Mesolithic Sites of the North East Coast of England

Abstract

For a distance of four miles north of Newbiggin-on-Sea, Northumberland, the coast presents a stretch of low cliffs and headlands of sandstone, alternating with shallow bays flanked by sand-dunes, the dunes usually resting visibly on a low boulder clay cliff, not usually rising more than 20 ft. above high tide level. The river Lyne reaches the coast now about two miles north of Newbiggin, at Lyne Sands, but in preglacial and early post-glacial time, entered the sea at Newbiggin bay. The old course of the river is occupied by the “Carrs,” a strip of swampy peat, proved at several places by boring, to reach a depth of over twenty feet and to be underlain by river gravel on boulder clay. The basal layers of the peat are proved by pollen analysis to be of latest Boreal age. Between this old channel and the sea, lies Newbiggin Moor, between 30 ft. and 50 ft. OD. a wide stretch of sandstone covered by thin soil, and occasional peat and blown sand. In early Boreal time this would be a headland prolonged southward between the sea on the east and the river Lyne on the west. At a subsequent period the Lyne has broken through its present course to the sea, north of Lyne Sands. The foreshore is made up by a wide stretch of sandstone, flats and skerries overlain by boulder clay, making the low cliff in the southern part, with sand dunes resting directly on the clay. Northward the sandstone gradually rises and towards Cresswell Point makes the whole cliff, with only a thin boulder clay cover on top.