The low-level Pleistocene marine sands and gravels of the West Sussex Coastal Plain

Late Middle Pleistocene deposits at Norton Farm on the West Sussex coastal plain, southern England

“…These observations are similar to those made in the Pas de Calais at the raised beach at Sangatte (Balescu and Haesaerts, 1984;Balescu et al, 1992;Bates, 1993). The deposits at Norton Farm are older than some of the marine deposits present on the lower coastal plain between Selsey and Brighton at elevations below +10.0 m OD Amino acid D/L values (Table 11) from marine sediments at the sites of Portslade (Chapman, 1900) and Nyetimber (Hodgson, 1964) suggest that deposits of two different ages occur throughout the area. Based on comparative data from elsewhere in southern Britain (Bowen et al, 1985), the deposition of sediments at these sites is likely to have occurred during Oxygen Isotope Stages 5e and 7 (see Bates et al, 1997) or during two phases in Stage 5e (Bowen, 1994).…”

“…A lower series of sands and gravels at 4.5 m (15 ft) OD on the Lower Coastal Plain, typified by deposits at Selsey (Reid, 1892), also exists throughout the area (Figs 1 and 2). Conventionally a Hoxnian age was ascribed to the highest 30 m raised beach (Shephard-Thorn & Kellaway, 1978), whereas the lower beach was correlated with the Ipswichian Stage (West and Sparks, 1960;Hodgson, 1964). The recent excavations at Amey's Eartham Pit, Boxgrove, however, have suggested an age late within the Cromerian Complex for the raised beach that occurs between 30 m and 43 m OD (Roberts, 1986(Roberts, , 1990Roberts et al, 1994; but see Bowen and Sykes, 1994;Bates, 1996).…”

“…Within the area of the Lower Coastal Plain, sediments were described in the Chichester area by Hodgson (1964) Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.…”

“…To the east, deposits at comparable elevations include the sands and gravels at Black Rock, Brighton (Mantell, 1822;Martin, 1929;Shephard-Thorn & Wymer, 1977;Young and Lake, 1988). Hodgson (1964) concluded that these low-lying aggradations were deposited during a single high-sea-level stand during the Ipswichian Interglacial and the sequence at Black Rock was identified as the 'type sequence'. The beach/cliff-line is commonly known, therefore, as the Brighton Raised Beach (Figs 1 and 2).…”

Holocene evolution of the gravel coastline of East Sussex: discussion

“…As already discussed above, this was probably a more important source of gravel earlier in the Holocene. There is also significant quantities of gravel in Pleistocene raised beach deposits (Hodgson, 1964). Jennings & Smyth discount this source, but Harlow (1979) demonstrated that up to 40,000 rrr'a-I of gravel was available for westerly littoral transport between Selsey Bill and Gilkicker Point over the last few hundred years (Fig.…”