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ChPG17, Bulls Lodge Gravel Quarry, BOREHAM, Chelmsford District, TL746108, Potential Local Geological Site
Site category: Thames (pre-diversion) Site name: Bulls Lodge Gravel Quarry, Boreham Grid reference: TL 746 108 Brief description of site: Bulls Lodge Gravel Quarry is a working gravel quarry with exposures of Kesgrave (Thames) Sands and Gravels overlain by a thickness of boulder clay (till). Access to the quarry is only available with permission from the quarry operators. ---------------------------------------- Details Bulls Lodge Gravel Quarry is working the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels (Kesgrave Formation) which were laid down during the early Ice Age by the River Thames when it flowed through north Essex and Suffolk and out across what is now the southern North Sea to become a tributary of the Rhine. A number of interesting erratic cobbles and boulders have been found in the gravels by members of the Essex Rock and Mineral Society and the Essex Field Club, including 'exotic' rocks from Cornwall and North Wales (see Mercer & Mercer 2022). Some of the gravel in this area is bleached white and has been called the 'Essex White Ballast' (Greensmith et al. 1973). Above the Kesgrave Formation is a thickness of boulder clay, or till, which was laid down on top of these gravels about 450,000 years ago by an ice sheet during the Anglian glaciation, the most severe cold period of the whole of the Ice Age (Allen 1999).
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Exotic erratic cobble from Kesgrave Gravel at Bulls Lodge Quarry A boulder of Hertfordshire puddingstone in Bulls Lodge Quarry Kesgrave Sands and Gravels at Bulls Lodge Quarry Anglian till above Kesgrave Gravel at Bulls Lodge Quarry Hertfordshire Puddingstone by works at Bulls Lodge Gravel quarry upload a new image |
Reference: Allen 1999, Greensmith et al. 1973, Lucy 1999, Mercer & Mercer 2022
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