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M20 motorways follow this feature. The low ground has been eroded at least
partly by the River Len, a tributary that joins the Medway in Maidstone ( a1 ),
and by the Great Stour upstream of the valley it has carved through the North
Downs.
2. A ridge of hills eroded from the Early Cretaceous Lower Greensand, which is
about 100 m thick in the Maidstone area but thins easterly, resulting in lower
elevations of the hills. At locality a2 , 5 km south of Maidstone, the Lower
Greensand scarp has a particularly distinctive relief of about 100 m.
3. A further belt of low ground ( a3 ) that has been eroded preferentially in the
relatively weak Weald Clay by the upper Medway and its tributary the River
Beult.
4. A general area of hilly country around Royal Tunbridge Wells ( a4 ). Here
the bedrock is the more erosion-resistant Tunbridge Wells Sandstone, which
forms part of the Hastings Beds (see Area 6). Unusual sandstone bluffs have
weathered out to produce features similar in form to the granite tors of South-
west England, which are much prized by outdoor groups and rock climbers.
FIG 213. Bedrock succession for Area 12.
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