A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



the agricultural characters and the aspect of the land are most largely 

 due.' 



GLACIAL LOAM 



The earliest Glacial Drift is a stony loam which underlies the 

 middle Glacial sands and gravels in the cliff between Hopton and Gorton, 

 where the sequence in descending order of Chalky Boulder Clay, sands, 

 and loam with occasional boulders, led John Gunn to recognize an Upper 

 and Lower Boulder Clay.^ 



This stony loam, 21 feet thick, occurs at Blundeston and at 

 Somerleyton, where no doubt it forms a southerly continuation of the 

 ' Contorted Drift ' of the Cromer coast. It contains boulders of igneous 

 rock and fragments of marine shells, and may in general terms be 

 regarded as a Lower Boulder Clay, or Lower Glacial Drift. It is used 

 for brick-making. 



Higher up along the borders of the Waveney valley there are other 

 beds of loam near North Cove, to the south of Beccles, at Withers- 

 dale, Weybread, Stuston, Palgrave and Redgrave. These appear to 

 underlie the main mass of Chalky Boulder Clay (Upper Glacial), but 

 they cannot in all cases be definitely assigned to the Lower Glacial 

 Drift. 



The fact must be borne in mind that the Chalky Boulder Clay when 

 much weathered and decalcified becomes a brown stony loam, while in 

 the Middle Glacial sands and gravels there are lenticular masses of 

 laminated loam. Some of these beds, moreover, are rather difficult to 

 distinguish from the earlier Chillesford Clay. Hence there are many 

 difficulties in the identification of particular beds of loam in Suffolk, and 

 such difficulties give rise to divergent opinions. Under these circum- 

 stances it will be best to mention briefly the more important beds of 

 loam, without in all cases indicating their relative ages. 



The brickyard at Withersdale Cross, south-east of Harleston, showed 

 1 2 feet of laminated brickearth with alternations of sand and gravel, 

 much contorted towards the surface by glacial action. Underlying the 

 brickearth was a considerable thickness of sand and gravel. Somewhat 

 similar beds were noted by Mr. W. H. Dalton to the south of Mendham 

 Priory, where pottery works formerly existed.' 



More definite evidence of Lower Glacial or Contorted drift occurs 

 in Weybread brickyard, where there is a brown stony loam with 

 fragments of Cyprina and other shells. Here the Chalky Boulder Clay 

 overlies and at one point dovetails into the loam. Similar loam occurs at 

 Sotterly, and sandy loam with streaks of chalky loam underlies the 

 Boulder Clay at Walpole near Halesworth.* 



' See 'General View of the Agriculture of Suffolk,' ed. 3, (1804,) by Arthur Young; and 

 ' Farming of Suffolk,' by Hugh Raynbird, Joui~n. Roy. jlgiic. Soc. vii. 261. 



2 J. Trimmer, ^arl. Journ. Gcol. Soc. xiv. 171 ; Rose, Geo/ogist, iii. 137. 



3 Whitaker and Dalton, ' Geology of the countrj' around Halcsworth and Harleston,' Geo/. Survey 

 (1887), p. 16. 



* Whitaker and Dalton, op. cit. p. 19. 



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