Re-interpretation of Devensian Till stratigraphy of eastern England

Abstract

THE current reconstruction of the Devensian Till stratigraphy of Holderness1 invokes three units—the Drab, Purple and Hessle Tills—with the Hessle overlapping both lower tills so as to be the only one present in the westernmost part of the area, on the Yorkshire Wolds. Because of the characteristic reddish brown colours (usually 5YR4/4 of the Munsell Soil Colour Charts, 1954) of the uppermost tills throughout eastern England, the upper till in Lincolnshire and the Hunstanton Till of north Norfolk are equated usually with the Hessle Till1–5, although Straw6 correlated his two Marsh Tills in Lincolnshire with the Drab and Purple Tills of Holderness, and Bisat7 equated the Hessle Till of the Yorkshire Wolds with his Middle Drab division.