A SURVEY OF THE LOWER TEES MARSHES 93 



Greatham Creek itself is a deep cutting (with steep slimy 

 sides which render it very dangerous) driven through the 

 boulder clay by the tidal drive. As we walk up its banks, it 

 gradually assumes the appearance of an ordinary beck ; as it 

 does so, the vegetation loses its halophytic nature by degrees, 

 and we see instead the ordinary plants of the streamside. 



Leaving now the saltmarshes and the adjacent areas, we 

 must consider the other ground included in the survey. 

 This is that portion of Billingham and Norton parishes 

 enclosed in the small square in Fig. i, and shown on a larger 

 scale in Fig. 3, representing alluvial flats formed by the filling 

 up of the old valley of Billingham Beck and now known as 

 Billingham Bottoms. Here, as elsewhere, man has stepped 

 in and by his interference changed all. Instead of enormous 

 stretches of fenland differing in little from that of East Anglia, 

 such formations are restricted to a few score of acres which, 

 fortunately enough, retain to some degree their primitive con- 

 dition. These, however, do not comprise the only ground to 

 be studied for we have the beck itself, fringed by the many 

 water meadows which arose after the cutting of the first 

 drainage lodes ; all of these meadows lie at an average height 

 of 10 feet above sea level. On their south side there is a 

 sharp sudden rise to the 25 foot contour line along which 

 stagnates (I almost wrote flows !) the old mill race which used 

 to feed Norton Mill. This, as well as the marshy slopes, are 

 not without interest. 



Intersecting the Bottoms runs the Stockton and Hartlepool 

 Railway line, to the east of which flourishes a productive 

 osier bed locally termed the " Willow Garth." This is of great 

 age as it is referred to in Brewster's History of Stockton. 

 Portions of this " holt" (whether by reversion or as an original 

 feature I know not) still display fen characteristics. 



Much of the land adjoining the Beck is capable of being 

 flooded, and is so treated deliberately when there are prospects 

 of long continued frosts and the consequent skating. 



