142 



THE GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT AROUND 

 DAGENHAM BREACH, ESSEX. 



Ky T. V. HOLMES, F.G.S., M.A.I. 

 [Read at Field Meeting on July 23^/, 1892.] 



T F we stand on the marshes six or seven feet below high water mark, 

 near the lake which forms a pleasant memorial of the Dagenham 

 Breach, and gaze around, we cannot but notice the contrast between 

 the scenery of the Kentish side of the Thames and that of the Essex 

 shore. Southward, beyond the marshes of Erith and Plumstead, we 

 see the bold ridge of the escarpment of the Lower Tertiaries with the 

 Chalk at its base, the London Clay capped by gravel rising above it 

 at Shooter's Hill. Where the surface of this high ground is composed 

 of Blackheath Pebble Beds its height above the river averages about 

 150 feet; but at Shooter's Hill the greatest elevation is about 420 

 feet. If, on the other hand, we look northward, we see, in the first 

 place, the limits of the marsh on which we are standing indicated by 

 the houses on the road connecting Barking and Rainham, which are 

 on the southern edge of the low, broad plain of river-gravel which 

 lies between the marshes and the higher ground beyond Ilford and 



Diagram Section from Romford (N.) to Belvedere (S.) Seven Miles. 

 (Showing the river-gravel and alluvium on the Essex side of the Thames, 

 and the Lower Tertiary escarpment and fault on the Kentish shore.) 



N. North. S. South. U.R. Upminster Railway. 



T. & S.R. Tilbury and Southend Railway, 



S.E.R. South Eastern Railway. 



D. Dagenham. D.B. Dagenham Breach. 



R.T. River Thames. 



o.d. Ordnance Datum. I.e. London Clay. 



6.b. Blackheath Pebble Beds. w.b. Woolwich Beds 



l.s. Thanet Sand. c. Chalk. 



a Alluvium, r.g. River Gravel, 



f. Fault. 



