NOTE ON A PREHISTORIC DEPOSIT.
101
part of the Roman occupation. It seems, therefore, not improbable that these
ancient sea-walls that run for so many miles along the coast were not made so
much for actual reclamation, but rather to check some wide-spread inroad of the
sea, and to save as much as might be possible of the land which was already
occupied. There may, of course, be some other explanation, but this suggestion
seems worth further trial as a working hypothesis.
To this the author replies as follows :—
I must demur to Mr. Warren's suggestion of the possibility of occupation
extending to the low-water level of its epoch. The formation of shingle-banks
at a distance from the high-water shore is possible under the co-operation
of inland water and sea, preserving equilibrium by their opposing pressure.
Such banks are from the beginning draped internally by alluvial clay and silt,
consolidating the mass, and forced into it by the suction of the falling sea-tide,
which precedes the ebb within the bank. This alluvium will rise to high-water
level, not to sink below it unless by the intervention of man, enclosing it from
further accession and constant saturation. Subsidence of such an area will make
no apparent change, except the inland extension or, failing further supply
of shingle, the disappearance of the bank, and reversion to the normal open
coast-line. But that such a bank could, in a stationary region, permit
occupation down to more than half-tide level, the limit of permanent enclosure,
was long since shown by Pengelly to be impossible, requiring engineering
appliances to keep it free of water. Any evidence of occupation below half-
tide level demonstrates subsidence.
I may add that in Lincolnshire there is evidence of recent elevation in the
larger part of the county, and of depression inland, extending to Derbyshire.
In the study of these interesting phenomena, differential movements may be
expected in respect of both region and epoch. Not only may a country be
rising on one side, sinking on the other, but the same spot now rises, now falls,
with the secular palpitations of the bosom of old Mother Earth.
NOTE ON A PREHISTORIC DEPOSIT AT
LOUGHTON, ESSEX.
By S. HAZZLEDINE WARREN, F.G.S.
Read 6th March 1909.
IN connection with the scheme for the relief of the unemployed,
a new storm-water drain was made along a part of the
High Road in Loughton during December 1908. This work
extended from the corner at the foot of Ollard's Grove to the
bottom of Albion Hill. It was not a very deep cutting, and was
carried for the greater part of the distance through London clay.
Along a certain section, however (namely, between the corners
of Meadow Road and Lower Park and thinning off to a little
beyond these points on both sides), a rather interesting
prehistoric deposit was struck.