Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
FIG
314.
Looking northwestward over Hickling Broad (Fig. 294,
d9
). (Copyright London
Aerial Photo Library)
FIG
315.
Looking southeastwards across the Halvergate Marshes (Fig. 294,
d10
) to-
wards Great Yarmouth on the coast. (Copyright Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Ser-
vice & Derek A. Edwards)
Figures 313 and 314 show the typical pattern of lakes and channels, most of which
have been created and/or modified by excavations. Particularly characteristic are the
long, narrow islands that were left as the margins of some of the excavations. These
Broads are the result of excavating a swamped wetland area on one side of the River
Thurne, which terminates in the young beach deposits and the present-day coastline
only 5 km away.
The straightness of the railway and road in Figure 315 contrasts strongly with the
meandering form of the River Bure. The flatness of the Halvergate Marshes and the
position of the coastline both reflect the level reached by the sea during its last Flandri-
an rise.
Surrounding the very flat valley floors occupied by the Broads are large areas of
slightly higher ground with soils that are particularly productive. The 'island' of Flegg
(
d10
), just north of Great Yarmouth, is very largely within our definition of the coastal
flooding zone, and must certainly have been an island at former times of high sea level.
