A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



In the lower reaches of the Waveney, from Beccles to Breydon Water, 

 there are extensive levels which in places lie beneath highwater sea 

 level, and are protected by raised banks along the margin of the river. 

 These marshes are liable to floods, as the sluggish rivers cannot readily 

 convey the water they receive during the heavy rains ; but in general 

 the water in the dykes that intersect the marshes is pumped into the 

 river. 



Near Burgh St. Peter the alluvial deposits have yielded Cardium 

 edule and Scrobicularia plana in addition to land and freshwater shells.' 



Lothingland, on which the old town of Lowestoft and Gorleston 

 stand, is now practically an island through the artificial cut which con- 

 nects Oulton Broad and Lake Lothing, formerly a continuation of the 

 Broad, with the sea. At one time a stream flowed westwards as a 

 tributary of the Waveney, but the sea afterwards formed a channel at 

 Lowestoft gap, which was open during the Roman occupation, but 

 closed by an embankment about the middle of the seventeenth century. 

 It is spoken of by R. C. Taylor as the ' ancient and long abandoned 

 haven of Kirkley.' ^ 



The marshes near Southwold and Dunwich have been inundated in 

 old times by the sea, and the land on which Southwold is built is practi- 

 cally an island. Further south there are salt marshes near Orford, and 

 there are alluvial islets in the channel of the Ore, based on the London 

 Clay and connected by shingle. 



The alluvial tracts, and especially those along the course of the 

 Waveney, furnish the chief meadow and grazing lands. 



Peaty beds occur in places on the borders of the Ouse and Lark in 

 their lower courses, also at Lopham, at Easton Broad, over Westwood 

 Marshes near Southwold, and in the estuary of the Deben near Bawdsey. 

 Where such valleys are open to the sea the peaty beds become exposed 

 on the foreshore at low tide and give rise to submerged forests. Thus 

 in the estuary of the Orwell, extending from Ipswich to Pin Mill, a 

 submerged forest was described by J. E. Taylor in 1874.^ It contained 

 leaves of plants, hazel nuts, etc., in a peaty bed, which was 9 feet thick 

 in places. The mammoth was obtained, but this doubtless was derived 

 from older deposits. 



The depths of the Alluvium indicate that the land stood higher at 

 one time, an elevation which would have enlarged the drainage area and 

 promoted denudation. 



The ordinary remains obtained from these deposits are the red deer, 

 wolf, ox, etc., as was the case in Barton Mere.* 



The coast from near Gorleston southwards is noted for the ravages 

 made by the sea, especially in ancient times at Dunwich, which was an 

 important city in the time of Henry II. 



* J. H. Blake, ' Geology of Yarmouth and Lowestoft,' p. 66. 



' R. C. Taylor, ' On the Geology of East Norfolk ' (i 827), p. 47 ; and Supplementary Notes, p. 52 ; 

 J. H. Blake, op. cit. pp. 73-5. 



* Geol. Mag. V. 44 1; Refi. Brit. Assoc, for 1875, sections, p. 82. 



* Rev. H. Jones, ^art. Joum. Suffolk Inst. (1869), p. 31. 



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