A Peat Deposit at Stokesley

Abstract

On this occasion of the meeting of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society at Stokesley, it has seemed to me to be fitting to bring briefly before you a notice of a Post-glacial Peat Deposit or Forest Bed which occurs in the immediate vicinity of our place of meeting, and of which, so far as I know, no record has previously been made public. In the autumn of 1892, Mr. Henry Fawcett, Head Master of the Preston Grammar School, Stokesley, called my attention to a section exposed in digging a tank in the garden adjoining his house, some few yards east of the river Leven. After passing through 5 ft. 6 in. of surface soil and alluvial matter a thickness of 1 ft. 6 in. of fine clay was met with, and immediately below this occurred a peaty deposit, the depth of which was not ascertained. Subsequently Mr. Fawcett and I gained further information regarding this bed of peat. Some years previously, when the late Canon Bruce was rector of Stokesley, he made an attempt to sink a well near the rectory, which is on the same side of the stream. The same bed of peat was then reached. The water which came up smelled so offensively that the well had to be filled in again immediately. But before doing this the workmen thrust an iron rod into it to the depth of 12 ft. At a depth of 9 ft. from the surface they met with leaves and twigs ...