In April Matt Pope took a party of WAS members on a tour by mini-bus of the landscape past and present from Worthing to Chichester. Before we set out from Worthing Matt made some introductory remarks inviting us to imagine changes in the landscape during glaciations and warm periods over the last half a million years and in the future including the comforting thought that at some point Worthing as we know it will not exist!
It was a full day tour stopping at The Trundle to look at the formation of the landscape north and south of the hill. West Stoke and Slindon bottom for dry valleys and raised beaches, UpWaltham and The Mens for the formation of the Weald and Peppering Farm (Burpham) for River Terraces where Matt showed the group where work on levelling part of a lane leading down to the river had revealed elephant bones deposited in a warm period between glaciations.
One of the many themes of Matt's tour was the raised beach at Boxgrove which subsequent work has revealed runs from Arundel to behind Portsdown and the related formation of a bay on what is now the coastal plain between Arundel and Westbourne Common. Matt covered a great deal over the course of the day and for those who want to read more about the subject the latest report on the wider Boxgrove area is available from SpoilHeap publications for UCL Institute of Archaeology, M. B. Roberts and M. I. Pope, price £30.
It was a full day tour stopping at The Trundle to look at the formation of the landscape north and south of the hill. West Stoke and Slindon bottom for dry valleys and raised beaches, UpWaltham and The Mens for the formation of the Weald and Peppering Farm (Burpham) for River Terraces where Matt showed the group where work on levelling part of a lane leading down to the river had revealed elephant bones deposited in a warm period between glaciations.
One of the many themes of Matt's tour was the raised beach at Boxgrove which subsequent work has revealed runs from Arundel to behind Portsdown and the related formation of a bay on what is now the coastal plain between Arundel and Westbourne Common. Matt covered a great deal over the course of the day and for those who want to read more about the subject the latest report on the wider Boxgrove area is available from SpoilHeap publications for UCL Institute of Archaeology, M. B. Roberts and M. I. Pope, price £30.
