The Kitchen Midden Site at Westward Ho!, Devon, England: ecology, age, and relation to changes in land and sea level

Abstract

The occurrence of submerged forests in places along the British coast has long attracted attention, and led to speculation on the relative displacement in land and sea levels that enabled such forests to grow. Many of these forest beds are only visible between high and low water of the spring tides; others, not so readily seen, are known to occur in beds to a depth 60 feet below present sea level. The melting of the ice sheets after the last glaciation and the consequent rise of sea level accounts for the submergence of many of these forest beds, although the actual height at which they are found, may be affected by displacement from the contemporary level by subsequent compaction of sediments and tectonic movement. The submerged forest at Westward Ho! rests on consolidated sediments and is not subject to change in level due to compaction. The tectonic factor is discussed in relation to analogous deposits of comparable age elsewhere in southern Britain.The presence of the submerged forest in Bideford Bay (Barnstaple Bay) at Westward Ho!, was recorded in a survey published by De la Beche in 1839, and in 1866 Ellis called attention to the presence of flints in the submerged forest bed. The peat was found in patches between a pebble ridge and low water mark and in places for about 200 yards along the beach.