POST‐GLACIAL DEPOSITS IN SOUTH YORKSHIRE AND NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE

Abstract

SummaryThe stratigraphy and pollen analysis of Hatfield Moors, Yorkshire, about ten miles south of Goole, are described. These moors are the residue of an old raised bog which lies on the Triassic sandstones and has no underlying deposits indicative of an initial phase of reed‐swamp. The bog, which has at least four flooding horizons, began to grow in early Atlantic times. Early agricultural practices are revealed by the pollen analyses at the opening of Sub‐boreal times, and at the same time small amounts of charcoal are found in the peat. Agricultural activity increased at the beginning of Sub‐atlantic times, but was afterwards curtailed. It is suggested by comparison with a site at South Ferriby in the Ancholme Valley, Lincolnshire, that this curtailment may well date from the end of Romano‐British times.The stratigraphy and archaeology at Island Carr, Brigg, in the Ancholme Valley are brought together, and a correlation is made between the Bronze Age‐Iron Age transition; the opening of Sub‐atlantic times; and the onset of a marine transgression of the Ancholme Valley. This transgression occurs during a period of relative emergence in the East Anglian Fenland and it is possible that differential isostatic or tectonic movements have taken place between the two areas during the later part of the post‐glacial period. The possibility of the presence of offshore bars, however, complicates the problem. The transgression is also manifested at Redbourne Hayes, a site some five miles to the south of Brigg where the maximum of the transgression is shown, at a rather later date. The peat overlying the transgression clay at Redbourne Hayes probably dates from Romano‐British times and is—perhaps within rather wide limits—contemporaneous with the upper organic deposits at South Ferriby (where Romano‐British remains were found in situ) at Weston Road, Goole, and at Ingoldmells on the Lincolnshire coast.A reassessment is made of the dating of the site at Ingoldmells in which it appears that the deposits are more comparable with those of the Humber region than with those of the Fenland.