Pleistocene vegetational history and geology in Norfolk, with an appendix on the non-marine mollusca from Swanton Morley

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Abstract
Three Ipswichian Interglacial sites are described, at Mundesley on the NE Norfolk coast, and at Beetley and Swanton Morley in central Norfolk. Two Hoxnian Interglacial sites are also described, at Barford and Dunston, again in central Norfolk. Pollen diagrams from boreholes in channel sediments cutting the Contorted Drift at Mundesley span zones Ib to III of the Ipswichian Interglacial, and a Devensian age for the Drift or for the ice movements producing the contortions must be discounted. "Cannonshot" gravels at Beetley, considered to belong to the Wolstonian retreat, are overlain by organic layers indicating zone II of the Ipswichian Interglacial, and a Devensian interstadial. Interesting plant records include Damasonium alisma in the interglacial deposits, and Picea abies cf. ssp. obovata and Bruckenthalia spiculifolia in the interstadial beds. Fossils in organic deposits at Swanton Morley, late Wolstonian to early Devensian in age and pocketed in floodplain sands and gravels, include the exotic Acer monspessulanum, and mammalian bones referred to Ipswichian zone III. At Barford, organic lake deposits of the Hoxnian Interglacial overlie Anglian boulder clay which lies in a deep channel in the Chalk. The organic beds, which are of late Anglian to Hoxnian zone III age, are overlain in turn by solifluction deposits and by a cannonshot gravel attributed to the Wolstonian retreat. The high non-tree pollen phase recorded at Hoxne and Marks Tey in subzone Ho IIc is also found here. Pollen from lake deposits at Dunston indicates subzone Ho IIIb and zone Ho IV, and there is palynological evidence for widespread erosion in zone Ho IV.

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