H. B. Woodward — Railway Cuttings in Suffolk. 129 



VII. — Some Railway Cuttings in Suffolk. 



By Horace B. Woodward, F.R.S. 



1. Yarmouth and Lowestoft Direct Bailway. 



YARMOUTH and Lowestoft have long been connected by railways, 

 but although the Great Eastern Company had provided a choice 

 of routes, there was no direct way. This is now in process of 

 construction by a joint arrangement between the Great Eastern, 

 Great Northern, and Midland Railway Companies; and the route, 

 for the most part within a mile of the sea-coast, is from the Great 

 Eastern Station at Lowestoft through Gunton, Hopton, Corton, and 

 Gorleston to the Yarmouth Beach Station, a distance of a little more 

 than nine miles. 



Where the new railway leaves that of the Great Eastern Company, 

 about half a mile west of the Lowestoft Station, there is a cutting in 

 buff, false-bedded, slightly gravelly sand belonging to the Middle 

 Glacial Drift. Further on. Boulder-clay was cut into, to the east of 

 Normanston Court, and it has there been burnt for ballast, A few 

 glaciated Belemnites were noticed, but derived fossils were not so 

 plentiful as in some other localities. 



South of St. Margaret's Church and east of Normans Hurst the 

 junction of the Boulder-clay with underlying Middle Glacial sand 

 was well shown in the railway cutting on the north side of the road. 

 The Boulder-clay contained much chalk and many flints and galls of 

 sand, and it rested on buff sands. At the junction a good deal of 

 sand was incorporated with the Boulder-clay, and the sand was 

 streaked with chalky detritus. The sand below was exceedingly fi,ne. 



East of St. Margaret's Church, sand and pebbly gravel (Plateau 

 Drift) were exposed, while to the north of the main road to Corton, 

 beyond Belle Vue Park, a wide excavation for the railway-station 

 showed the following sequence : — 



ft. in. 



Soil with much blown sand ... ... 1 ft. to 16 



T31 j.„„ n 1 ( Yellow sand 9 



Platean Gravel ( p^tbly gravel 4 6 



Middle Glacial i '^^^ false-bedded sand and gravel ... 16 

 ( Sand with streaks of loam ... ... 46 



The pebbly gravel consisted chiefly of flint and quartz, with a 

 few large blocks of flint and yellow micaceous sandstone. In one 

 part it rested irregularly on the beds below, cutting into them, 

 while elsewhere there- appeared absolute conformity. Such a 

 section suggests that when one gravel is deposited on top of another, 

 and perhaps largely constructed from it, it may be so welded on to 

 it that all evidence of break is obliterated.^ 



Further on to the north of Corton Long Lane, a cutting showed 

 sandy and gravelly soil on stiff loam and Chalky Boulder-claj', the 

 loam being in part decalcified Boulder-clay, but not wholly so. In 

 the Boulder-clay at Corton, there were irregular masses of yellowish 



1 See also Geol. Mag., 1902, p. 30. 



DECADE IV. VOL. IX. NO. III. 9 



