64 Br. Woolacott — A Raised Beach in Durliam. 



On the 60-ft. Raised Beach at Easington, Co. Durham. 



By David Woolacott, D.Sc, F.G.S. 

 (PLATE V.) 



AN excellent exposure of a Raised Beach has lately been discovered 

 at Easington.^ This deposit, in my opinion, forms a part of 

 the beds of sand, gravel, conglomerate, and breccia which are 

 exposed along this part of the Durham coast for at least 5 or 6 

 miles, and which were described by me as Raised Beaches in 1905.^ 

 I also consider that the upraised littoral formations were produced 

 in late Pleistocene times. 



All geologists who have examined the exposure — including 

 ■G. W. Lamplugh, F.R.S.,^ Dr. Trechmann,^ E. Merrick, M.Sc", 

 L. Hawkes, M.Sc. — are agreed that it is undoubtedly a littoral 

 formation, and although there may not yet be complete agreement 

 as to the exact age or extent of this deposit, yet there can be. no 

 •question that it must be taken into account in any discussion of the 

 'Glacial and Post-Glacial formations of the East of England. There 

 is nothing very remarkable in Raised Beaches at such a level, nor in 

 the amount or nature of the movements that produced them ; their 

 importance lies more in connexion with the origin and method of 

 deposition of a large portion of the sands, gravels, and clays that 

 occur above the true boulder clay (or moraine profonde of the ice- 

 sheets) along the coastal region or up the buried Pre-glacial valleys 

 of the east of England than in the deposits or uplifts themselves. 



The section has the chief characters we expect to find in such 

 exposures typically preserved, and these can be easily examined. 

 It occurs on the south-east flank of Beacon Hill, about half a mile 

 jioith of Easington station, and can be clearly seen in a steep foot- 

 path (the top of which is marked by a stile) leading down to the 

 shore at this point. The photographs published with this paper 

 give a clear idea of the nature of the deposit, as far as it can be 

 conveyed by photographs ; the features proving its direct marine 



1 A short description of this deposit was given in the Geological Magazine, 

 vol. Ivii, 1920, p. 307. 



2 " The Superficial Deposits and Preglacial Valleys of the Northumberland 

 and Durham Coalfield " : Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. Isi, 1905, pt. 1, and 

 map, pi. ix, p. 94. 



3 I consider that this geologist, who evidently thoroughly appreciated 

 the importance of the occurrence of high-level Raised Beaches in Durham, 

 was quite justified when he asked me to be cautiou.« in accepting the evidence 

 for their existence (see discussion. Geographical Journal, July, 1907, p. 56). 



* I also think that until the Easington deposit was discovered, Dr. Trechmann, 

 in speaking of the beds along the coast of South Durham, had complete justifica- 

 tion for stating " that he did not see the necessity for assuming these gravel 

 deposits of marine origin " (Q.J.G.S., vol. Ixxi, pt. i, 1915, p. 75). I had, how- 

 ever, definite evidence in 1900-6 of a Raised Beach at a higher level in north- 

 east Durham, and had made in 1903-4 a detailed examination of the course 

 of conglomerate to the north and south of Easington, which had convinced 

 me of its origin. (I do not think that the path that cuts through the Easington 

 deposit existed at that time.) 



