MIRE DEVELOPMENT AND SPRING ACTIVITY AT GRANGE FARM, LONG LANE, BEVERLEY
Author(s): M McHugh
The development of an eutropic mire at Park Grange Farm has been directly linked with artesian spring activity dating from at least 3891BC. The precise sequence of events is uncertain, though radiocarbon dating suggests that an episode of erosive spring activity (during which any peat accumulating previously was lost) equates with the rapid climatic worsening of early Iron Times. A quiet of spring activity (reduced general wetness but rising sea levels) during Iron Age/Romano British times saw the accumulation of organic matter under the relatively aerobic and eutrophic conditions of a fluctuating water table, an environment favouring humification. The presence of fine wood debris within the peat suggests that birch and alder woodlands may have been present on the drier margins of the mire. Romano-British artifacts within disturbed areas associated with the spring orifice are clearly not in situ, though must reflect human activity in adjacent areas at this time. A sand and silt horizon within the peat represents a phase of spring activity (general climatic worsening/high stormy seas of post- Roman/early medieval times) during which deposition took place under temporarily ponded conditions. The accumulation of humified peat then resumed, though under conditions of rapidly rising water table until the growth of the peat above the water table (circa the 8th to 10th centuries ad) allowed carr-type vegetation to invade and replace the populated tall fen community of wetter times.
- Report Number:
- 62/1993
- Series:
- AML Reports (New Series)
- Pages:
- 34
- Keywords:
- Soil/Sediment
