Thames Valley Research Articles

Linear snowfall trails during freezing fog in South East England, 23 January 2023: evidence for anthropogenic snowfall

AbstractAnthropogenic (industrial) snowfalls in the UK have hitherto been regarded as rare and extremely localised. This article analyses the distribution and possible causes of three ‘stripes’ of anthropogenic snow extending up to 10 km from the vicinity of London’s Heathrow airport on 23 January 2023. The early morning had been exceptionally cold at the airport, partly due to the relatively late arrival of freezing fog compared to other parts of the lower Thames valley. This is likely to have facilitated the formation of the snowfall by means of ice nuclei.

Is the tilt of the Thames valley towards the east caused by a distal lobe of the Icelandic mantle plume?

Over the last 30 years, a growing body of research has shown that first-order control of the elevation of Earth's surface is exercised by thermal anomalies in the upper asthenosphere. One line of research is to test models and observations of mantle behaviour against the sedimentary record. A second line of research is to use the sedimentary record to further understanding of mantle behaviour. Here this second line of research is adopted: a particular hypothesis of mantle behaviour is tested against the Quaternary sedimentary record of the Thames valley, England. Schoonman et al. (2017) have proposed that a warm finger of mantle material extending from the Icelandic plume underlies southern England at the present day. That warm finger would represent the distal end of the influence of the Icelandic plume in this area, and would have advanced broadly from west to east, causing a progressive tilt of the surface of the Thames valley towards the east. The warm-finger hypothesis is supported by the evidence reviewed here. That evidence consists of two main sets of observations, both sets established beyond reasonable doubt by many researchers over many years. First, there is the progressive increase in elevation westward from the present-day coast of the North Sea of the 2.5–2 Ma shallow-marine Red and Norwich Crags. Second, there is the subsequent Quaternary record of progressive eastward tilting of the Thames valley shown in the river terraces.

Corrigendum

Oxford Journal of ArchaeologyVolume 41, Issue 3 p. 347-348 CorrigendumFree Access Corrigendum This article corrects the following: UNUSUAL DEPOSITION ON BRONZE AGE AND IRON AGE SETTLEMENTS AND HILLFORTS IN THE UPPER AND MIDDLE THAMES VALLEY Alex Davies, Volume 41Issue 1Oxford Journal of Archaeology pages: 63-84 First Published online: February 16, 2022 First published: 06 June 2022 https://doi.org/10.1111/ojoa.12252AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat In the following article,1 Figures 4, 5 and 8 need updating. The correct Figures are as follow: FIGURE 4Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Types of notable deposits. FIGURE 5Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Number of object categories in notable deposits. FIGURE 8Open in figure viewerPowerPoint Association between houses and notable deposits. (a) Percent of notable deposits associated with a house, (b) Percent of houses associated with a notable deposit. We apologise for the error. REFERENCE Davies, A. 2022: Unusual deposition on Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements and hillforts in the upper and middle Thames Valley. Oxford Journal of Archaeology, 41, 63– 84. Wiley Online LibraryWeb of Science®Google Scholar Volume41, Issue3August 2022Pages 347-348 FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation

Sites of Power and Assembly in the Thames Valley in the Middle Ages

This article examines three sites of elite and royal power in the early second millennium AD in the Thames valley: Kingston upon Thames in Greater London, Westminster in the City of London, and Runnymede in Surrey. Using a backdrop of comparative material from medieval Scandinavia, these sites are examined in terms of their landscape qualities, particularly their liminal nature. On this basis, it is shown that they demonstrate attributes and features that are frequently connected to assembly sites. It is therefore argued that these sites may well, earlier in time, have been assembly locations that were consciously adopted and developed as royal ritual sites as part of the legitimising process of power.

Phase II randomised controlled trial of a 6-month self-managed community exercise programme for people with Parkinson's disease

BackgroundEvidence for longer term exercise delivery for people with Parkinson's disease (PwP) is deficient.AimEvaluate safety and adherence to a minimally supported community exercise intervention and estimate effect sizes (ES).Methods2-arm parallel...

The winter storms of 2013/2014 in the UK: hydrological responses and impacts

This paper outlines the hydrological aspects of the 2013/2014 winter flooding in the UK, as well as the impacts. The episode is considered in a long-term historical context and wider issues raised by the flood events are discussed briefly.

Editorial: The UK storms of winter 2013/2014

Editorial: The <scp>UK</scp> storms of winter 2013/2014

Multi-proxy Palaeo-environmental and Topographic Landscape Reconstruction in East London

Small and large scale projects have provided high resolution, site specific palaeoenvironmental evidence that needs integrating and placing into a wider environmental context for floodplain development and changing Early Holocene climate in the Thames valley. This has been attempted with a number of regional models for the Lower Thames Valley. However, these broad models need more site specific landscape studies in order to refine the regional resolution of the models and to accommodate more useful high resolution perspectives of changing landscape, which would have been apparent to past people. Despite this, the assumption that once we have one sequence we know the whole story for an area still persists. Here, lithologically similar sequences, between the Isle of Dogs and Canning Town, are used to show different environments and pressures on landscape change. If viewed independently an apparently similar sequence occurs at all three sites but when placed within the past topographic template it becomes clear that each site occupies a different landscape position with respect to the contemporary river. It is suggested that this is the way forward for the construction of a human-scale picture of the evolving prehistoric floodplain and to better understand the human activity that took place within it.

Pleistocene Rhine–Thames landscapes: geological background for hominin occupation of the southern North Sea region

AbstractThis paper links research questions in Quaternary geology with those in Palaeolithic archaeology. A detailed geological reconstruction of The Netherlands' south‐west offshore area provides a stratigraphical context for archaeological and palaeontological finds. Progressive environmental developments have left a strong imprint on the area's Palaeolithic record. We highlight aspects of landscape evolution and related taphonomical changes, visualized in maps for critical periods of the Pleistocene in the wider southern North Sea region. The Middle Pleistocene record is divided into two palaeogeographical stages: the pre‐Anglian/Elsterian stage, during which a wide land bridge existed between England and Belgium even during marine highstands; and the Anglian/Elsterian to Saalian interglacial, with a narrower land bridge, lowered by proglacial erosion but not yet fully eroded. The Late Pleistocene landscape was very different, with the land bridge fully dissected by an axial Rhine–Thames valley, eroded deep enough to fully connect the English Channel and the North Sea during periods of highstand. This tripartite staging implies great differences in (i) possible migration routes of herds of herbivores as well as hominins preying upon them, (ii) the erosion base of axial and tributary rivers causing an increase in the availability of flint raw materials and (iii) conditions for loess accumulation in northern France and Belgium and the resulting preservation of Middle Palaeolithic sites. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Quartz luminescence dating of Anglian Stage (MIS 12) fluvial sediments: Comparison of SAR age estimates to the terrace chronology of the Middle Thames valley, UK

Quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) is increasingly being used to constrain the depositional age of fluvial and glaciofluvial sequences over orbital (Milankovitch) timescales within the British Isles. Few of these previous studies have had any age control; however there is some evidence that OSL ages based on the single aliquot regenerative dose (SAR) protocol may be subject to systematic age underestimation as samples approach saturation. In this study, the age of 12 luminescence samples from a chronologically well-constrained site dating to 450 ka from the Thames terrace sequence, southern Britain, was measured using SAR in order to test the performance of the method close to its upper age limit. The characteristics, dose response and thermal stability of the OSL signal in these samples were assessed by investigating equivalent dose ( D e) as a function of stimulation time and component-resolved pulse annealing. Despite the fact that the samples are dominated by the quartz fast component, these results showed that both the medium and slow components have lower stabilities than the fast component, but with the unstable medium component most affecting the initial part of the OSL signal used in dating. Based on isolating the fast component either through curve fitting or eliminating the medium component using the early background subtraction method, OSL ages up to 450 Gy were found to compare well with the expected age of the site of 450 ± 23 ka. In contrast, a systematic age underestimation of 10% was manifested at lower doses when using the initial part of the OSL signal, contaminated by the medium component. These results suggest that the early background subtraction method should be used when dating in the non-linear part of the growth curve as it provides a better separation of thermally unstable signals and represents a more convenient approach than curve fitting in well-behaved samples.

The Smell of New Competitors: The Response of American Mink,Mustela vison, to the Odours of Otter,Lutra lutraand Polecat,M. putorius

AbstractWe tested the response of wild American mink (an established alien species in the UK), to the odours of unfamiliar mink, European polecat and Eurasian otter. Polecats are similar in size and habits to mink, otters are larger than mink and a dominant competitor; both are native to the UK and both were absent during the original colonization by mink but are now undergoing natural population recoveries. The response of mink to experimental odours was assessed by counting the numbers of tracks (footprints) on rafts treated with anal gland secretions, and compared with response to a control raft, on two rivers in the Upper Thames valley, UK. Remote video showed that the number of tracks was positively correlated with the time that mink spent investigating an odour. We found that mink were attracted to the odours of both unfamiliar mink and polecats. There was little evidence that mink avoided the odour of otters. We suggest that, during an encounter with a polecat, mink may behave much as they would to a conspecific. We infer from the response of mink to the odour of otters, that, if mink do avoid otters, the mechanism of avoidance is likely to be complex, situation‐dependent and perhaps affected by prior experience.

Late Holocene geoarchaeological investigation of the Middle Thames floodplain at Dorney, Buckinghamshire, UK: An evaluation of the Bronze Age, Iron Age, Roman and Saxon landscapes

Large-scale floodplain excavations at Dorney in the Middle Thames valley have revealed organic-rich Holocene palaeochannels as well as a rich archaeological record. High-resolution (decadal) palaeobotanical and sedimentological analyses from a Late Holocene palaeochannel have enabled detailed reconstruction of the landscape spanning from ca. 2850 C 14 yr BP (Late Bronze Age), through the Iron Age, Roman and Saxon periods and into the Medieval period ( ca. 450 C 14 yr BP). The application of sedimentological, palaeovegetation and mineral magnetic analyses coupled with the use of simultaneous R- and Q-mode factor analysis helps to underpin phases of active channel flow, phases of channel ‘ponding’, and alluviation. These phases developed in response to human activity and land use within the region that resulted from deforestation, changes from pastoral to arable practice, burning and the associated destabilisation and inwash of soils into the channel. A series of wooden bridges and timber structures were constructed across this channel between the Middle Bronze Age and Late Iron Age which influenced local sedimentation patterns, fluvial energy and competency within the channel. A number of erosive events coupled with inwashing from the clearance of the last vestiges of woodland for agriculture into an active channel were identified. During the Roman period, flow along the Thames channel ceased, resulting in a pond-like feature in which peaty silts rapidly accumulated. This phase of ponding was punctuated by renewed channel activity in which inorganic carbonate sediments rich in ferrimagnetic minerals were deposited. This coincides with a major peak in cereal cultivation and related catchment disturbance of soils because of ploughing with associated runoff and inwash of soils associated with flooding.

Aldhelm of Malmesbury and High Ecclesiasticism in a Barbarian Kingdom

In 634, the freshly consecrated bishop Birinus, having promised Pope Honorius that he would spread the faith in “the remotest. regions of England,” arrived in the territory of the West Saxons (or theGewisse, as they were then still known). He found them so thoroughly pagan (“paganissimas”) that he opted to remain there to preach the gospel. The following year he baptized Cynegils, the first of the West Saxon kings to accept Christianity. TheBrytenwalda, Oswald of Northumbria, stood sponsor. Together, the two kings endowed Birinus with thecivitasof Dorchester-on-Thames as his see. Over the next few years, both Cynegils's son Cwichelm and his grandson Cuthred were baptized, the latter in 639 by Birinus in Dorchester. It would have been in or near this year that Aldhelm was born,” though his native area was said by William of Malmesbury to have been Sherborne, in the southwest of Wessex, on the border with the British kingdom ofDumnonia(Devon and Cornwall) and, thus, far from Birinus's episcopal seat in the upper Thames valley. Would this be an indication of the rapid spread of Christianity in the West Saxon kingdom? Notably, well within a generation a West Saxon became the first native-born archbishop of Canterbury when Deusdedit was consecrated in 655 (his Anglo-Saxon name was remembered as Friduwine).” But where Deusdedit received his ecclesiastical training is unknown; Bede can tell us only that he was a “West Saxon by race” (“de gente Occidentalium Saxonum”).” Or was Aldhelm's being Christian due to his royal status? It may be that another of Cynegils's sons, Centwine, who became king in Wessex in 676, was Aldhelm's father.” By this time, Aldhelm was a senior cleric in the West Saxon church.

Aldhelm of Malmesbury and High Ecclesiasticism in a Barbarian Kingdom

In 634, the freshly consecrated bishop Birinus, having promised Pope Honorius that he would spread the faith in “the remotest. regions of England,” arrived in the territory of the West Saxons (or the Gewisse, as they were then still known). He found them so thoroughly pagan (“paganissimas”) that he opted to remain there to preach the gospel. The following year he baptized Cynegils, the first of the West Saxon kings to accept Christianity. The Brytenwalda, Oswald of Northumbria, stood sponsor. Together, the two kings endowed Birinus with the civitas of Dorchester-on-Thames as his see. Over the next few years, both Cynegils's son Cwichelm and his grandson Cuthred were baptized, the latter in 639 by Birinus in Dorchester. It would have been in or near this year that Aldhelm was born,” though his native area was said by William of Malmesbury to have been Sherborne, in the southwest of Wessex, on the border with the British kingdom of Dumnonia (Devon and Cornwall) and, thus, far from Birinus's episcopal seat in the upper Thames valley. Would this be an indication of the rapid spread of Christianity in the West Saxon kingdom? Notably, well within a generation a West Saxon became the first native-born archbishop of Canterbury when Deusdedit was consecrated in 655 (his Anglo-Saxon name was remembered as Friduwine).” But where Deusdedit received his ecclesiastical training is unknown; Bede can tell us only that he was a “West Saxon by race” (“de gente Occidentalium Saxonum”).” Or was Aldhelm's being Christian due to his royal status? It may be that another of Cynegils's sons, Centwine, who became king in Wessex in 676, was Aldhelm's father.” By this time, Aldhelm was a senior cleric in the West Saxon church.

Quaternary River Diversions in the London Basin and the Eastern English Channel

The principal river of the London basin, the Thames, has experienced a number of course changes during the Quaternary. Some, at least, of these are known to result directly from glaciation. In the early Quaternary the river flowed to the north of London across East Anglia to the north coast of Norfolk. By the early Middle Pleistocene it had changed its course to flow eastwards near the Suffolk - Essex border into the southern North Sea. The Thames valley to the north of London was blocked by ice during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation, causing a series of glacial lakes to form. Overflow of these lakes brought the river into its modern valley through London. It is thought that this valley already existed by the Anglian in the form of a tributary of the north-flowing River Medway, which joined the old Thames valley near Clacton. Also during the Anglian/Elsterian glaciation. British and continental ice masses are thought to have joined in the northern part of the North Sea basin, causing a large lake to form between the east coast of England and the Netherlands. It is widely believed that the overflow from this lake caused the first breach in the Weald-Artois Ridge, bringing about the formation of the Strait of Dover. Prior to the glaciation the Thames, in common with rivers from the continent (including the Rhine and Meuse), flowed into the North Sea Basin. It seems that, after the lake overflow, these rivers together drained southwards into the English Channel. Whether this southern drainage route was adopted during all later periods of low sea level remains to be determined, but it seems certain that this was the case during the last glacial.

New tools in non-linear modelling and prediction

In this paper we give an account of a new change of perspective in non-linear modelling and prediction as applied to smooth systems. The core element of these developments is the Gamma test a non-linear modelling and analysis tool which allows us to examine the nature of a hypothetical input/output relationship in a numerical data-set. In essence, the Gamma test allows us to efficiently calculate that part of the variance of the output which cannot be accounted for by the existence of any smooth model based on the inputs, even though this model be unknown. A key aspect of this tool is its speed: the Gamma test has time complexity O( $M \log M$ ), where M is the number of data-points. For data-sets consisting of a few thousand points and a reasonable number of attributes, a single run of the Gamma test typically takes a few seconds. Around this essentially simple procedure a new set of analytical tools has evolved which allow us to model smooth non-linear systems directly from the data with a precision and confidence that hitherto was inaccessible. In this paper we briefly describe the Gamma test, its benefits in model identification and model building, and then in more detail explain and motivate the procedures which facilitate a Gamma analysis. We briefly report on a case study applying these ideas to the practical problem of predicting level and flow rates in the Thames valley river basin. Finally we speculate on the future development and enhancement of these techniques into areas such as datamining and the production of complex non-linear models directly from data via graphical representations of process charts and automated Gamma analysis of each input-output node.

Uplift-driven valley incision and climate-controlled river terrace development in the Thames Valley, UK

The sequence of terraces of the River Thames in southeast England has previously been shown to span the period from the earliest Pleistocene to the present. This terrace sequence contains biostratigraphical and sedimentary evidence that testifies to the high-amplitude climatic changes of the Quaternary. Large-scale fluvial incision, resulting in basin-wide terrace formation, appears to have been concentrated at the warming limbs of the major climatic glacial–interglacial cycles, when sediment supply was greatly reduced. This incision and subsequent valley-floor widening created the accommodation space for the later aggradation of the terrace sediments during the following warm–cold transitions and during the cold stages, when high-sediment supply conditions prevailed. Although the timing of terrace aggradation may be controlled by climate change, the progressive valley incision recorded by terrace staircases cannot easily be explained in terms of Quaternary climatic change alone and recently developed models suggest that long-term incision by the Thames has been driven by uplift. This paper presents an overview of the available terrace data and tabulates incision amounts and rates between key stratigraphic horizons. Superimposed upon these broad changes, revealed by the complex internal sedimentary architecture of many terrace sediments, are the geomorphological system responses to both higher-frequency climate-driven changes and more localized intrinsic fluvial system adjustments.

Mammalian evidence from Middle Pleistocene fluvial sequences for complex environmental change at the oxygen isotope substage level

Mammalian remains have proved to be a uniquely valuable tool in differentiating between the various temperate episodes of the late Middle Pleistocene in Britain. Long fluvial records, such as that of the River Thames, have provided a template against which the mammalian biostratigraphical evidence may be tested, thereby enable a sequence of diagnostic mammal biozonations to be established. The mammalian evidence also identifies much smaller-scale environmental and climatic oscillations within these interglacials, possibly corresponding to isotopic substages. This paper reviews in detail two sites in the Lower Thames valley, Swanscombe and Aveley, attributed to MIS 11 and MIS 7, respectively, and presents the mammalian evidence for climatic complexity and habitat succession within these interglacials.

Middle Pleistocene interglacial deposits at Barling, Essex, England: evidence for a longer chronology for the Thames terrace sequence

AbstractResults are presented from a multidisciplinary study of fossiliferous interglacial deposits on the northern side of the Thames estuary. These fill a channel cut into London Clay bedrock and overlain by the Barling Gravel, a Thames–Medway deposit equivalent to the Lynch Hill and Corbets Tey Gravels of the Middle and Lower Thames, respectively. The channel sediments yielded diverse molluscan and ostracod assemblages, both implying fully interglacial conditions and a slight brackish influence. Pollen analysis has shown that the deposits accumulated during the early part of an interglacial. Plant macrofossils, particularly the abundance of Trapa natans, reinforce the interglacial character of the palaeontological evidence. A beetle fauna, which includes four taxa unknown in Britain at present, has allowed quantification of palaeotemperature using the mutual climatic range method (Tmax 17 to 26 °C; Tmin −11 to 13 °C). A few vertebrate remains have been recovered from the interglacial deposits, but a much larger fauna, as well as Palaeolithic artefacts, is known from the overlying Barling Gravel.The age of the interglacial deposits is inferential. The geological context suggests a late Middle Pleistocene interglacial, part of the post‐diversion Thames system and therefore clearly post‐Anglian. This conclusion is supported by amino acid ratios from the shells of freshwater molluscs. The correlation of the overlying Barling Gravel with the Lynch Hill/Corbets Tey aggradation of the Thames valley constrains the age of the Barling interglacial to marine oxygen isotope stages 11 or 9. The presence of Corbicula fluminalis and Pisidium clessini confirms a pre‐Ipswichian (marine oxygen isotope substage 5e) age and their occurrence in the early part of the interglacial cycle at Barling precludes correlation with marine oxygen isotope stage 11, as these taxa occur only later in that interglacial at sites such as Swanscombe and Clacton. Thus by process of elimination a marine oxygen isotope stage 9 age would appear probable. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

Accelerated uplift resulting from Anglian glacioisostatic rebound in the Middle Thames Valley, UK?: evidence from the river terrace record

A relatively simple analysis of the terraces of the Middle Thames valley reveals a complex sequence of responses to late-Anglian (late Middle Pleistocene) drainage disruption. A decrease in the amounts of vertical incision separating the later post-Anglian terraces strongly suggests a major change in the rate of incision in the Middle Thames area in the post-Anglian. A late Anglian and early post-Anglian incision rate of 1.45 m ka −1 was quickly replaced by incision at a rate of 0.089 m ka −1 in the later post-Anglian period. The lower incision rate of the later post-Anglian compares favourably with previous estimates of regional uplift. Two plausible explanations for the enhanced incision in the late Anglian and early post-Anglian are recognized, one related to ponding of the river by Anglian ice and the other to glacio-isostatic rebound. In the latter case, the mismatch between expected and actual heights of late-Anglian deposits would suggest glacio-isostatic uplift of the order of 22–25 m.