On the extent of the Last Glaciation in eastern England

Abstract

From pollen analysis of a Late-glacial deposit in east Lincolnshire, it is inferred that the earliest sedimentation in a depression in boulder clay immediately followed melting of the ice. Radiocarbon age determination confirms the Late-glacial age. The boulder clay is the Hessle Boulder Clay of Lincolnshire, and the correlation of this with the Hessle Boulder Clay of Holderness and with the Hunstanton Brown Boulder Clay of north Norfolk is accepted. The evidence from the Late-glacial site, from the stratigraphical position of the boulder clay, and from the topographical form of the boulder clay, all point to the Last Glaciation ice having extended south of the Humber as far as north Norfolk, with a lobe pushing into the Wash. This conclusion reasserts the traditional southern limit of Last Glaciation ice in eastern England, on which doubt had recently been cast by various authors on topo­graphical inference alone. The pollen analysis has been made more accurate by the introduction of a method of correcting for derived pollen, using derived Carboniferous and Mesozoic spores as a control. Significant errors in the radiocarbon age determination are shown to be caused even in peat by derived carbonaceous material from the boulder clay.