mammoth tooth. Although complete these remains are very fragile and difficult to
conserve. A large rib has been seen in the cliff. Pieces of better preserved bone,
including the end of an elephant tibia and tusk fragments are particularly common on the
foreshore around TM 16483221 where they appear to be cast up by the numerous bait
diggers here. The low cliff of Brickearth with lenses of gravel and much fine sand is
greatly obscured by chalets which are often perched on stilts. The owners of these chalets
are waging constant war against attack from the ever encroaching sea which appears to be
cutting down into the beach and foreshore. The adjacent land and foreshore was bought
by the chalet owners in 1986 (Balhaven Ltd.) "to maintain its peace and tranquility for
future generations to enjoy". A great heap of dredged material about 2m high measuring
1 Om by 15m containing many thick shelled grey oysters; black angular flint pebbles;
lumps of green and grey clay and a small piece of sarsen stone has recently been dumped
at TM16493220 to be used to construct an offshore breakwater. The brickearth, sand and
gravel is intermittently exposed in the low cliff from TM16343190 to TM17063227. Just
to the east of this at TM17103229 is a fault in the London Clay (Whitaker 1885 p. 18).
Whale bone fragments and a shark's tooth of Isurus hastalis, both presumably derived
from the Red Crag, have been collected from the beach at this point. This interglacial
deposit is presumably the same age as the nearby Ipswichian Age (sensu Trafalgar
Square) site at Stutton, Suffolk. Both sites have yielded hippopotamus and dated to stage
5e of the oxygen isotope record and are about 125,000 years old.
Bibliography
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Cole, W. 1907
Cole, W. 1908
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The History and Antiquities of Harwich and Dovercourt.
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& West, R.G.
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Association Vol. 64 pp.25-28.
Whitaker, W. 1885 The Geology of the Country around Ipswich, Hadleigh, and
Felixstow. Memoir of the Geological Survey,
Wilkinson, TJ.
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Wymer, J.J.
W.H. George
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Essex Field Club Newsletter No, 21, May 1997