Distribution of late Pleistocene aeolian deposits in eastern and southern England

Abstract

THERE has been much recent interest in the possible existence of widespread aeolian deposits in Britain. In southern England brickearths at Pegwell Bay1–3 (TR36) and elsewhere4 have been interpreted, although without mineralogical confirmation, as extensions of European loess. Silt, in excess of that which could be derived from weathering of the substrata and generally considered loessial, is found in many British soils5–10 but it is not ubiquitous. For example, although it occurs in soils on Chalky Boulder Clay in Essex11, on the same till in central East Anglia and on the Chalk of the Breckland and north-west Norfolk it is replaced by sand.