THE PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF HOLDERNESS, EAST YORKSHIRE

Abstract

Summary The Holderness tills are described, and grouped into two series: the Basement Series below, and the Drab-Purple-Hessle Series above. The Basement Till is shown to underlie (and not overlie as was formerly supposed) the Sewerby raised beach, which is considered to belong to the Last Interglacial. The Basement Till was therefore deposited during the Saale Glaciation or earlier, and the Bridlington Crag (which has been rediscovered after being hidden for sixty years) may thus be of Holstein (Great Interglacial) age or earlier. The Drab-Purple-Hessle Series is considered to have been deposited from one composite ice sheet of Würm age, probably Main Würm, and the “moss silts” which underlie it at Dimlington are placed in a Würm interstadial. The Early Würm may be represented by the solifluction bed at Sewerby. The Kelsey Hill Gravels, the Kirmington silts and the Speeton Shell Bed are reassessed, and their position in the chronology is discussed.