A study of dells in the new forest, Hampshire, England

Abstract

AbstractDells in the New Forest are described as amphitheatre‐shaped hollows, perched on valley sides, sometimes singly, in other places in groups tributary to small dry valleys. They have steep rear walls and sides, flatfish floors, and convex lips, usually without any water‐worn channels. The slopes on which they occur, cut in Eocene sands and clays, have been subjected to solifluction, and this has produced wide gently sloping terraces at the foot of the hillside. Superficial deposits within the New Forest dells are divided into two groups by process: a lower head of fragmented flints in a sandy or clayey matrix, assigned to Zone III; overlying colluvial deposits including slumped material and slope wash, dated by reference to a buried soil to Zone VIIa. Although scoured by solifluction, other processes probably account for the initial formation of the hollows, and nivation is suggested. The dells are compared with the chalk coombes of southern England and the dellen of European and other writers. A possible chronology is suggested for the New Forest dells.