Stratigraphy and palaeontology of Pleistocene cold-stage deposits at Alton Road Quarry, Farnham, Surrey, England

Abstract

Summary. Pleistocene deposits exposed at Alton Road Quarry, Farnham in 1980 have been sub-divided into two formal stratigraphical units of ‘member’ status. The ‘Wrecclesham Gravel’ is the lowest unit and consists primarily of fluvial sands and gravels. Silts which occurred as a channel fill within this member contained a macro- and micro-fossil flora indicative of open country conditions and included a species of moss previously unreported from the European Pleistocene. Tentative thermoluminescence dating indicates an Early Devensian age for this unit, although radiocarbon dating of the plant macrofossils yielded an age of a B.P. The overlying ‘Farnham Silty Loam’ is separated from the Wrecclesham Gravel by a discontinuous and variable thickness of matrix-supported gravels interpreted as a slope deposit. The Farnham Silty Loam appears to be, at least in part, of aeolian origin. Mineralogical investigations suggest that it is predominantly of local derivation, whilst thermoluminescence dating suggests that it is of Late Devensian age.