so that, in almost all cases (with theexception of the Cromer Ridge), the glaciogenic relief is notrecognisable. Woodland (1970) has argued convincingly that thereis a system of buried tunnel valleys within the glacial limits acrossEast Anglia, and Huuse and Lykke-Andersen (2000) and Lonerganet al. (2000) have demonstrated the presence of similar featuresacross large parts of the glaciated bed of the North Sea. The tunnelvalleys in East Anglia have a pattern and long profile that reflects thehydraulic gradients and pressure regimes of the subglacial rivers andit is these valleys that have created the present valley positions andhence the present drainage pattern, which consists of a number ofsmall rivers radiating east, southeast and south from the Fen Basin(Rose et al., 1985b). These postglacial rivers are small and havecomplex networks compared to the preglacial Ancaster and Bythamrivers. At no locality does the preglacial river system influence theriver that developed after glaciation. The parallelism of the riversSoar in Leicestershire and Lark and Waveney in Norfolk and Suffolk,with the course of the pre-glacial Bytham River is simplycoincidental where subglacial erosion or meltwater incision hascut valleys across or along the preglacial valley and this subglacialvalley has subsequently been used by subaerial drainage across thepostglacial landscape. There is no generic relationship between thepreglacial and postglacial systems.

The major landscape change is replicated by a major change inthe nature of the Quaternary sediments. The early and early MiddlePleistocene preglacial deposits are extensive, and individuallycover relatively large areas with relatively uniform lithologies.Major discontinuities are caused by subsequent erosion ratherthan the processes of formation. Thus the Norwich Crag andWroxham Crags have a distinctive range of geometric, lithologicaland sedimentological properties and are extensive throughoutnortheastern and eastern East Anglia. Likewise the Bytham andAncaster river deposits have a uniform lithology in the form ofwell-organised river landforms and sediments. In the case of theCromer Forest-bed, first appearances may give the impression ofcomplexity, but these deposits are simply the normal expression ofa large, well-organised low energy river system with floodplains,channels, abandoned channels and estuarine marshes. Thecomplexity with the Cromer Forest-bed is with the stratigraphy,which covers about 500,000 years (Preece and Parfitt, 2000), notthe sedimentology.

The characteristics of these preglacial deposits contraststrikingly with the glaciogenic and subaerial deposits and land-forms formed during and after glaciation. These glacial andpostglacial landforms and sediments are relatively small units,complex in form and complex in sedimentology and lithology. Forinstance, and most obviously, the tills are diamictons of variablethickness, texture and structure composed of a variety of materials(Allen et al., 1991; Hart and Roberts, 1994; Pawley et al., 2004;Phillips et al., 2008). Even where deposits from this period areextensive, covering a wide region, and there are persistent trendssuch as with the chalky Lowestoft Till (Perrin et al., 1979), anysection reveals a very complex form that needs detailed studybefore interpretation is possible (Rose, 1974; Whiteman, 1986;Hart and Roberts, 1994; Lee, 2009). Likewise the sand and graveldeposits are no longer uniform across large distances but are nowdiscontinuous and variable in lithology, with a mixture of all thematerials that were transported by the glacier, often including very‘weak’ rock types such as shale and chalk that would be broken-upby persistent fluvial transport (Langford et al., 2008). Structures inthese deposits typically indicate evidence of lateral deformation or

collapse (Coxon, 1993), and the texture can vary rapidly acrosssections. Lake deposits, such as those at Hoxne (West, 1956; Singeret al., 1993) and Marks Tey (Turner, 1970), are typical of the small-scale, complex landscape and associated sedimentary systems thatwere formed by glaciation. Postglacial river systems are not onlysmaller and less well organised than their preglacial counterparts,but the sedimentology and the geometry of their sedimentarybodies is much more complex, and hence form far less coherentparts of the landscape system. Thus, there are no well-developedextensive river aggradations in the small rivers that cross theregion, and the sand and gravel deposits that do exist are variablein thickness and extent.

6. Timing of the major landscape changes

The timing of these major landscape changes is an issue of someimportance for understanding the Quaternary history of easternEngland because it represents the change from well organisedlandform systems to the variable power systems of glacial/interglacial cycles that have created the type of landscape welive in today. Traditionally, the first lowland glaciation of EastAnglia has been attributed to the MIS 12 (Anglian Glaciation)(Shackleton and Turner, 1967; Mitchell et al., 1973; Perrin et al.,1979; Bowen, 1999) about 430,000 years ago (Bassinot et al., 1994)and this view has persisted (Gibbard in Clark et al., 2004). Thereasons for dating the earliest glacial deposits in eastern England toMIS 12 are that these deposits are observed to overly the CromerForest-bed and to be overlain by Hoxnian age organic deposits, andthe Cromerian and Hoxnian deposits at the time were attributed onthe basis of the available dating methods to MIS 13 and 11respectively (Bowen et al., 1986, and see Rose, 1989c for asummary of this evidence). These ages have since been validatedby a detailed study at Sidestrand, north Norfolk where an AARstudy of calcite mollusca from organic deposits above and belowtills have places both the Anglian and Happisburgh age glaciationsin MIS 12 (Preece et al., in press).

Nevertheless, there is a substantial body of observablelithological evidence that leads to the suggestion that the firstlowland glaciation of eastern England, and hence landscapechange, occurred in MIS 16 (Happisburgh Glaciation) (Hamblinet al., 2000, 2001, 2005; Lee et al., 2004a,b, 2006) about 630,000years ago (Bassinot et al., 1994). The reasons for proposing thatglaciation occurred earlier than MIS 12 comes about because offieldwork done in East Anglia by the British Geological Survey(BGS) lead by Brian Moorlock and Richard Hamblin and byfieldwork and laboratory work done in the same region by a groupfrom Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) (Jim Rose,Jonathan Lee, Jerry Lee, Becky Briant, Steven Pawley, Ian Candy).These two projects were collaborative, although most work wasdone separately. In northern East Anglia the BGS had determinedthat the traditional representation of the glacial deposits asinterdigitating chalky till (Lowestoft Till) and sandy till (North SeaDrifts or Cromer Tills) (Perrin et al., 1979) was not supported byfield and section mapping. Fieldwork revealed three distinct units:a lower sandy till, a middle chalky till, and an upper sandy till(traditionally called the Lower, Middle and Upper Cromer Tills ofPerrin et al. (1979), or Happisburgh/Corton, Wolcott and BactonGreen tills of Lee et al., 2003) (Fig. 13). This suggested, to thoseinvolved in the mapping, that there may be three separateglaciations, as opposed to the traditional view of one single glacialevent with different ice-sources causing interdigitating tilllithologies where the glaciers converged (Fig. 13) (Harmer,1909; Perrin et al., 1979).

At Leet Hill, between Beccles and Bungay, Bytham Riverdeposits are overlain by glaciofluvial sands and gravels associatedwith a sandy till, and finally a chalky till (Rose et al., 1999).

Fig. 13. Schematic representation of traditional interpretation of glacial deposits in midland England and northern East Anglia. This assumes a single (Anglian) glaciation with

ice from Scotland contemporaneous with ice from Scandinavia. The cross section is designed to show the schematic arrangement of the glaciogenic units. The vertical scale in

the cross section is greatly exaggerated to make these relationships clear.


Subsequent fieldwork demonstrated that abundant large erraticsof material such as mica schist, granite, carboniferous limestone,and a variety of porphyries were found within the Bytham Riverdeposits (Rose et al., 2000). These erratics were explained byglaciofluvial meltwater draining from an ice sheet into the BythamRiver valley and mixing with the river sediments (Lee, 2001). Thisconcept was subsequently supported by the discovery of clasts ofsandy till within the Bytham River sediments along with theerratics (Lee et al., 2004a,b). The lithology of the till clasts could becompared with tills in the region and it was found that theycompared with the lower sandy till identified by the BGS on thecoast (specifically the Corton Till of the Happisburgh Formation).This meant that is was possible to correlate glaciation with theaggradations of the Bytham River.

The aggradation containing the erratics and till clasts is theThird Aggradation (Timworth Terrace) which indicates that theBytham River experienced two periods of incision and two periodsof aggradation after this glaciation had taken place (Fig. 14) (Leeet al., 2004a,b). This history of aggradation and incision can berelated to a time-marker in the form of the First (lowest)Aggradation of the Bytham River (Castle Bytham Terrace), whichwas formed during the Anglian Glaciation prior to the Anglian icereaching the region (Rose, 1989b). This means that there were twoaggradations and two incision periods between the formation ofthe Third terrace and the arrival of the Anglian age ice (MIS 12)(Fig. 14). As the Bytham River was the largest river in Englandduring the early Middle Pleistocene, and Leet Hill is in the lowerpart of this catchment, it is possible to apply the simplified

Fig. 14. Stages of terrace development in the lower reaches of the Bytham River in eastern England. The patterns of change are related to the marine oxygen isotope curve

(ODP 677; Shackleton et al., 1990), with episodes of coarse-grained river aggradation correlated with the cold stages and episodes of incision correlated with the vegetated

temperate stages. On the basis of this model the Happisburgh Glaciation is dated to MIS 16 at about 630 ka BP. Taken from Lee et al. (2004a), Quaternary Science Reviews with

modifications.


Bridgland Model for aggradation and incision and calculate the ageof the aggradations on the assumption that each aggradation/incision cycle represents c. 100 ka (Figs. 4 and 14). On this basis theaggradation that includes the till clasts at Leet Hill occurred in MIS16, and by correlation with in situ tills along the Norfolk coast (Lee,2001), the Happisburgh and Corton Till facies of the HappisburghFormation are attributed to MIS 16.

There is a weakness in this argument in that glaciofluvialdeposition in the region of Leet Hill could have created a ‘complexresponse-style’ terrace. This possibility that has been considered,but is rejected because the sediment containing the erratic clasts istypically a subaerial river deposit (for detailed lithological descrip-tion see Rose et al. (1999) and Lee et al. (2004a,b, 2008) with a flowdirection along the valley. The overlying Leet Hill Sands and Gravelsare, however outwash and indeed constitute the complex responsecomponent of the landscape with a drainage- and aggradation-pattern determined by the glaciofluvial meltwater.

By comparison with the ice volume curve for the early MiddlePleistocene (Shackleton and Opdyke, 1976; Funnell, 1995; Bintanjaet al., 2005; and see Clark et al., 2006 for an elaboration of the topic)(Figs. 2, 4 and 14), MIS 16 is a period in which glacier volumes wereexceptionally large. This is not direct evidence that the British IceSheet was also exceptionally large at this time, but equally there is

no reason why the British Ice Sheet should be anomalous. It isconsidered that the global ice volume signal gives a sound contextfor an expansion of the British ice sheet to lowland easternEngland. However, this evidence is not part of the reasoning forproposing an MIS 16 glaciation, but it is complementary support.

Additional evidence for a pre-MIS 12 glaciation in East Anglia isto be found in the Norwich area (Read et al., 2007) where WroxhamCrag with marine fauna is found between the sandy and chalkytills, which are correlated, respectively with the Happisburgh (MIS16) and Lowestoft (MIS 12) tills. Unpublished evidence also existsfrom Fakenham Magna in the Bury St. Edmunds area wheretemperate-climate soil structures have been found in the upperpart of the sandy till and do not exist in the overlying chalky tillindicating a period of soil formation in an interval between the twotills. At another site (Culford) in the same area a palaeosol has beenfound between the two sets of glacial deposits and there is a recordof a human artefact at the stratigraphic position of the soil (Wymer,1985). The most convincing evidence however is at Pakefield nearLowestoft (Lee et al., 2006) where shallow marine sediments existbetween glaciofluvial deposits of the Happisburgh Glaciation andchalky till of the Lowestoft Glaciation.

The conclusion that is derived from the above is that lowlandeastern England was glaciated before MIS 12 and the evidence


indicates that this was most likely in MIS 16. This conclusion iscontradicted by high quality work using AAR dating (Preece et al.,in press) and First and Last Appearance biostratigraphy (Preece andParfitt, 2000, 2008). Clearly a problem exists and some of theinterpretations given above will need revision. At present it isdifficult to say which, and further work is required. Theimplications for ‘major landscape change’ are significant as themulti-glacial model suggests that the changes occurred over arelatively long period of time, with the first changes and possiblealteration of the Ancaster River in MIS 16 and the main changeswith the erosion of the Wash and Fen Basin, the termination offormation of the Southern North Sea Delta and the formation of theStrait of Dover in MIS 12. The single-glacial model suggests that alloccurred in MIS 12. Either way, these changes illustrate the powerof glaciers in fundamentally changing the form and dynamics ofthe landscape of eastern England.

7. Glacial/interglacial cycles

Following the first lowland glaciation (whatever its age),Britain, literally entered a period of glacial-interglacial cycles withpowerful physically-driven processes operating in the periods ofcold climate (glacials, essentially the even number MIS stages andMIS 3), and relatively low rates of landscape change, dominated bybiological and chemical processes, in the cool temperate periods(interglacials, odd number MIS stages except MIS 3).

7.1. The temperate episodes

Eastern and midland England has been the source of aremarkable number of detailed and highly informative paperson temperate climate conditions during the Quaternary (Jones andKeen, 1993), and to a large extent the significance of these wasintegrated into a ‘forest history’ in West (1980b). These papersused numerous proxies to determine the nature of the environ-ment and climate, and whenever possible the sites were subject todating using whatever methods were available. Nevertheless,despite the attempts of West (1980b) to integrate this evidence,little progress has been made in resolving the palaeoecology of thepre-Holocene temperate stages, primarily because of the attemptto use the evidence for stratigraphy rather than ecology.

In recent years a number of site studies have attempted toevaluate the integrated palaeo-biogeography in a wider geogra-phical and ecological context (see, for example: Preece et al., 2007)using, as far as possible, independent dating methods to establishthe time framework and working with a wide range of biologicalproxies. However, there is as yet no region-wide integration of thistype of information for temperate stages of the Early or MiddlePleistocene of Britain. Despite the fact that biological processeslargely dominated landscape change during the temperateepisodes, it is impossible to describe the regional biogeographyof individual temperate episodes to the level of landscapemosaics. This is largely due to the practice, hitherto, of correlatinglike-with-like pollen assemblages and ascribing them to aparticular temperate episode, thus invoking a circular argument(Thomas, 2001). However, this will remain the case until suitable,relatively fine resolution, independent dating methods areavailable. Currently, for the Middle Pleistocene, the work onamino-acid racemisation (AAR) by Preece and Penkman (2005)and Penkman et al. (2008), appears to offer the best potential forcorrelation, but even this can only be resolved to stages and somelate Middle Pleistocene substages. Until methods of refiningcorrelations to instantaneous points in time, such as bytephrochronology, or deriving a very fine resolution chronology(possibly by linking laminated sediments to U-Series agedeterminations), it will not be possible to understand the details

of migration, colonisation and ecological mosaics for the Early andMiddle Pleistocene.

In view of the problems outlined above I will give little attentionto landscape change during temperate periods of the late MiddlePleistocene. At the present time it is very difficult to correlate onesite with another with confidence (especially from the CromerForest-bed). To compound this problem, very little quantitativeinformation exists about the climate of theses temperate episodes.The recent papers by Coope (1992, 2001, 2006), Candy et al. (2006),Candy (2009), Candy and Schreve (2007) and Preece et al. (2007)provide valuable new information and are important markers forthe future.

For the purpose of this paper it is essential to understand thatthe temperate episodes of the Early and Middle Pleistocene ineastern England were dominated by relatively abundant biomass,both in the form of plants and animals, and these varied accordingto soil type, drainage and slope stability, and the duration of thevegetation development (West, 1980b; Stuart, 1982; Stuart andLister, 2001; Schreve, 2001b). The abundant biomass wassignificant for physical processes in that it dampened downhydrological processes and enhanced the rates of chemicalweathering and the development of deep, fine-grained soils. Thepresence of fauna was important, locally at least, in turning-oversoils and leading to the entrainment of materials from the hillside,floodplain and channel. Temperate episodes are also, in this region,the periods of high sea-level (Table 2), although temperate climatecoastal deposits are relatively rare, probably because of reworkingand low survival potential, and the distribution of the largestextent of temperate climate estuarine deposits is determinedeither by glacial preservation (in the case of the estuarine parts ofthe Cromer Forest-bed) and the creation of extensive low relief byglaciers (in the case of the Nar Valley Beds and other marinedeposits in the Fen Basin).

7.2. The cold episodes

For the Middle Pleistocene, the original model of glaciationconsisted of two lowland glacier expansions over northern EastAnglia (West and Donner, 1956; Banham, 1968, 1988; West,1977; Mitchell et al., 1973; Shotton, 1983; Straw, 1983)(Table 3). These glaciations were known as the AnglianGlaciation and the Wolstonian (Fig. 15A). As a result of detailedlithological and statistical work in midland and eastern Englandthe glacial history was revised with the proposal that there wasonly one Middle Pleistocene glaciation in that region and thatglaciation occurred during the Anglian Stage (Perrin et al., 1979;Sumbler, 1983) (Fig. 15B). This interpretation was reinforcedwith the recognition that some of the Wolstonian glacialdeposits were ‘preglacial’ Bytham River deposits (Rose, 1987).This Anglian Glaciation was attributed to Scottish and Scandi-navian ice streams that converged in the area of northeast EastAnglia with interdigitation of the deposits around the margins ofthe convergence zone (Perrin et al., 1979; Hart and Boulton,1991) (Fig. 13, Table 3). Subsequent work on the glacial depositsacross the region led to a revision of this scheme resulting in atwo phase glaciation similar to that of West and Donner (1956)(Rose, 1992) (Fig. 16), although maintaining the view that thethese two ice flow directions were part of the same Anglian ageglacial event (see Rose, 1989c for a review of this evidence). Thisscheme, in principle, persisted until Hamblin et al. (2000, 2005)presented the case that there had been multiple MiddlePleistocene glaciations and that these glaciation could be linkedto MIS 16, 12, 10 and 6 (Table 3). Fig. 17 shows the proposedextent of ice cover during the different stages and Fig. 18provides a schematic arrangement of the glacial deposits thatunderpin the revised interpretation.

Table 3Correlation of schemes for the glacial succession of northeast East Anglia and Midland England.

The possible Marine Isotope Stage for the respective glacial events is given.


In their revised model, Hamblin et al. (2000, 2005) presented acase for four glacial expansions across northern East Anglia duringthe Middle Pleistocene (Fig. 17, Table 3). The reasoning for theseextra glaciations has been explained in part in the text above, butthe important point to make is that all the proposals were based onnew observations and not just re-interpretations of the existing

Fig. 15. The traditional models of glaciation of the British Isles. (A) From West (1977) sho

et al. (1986) one major Middle Pleistocene glaciation (Anglian) and a tentative suggest

evidence. The links to the MIS stratigraphy was based on the mostlikely forcing control, supported by the terrace stratigraphy of theriver systems of midland England and the Thames.

This alternative Middle Pleistocene glacial history, with themain reasons for the case is given below, starting with theearliest glaciation. This work is ongoing, and the recent

wing two Middle Pleistocene glaciations (Anglian and Wolstonian). (B) From Bowen

ion for additional Middle Pleistocene glaciations (Weltonian, Paviland).

Fig. 16. A development of the traditional one stage model of Middle Pleistocene

glaciation. (A) Main ice flow directions during the earlier stages of Anglian

Glaciation; (B) Main ice flow pattern during the main stage of Anglian Glaciation.

Taken from Rose (1992), with modifications.


luminescence dating study by Pawley et al. (2008) does notsupport the case for MIS 10 glaciation, and the AAR work ofPreece et al. (in press) does not support the case for an MIS 16glaciation. Nevertheless, the new observations do exist, andneed consideration along with the dating results presented inPawley et al. (2008) and Preece et al. (in press).

7.2.1. Happisburgh glaciation—MIS 16

Much of the evidence for this has been outlined, but the mainreasons are the identification of a separate sandy till (Happisburghand Corton Tills) beneath the chalky till. This is correlated with theThird Aggradation of the Bytham River and the till is separatedfrom the overlying chalky till by marine deposits south of Norwich

Fig. 17. Inferred glacial limits and ice flow paths for four Middle Pleistocene Glaciations

(Read et al., 2007) and by temperate climate soil features at other(unpublished) sites near Bury St. Edmunds. The presence of rocksand palynomorphs that could only have come from northernEngland provides new evidence that this till was deposited by icethat originated in Scotland, and not Scandinavia as previouslyproposed and the ice flow path to the site was from the north (Leeet al., 2004a,b) (Fig. 17).

7.2.2. Anglian glaciation—MIS 12

This glaciation is represented by the oldest yet known glacialdeposit in midland England—a Trias-rich till (Thrussington Till)and the dark-grey chalk-free till of Leicestershire, Northampton-shire and Buckinghamshire, and the chalky till (Lowestoft Till(part) and Walcott Till) in East Anglia. Originally the age wasderived from relationship to the biostratigraphy, and is nowderived from the relationship to the aggradations of the LowerThames (Gibbard, 1977; Bridgland, 1994) and independent datingmethods (Bowen, 1999a,b; Pawley et al., 2008; Preece et al., inpress). The ice source was from the northwest and northernEngland and the ice flow path through East Anglia was west-southwest to east-northeast in northern East Anglia, and north-west to southeast in southern East Anglia.

7.2.3. Oadby glaciation—MIS 10

This glaciation is represented by the chalky till of midlandEngland (Oadby Till) and the chalky till of part of East Anglia(Lowestoft Till (part)). In northeast East Anglia it is represented bythe sandy Bacton Green Till. The age of this deposit is derived fromthe relationship of the Oadby Till to the aggradations of the UpperThames (Sumbler, 1995, 2001), and the number of aggradations inthe catchments of Midland England formed after this till wasdeposited (one less than in the Lower Thames) (Keen, 1999). Theposition of the southern margin in the Oxford region is determinedby the limit of glacial deposits, but in the east the limit is notknown as the till lithology in that region is very similar to the tilllithology of the earlier Anglian glaciation. This means that both arechalky tills, but there are potential differences and this is an issuesuitable for further investigation, in order to try to resolve some ofthe issues created by the different models of glaciation for easternEngland. This glaciation is the ‘Wolstonian’ glaciation of Shotton(1983) although for different reasons. The Chalky Till at Wolston isthe Oadby Till. The ice source is from northern Britain and it wasthis glaciation that flowed through and extended the low reliefof the Wash and Fen Basin. Erosion of the Chalk on the area that isnow the North Sea, east of the Lincolnshire coast, determines thechalk content and erosion of the Mesozoic mudrocks of Wash and

in East Anglia. Taken from Hamblin et al. (2005), Netherlands Journal of Geosciences.

Fig. 18. Representation of the distribution of lithologies that underpin the new model of glaciation for eastern and midland England. This scheme assumes four glaciations as

shown in Fig. 17. The first three glaciations are interpreted as being sourced in Scotland—these deposited the Lower sandy till, The mixed Triassic, Pennine and Jurassic tills,

the Triassic, Pennine and Jurassic tills, the Jurassic Chalky tills and the Chalky tills. The Very Chalky till and very coarse gravel and the Upper sandy till are attributed to a

Scottish and Scandinavian ice source. The cross section is designed to show the schematic arrangement of the glaciogenic units. The vertical scale is greatly exaggerated to

make these relationships clear. Colour is not used on the map because of overlaying till units. The different till on the map are shown by the symbols, which are also shown on

the cross section.


Fen Basin determines the clay content. The sandy Bacton Green Tillin northeast Norfolk represents a sandy facies due to the erosion ofthe ‘preglacial sands’ north of this part of the Norfolk coast, aproperty noted by Harmer as long ago as 1909.

A hitherto unpublished organic deposit and palaeosol has beenfound between the chalk-free and chalky till at Clipsham inRutland.

The Anglian and Oadby glaciations as proposed here dismemberthe single Anglian Glaciation of Perrin et al. (1979) and, in effect,

return to the Lowestoft and Gipping glaciations of West andDonner (1956) for which Fig. 15A (West, 1977) may be areasonable approximation!

7.2.4. Tottenhill glaciation—MIS 6

This glaciation is represented by a sand and gravel deposits atTottenhill near King’s Lynn which are interpreted as the outwashplain of a glacier that entered the Wash and Fen Basin after it hadbeen eroded in MIS 10 and variably filled with temperate climate

Fig. 19. Examples of struck flakes from early Middle Pleistocene river deposits

(Hengrave and Pakefield). All these drawings were by the late John Wymer. The

flake from Hengrave is from Rose and Wymer (1994), Proceedings of the Suffolk

Institute of Archaeology and History, and the flakes from Pakefield are from Parfitt

et al. (2005), Nature.

Fig. 20. A drawing of the handaxe from Happisburgh I by John Wymer. This site is

described in detail along with a photograph of the same handaxe in Ashton et al.

(2008).


marine sediments (West and Whiteman, 1986). The age of thisglaciation in derived from the stratigraphy at Tottenhill (Gibbardet al., 1992) where glaciogenic sediments overlie an organicdeposit dated to MIS 9 (Rowe et al., 1997) and there is evidence ofjust one temperate episode prior to the Holocene developed in thesoil microstratigraphy, formed at the top of the glaciogenicdeposits (Lewis and Rose, 1991). OSL ages recently determinedby Steven Pawley also confirm this age (pers. comm.). Previously,sediments at Briton’s Lane near Sheringham in north Norfolk, witha relative abundance of Scandinavian-sourced erratics (Pawleyet al., 2004, 2005; Hamlin et al., 2005) had been considered to be ofMIS 6 age, but this has not been verified by OSL dating (Pawleyet al., 2008).

Also associated with this glaciation is the Cromer Ridge,associated outwash fans and esker. As discussed above theseelements of the landscape retain traces of glacially constructedtopography, and in this respect they are unique in Britain beyond thelimit of the MIS 2 glaciation. While this is a type of morphostrati-graphic interpretation has lost favour for very good reasons, there isno other reason than age as to why these landforms should retainglaciogenic topography and in this respect they are like thedegraded, but recognisable constructional topography of theNetherlands and Northern Germany. This constructional topogra-phy is attributed to MIS 6 by a number stratigraphic and datingmethods (Vandenberghe et al., 1993; Maarleveld, 1983; Meyer,1983), and hence the Cromer Moraine is correlated with the Saalianmoraines of northern Europe. Also associated with this glaciation arethe scattered and highly variable glaciogenic deposits in northwestNorfolk including fragments of very chalky till and the ‘cannonshotgravels’ (West, 1991). All of these deposits rest upon a landscape thathas been dissected by river erosion since the deposition of the chalkytill. However, this explanation is very tentative indeed, and is simplyplaced here for the record.

The name ‘Tottenhill Glaciation’ is used in this paper in theabsence of any other suitable term. The site at Tottenhill has been thesubject of a number of informative studies (West and Whiteman,1986; Lewis and Rose, 1991; Gibbard et al., 1992; Rowe et al., 1997)and is the subject of ongoing stratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental anddating work by Steven Pawley. It would therefore seem to be asuitable locality for the designation of a type site.

There is, so far, no evidence for an MIS 8 glaciation in easternEngland.

8. Human occupance

The nature of human occupance in eastern England in the lateMiddle Pleistocene (MIS 12–6) is well known (Wymer, 1985), andthe archaeology from sites such as Hoxne (Singer et al., 1993),Clacton (Singer et al., 1973), and Barnham (Ashton et al., 1998)represent major contributions to the understanding of humans innorthern Europe. Consideration of this topic is beyond the scope ofthis paper, but an issue that has received considerable attentionrecently is the recognition that Humans existed in Britainsubstantially earlier than had previously been believed (Stringer,2006). Traditionally, the site at Boxgrove had been seen as theevidence for the earliest evidence for Humans on the British landarea (Roberts et al., 1994), around 500 ka, but there is nowsubstantial evidence that humans were in East Anglia around thesame time (Ashton et al., 1992) and indeed earlier (c. 750,000 andpossibly earlier) (Rose and Wymer, 1994; Parfitt et al., 2005, 2006).Wymer (1985) also records a large number of sites that are nowrecognised as from this earlier pre-MIS 12 period.

The type of evidence for earliest humans consists of flakes(Hengrave, Pakefield, Fig. 19) and hand axes (Happisburgh, Fig. 20).Supporting evidence also takes the form of butchered bone atHappisburgh (Parfitt, 2006). The abundance of sites is illustrated by

their record on Fig. 21, to which further sites will be added as aresult of work in progress. It can be seen that sites are concentratedpredominantly along the Bytham River sediment track and thelower part of the Ancaster river catchment. Sites such asHappisburgh (Ashton et al., 2008), High Lodge (Ashton et al.,1992) and Pakefield (Parfitt et al., 2005) are of outstandingimportance because they reflect the landscape in which thehominins lived and these sites are associated with abundantproxies of environment and climate. At the other sites thearchaeology is part of the sediment, and the artefacts are simplytransported clasts that have been deposited by the river amongstthe other bedload. These sites tell us that hominins had existedbefore the material was deposited, but little more.

Fig. 21. The Bytham and Ancaster river systems with sites mentioned in the text and sites that have evidence of archaeology.


At present the evidence indicates that hominins lived in alandscape that was well vegetated and experienced both cool andwarm temperate-style climates (Coope, 2006; Parfitt et al., 2005;Candy et al., 2006; Candy, 2009). Age estimates for the earliesthumans, based on FAD/LAD biostratigraphy and river aggradationchronology show that they lived on the British land area in theearly Middle Pleistocene during MIS 19/17, 15 and 13, and thathumans must have lived in the landscape prior-to or during MIS19/17, 15, and 13.

A point of considerable relevance to understanding the land-scape of eastern England is the reason why these sites survive inBritain and not elsewhere in northern Europe. The reason is thatthey are preserved beneath glacial deposits.

The critical question that needs asking is why the glaciers failedto erode this landscape, as is usually the case. The fact that theburied Valley Farm and Barham Soils exist throughout East Anglia(Rose et al., 1976, 1999; Kemp, 1985a,b) provides abundantevidence that the glaciers did not erode the landscape they over-rode. The explanation has to be found in the subglacial processesoperating at the base of the glacier, and the only reasonableexplanation that can be proposed is that the sites were locked in‘rock-hard’ permafrost when the were over-ridden, combined withthe fact that there must have been very high pore-water oratmospheric pressures at the base of the glacier after the over-riding had taken place. The presence of permafrost at the time ofthe Anglian Glaciation is well documented (Rose et al., 1985a) andthere may be similar evidence for permafrost in the landscape priorto the Happisburgh Glaciation (Whiteman, 2002). The existence ofthe high porewater or atmospheric pressures is less easy todemonstrate, but it may be explained if the glacier margin becamefrozen due to the extreme atmospheric cold of the localenvironment, and trapped in either air or water that decoupledthe moving ice from the bed/land-surface. However, this modeldoes not explain why the frozen margin did not disrupt the surfaceas the glacier moved forward, unless the ice continued to shearacross its frozen base, which remained attached to the land-surface. In other parts of East Anglia there is considerable erosion,sometimes regional as in the region of what is now the Wash and

Fen Basin, and sometimes local as with the tunnel-valleys erodedby subglacial meltwater rivers (Woodland, 1970). In contrast toBritain much of the European landscape has been altered by themore extensive MIS 6 glaciation which eroded-out massive ice-tongue basins and formed massive push moraine ridges.

9. Conclusions: the main elements of landscape change and thedriving forces for Early and Middle Pleistocene landscapedevelopment

This narrative of landscape change, uplift and subsidence,shallow marine and river activity, glaciation, periglaciation andvariable biomass distributions needs an explanation. This can befound in terms of two driving forces: tectonics and climate(humans only become a significant factor in the Holocene).

Tectonics leave a mark in the Early and early Middle Pleistocenein the form of basin and ridge development and uplift andsubsidence. This signal is best developed in the Early Pleistocene, afactor almost entirely due to the duration of the period and theabsence of powerful surface processes to degrade the landscapeand obscure the tectonically generated form. In the early MiddlePleistocene there is also evidence of faulting, basins and ridges, butthis is obscured in most places by the effects of surface processesand the only significant features to develop are the uplifted riveraggradations increasing in magnitude from negligible at the coastto c. 50 m in the middle part of the Bytham River catchment.

Climate is the primary driving force of landscape change, andbecause the climatic patterns have changed over the Early andMiddle Pleistocene the landscape developed is different atdifferent times. The Early Pleistocene is dominated by c. 40 kaobliquity forcing, but retains also a 22 ka precession signal frompre-Pleistocene time. The low amplitude and high frequencyprecession cycles force small changes within an equable climaticrange and therefore generate low physical energy levels andminimal physical work other than wave and current action alongthe coasts. Chemical and biological processes at this time are, incontrast, important, so that although coarse-grained materialswere essentially local, fine-grained materials were washed from


deep chemically weathered soils into the rivers and the marinesystem and they survive today as North Sea bottom sediments. Onthe land, only shallow marine sediments survive to any extent andthese are relatively simple in their form and lithology, andextensive in character.

The succeeding obliquity-driven system was characterised by awider climate range and longer timescales over which distinctiveclimate types could operate. This forcing led to the development ofmuch more powerful physical processes with, over at least parts ofcold periods, permafrost and periglacial processes operatingthroughout the landscape, and glaciation operating in the westernmountain ranges. River activity was dominant and effective withsufficient energy to entrain and transport vast quantities of coarse-grained material through the large catchments that existed at thistime. This material was either stored in the lower parts of thecatchment or deposited in the coastal zone to become the sedimentsupply for the shallow marine processes. Temperate climateepisodes continued to be dominated by biological and chemicalprocesses, but local relief-driven activity was, by this time,sufficiently important to entrain and transport sand-size materialthat constitutes the bulk of surviving Early and early MiddlePleistocene temperate climate sediments (although dark organicmaterial may appear to be dominant). River and coastal sedimentsdominate this period of the late Early and early Middle Pleistoceneand the sediment bodies are well organised and, before subsequentdissection, very extensive.

The impact of eccentricity-forcing upon the climate system hasa marked effect. Periods, sometimes quite long, of extreme coldresulted in lowland glaciation and the power of glaciers resulted inmajor changes in topography and the introduction of extensiveglacial and periglacial diamictons over the landscape. Majorchanges of relief with new, steep slopes also introduced relief-driven processes caused by out-of-equilibrium antecedent topo-graphy and the development of paraglacial activity. These highlycomplex landform and sediment systems then forced the activityof slope, soil, river and coastal processes so further complexitieswere developed and the whole surface system is characterised byinitially small sediment bodies, high levels of fragmentation, and avery wide-range of process related materials. These propertiescharacterize the late Middle Pleistocene through to the present dayalthough with time following glaciation the landscape has becomeprogressively better organised.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all those who have contributed to thiswork over many years, either as research colleagues in the field oras research colleagues who have challenged and debated the ideasoutlined in this paper: Peter Allen, Nick Ashton, Rene Barendregt,Steve Booth, Becky Briant, David Bridgland, Ian Candy, HilaryDavies, Zoe Gammage, Richard Hamblin, Richard Hey, Roger Jacobi,Caroline Juby, Rob Kemp, Jerry Lee, Jon Lee, Mark Lewis, SimonLewis, Tony Morigi, Brian Moorlock, Simon Parfitt, Adrian Palmer,Simon Parfitt, Steven Pawley, Bob Perrin, Richard Preece, GlynisRead, Pete Riches, Danielle Schreve, the late Nick Shackleton,Barbara Silva, Mark Stephens, Richard West, Colin Whiteman, andthe late John Wymer. I would also like to thank Peter Allen and IanCandy for reading through this paper and giving me considerablewise advice.

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early and middle pleistocene landscapes of eastern england

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