West, Ian. 2018. Hengistbury Head: Geological Bibliography and References. Geology of the Wessex Coast of Southern England. Internet site: wessexcoastgeology.soton.ac.uk/hengbib.htm. Version: 24th July 2018.
Geology of Hengistbury Head - Bibliography Ian West
Romsey, Hampshire

and:
Faculty of Natural and Environmental Sciences,
Southampton University,

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Akinlotan, O. 2017. Sideritic ironstones as indicators of depositional environments in the Weald Basin (Early Cretaceous) SE England. By Oladapo Akinlotan. 7th December. 2017.
Abstract: The Lower Cretaceous Wealden sideritic ironstones have a wide occurrence and great potential to aid the reconstruction of the depositional environments of the Weald Basin in SE England. However, mineralogical and geochemical datasets on the ironstones are scarce in the literature. Geochemical and mineralogical data on the sideritic ironstones are presented from the Wadhurst Clay Formation within the Weald Basin. The mineralogy of the ironstones was examined using a PANalytical X'Pert Pro X-ray diffractometer and PANalytical's HighScore Plus software. Elemental composition of the ironstones was measured using a PANalytical MiniPal2 ED-XRF (benchtop X-ray spectrometer). The examination of the mineralogy of the Wealden ironstones confirms the presence of early diagenetic siderites. The trace-element assemblage shows that the sideritic ironstones are chemically pure pointing to a freshwater origin. The sideritic ironstones reveal anoxic conditions and palaeo-salinity in the basin. More generally, it is suggested that the composition of the host rocks has significant controls on the composition of sideritic ironstones in sedimentary basins. This work reinforces the importance of the composition of sideritic ironstones as useful non-traditional data for understanding the depositional settings of sedimentary basins, especially when traditional datasets are not readily available or insufficient.
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Allen, L.G. and Gibbard, P.L. 1993. Pleistocene evolution of the Solent River of southern England. Quaternary Science Reviews, Elsevier, 12, 503-528. Authors are both from the Subdepartment of Quaternary Research, Botany School, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EA, UK. Abstract: The Solent River no longer exists since most of its course was drowned by eustatic sea level rise during the Flandrian Stage (Holocene). Previously, it flowed eastwards across southeast Dorset and south Hampshire as an extension of the River Frome. As such, it formed the axial major stream of the Hampshire Basin. A sequence of fluvial aggradations, ranging in height from 125 m O.D. to below sea level, provide evidence of the former courses of this substantial river and its tributaries. Detailed study of the deposits, supported by analysis of clast lithological assemblages provide the basis for the recognition of a series of lithostratigraphical units throughout the area. The facies and sedimentary structures indicate that the bulk of the deposits accumulated in a braided river environment under periglacial climates. Late Pleistocene fossiliferous sediments of Ipswichian and Flandrian age provide a biostratigraphical framework.The results demonstrate that the Solent River was a substantial system, comparable in size to the present Thames, and was a tributary ofthe 'Channel River' during periods of low sea level (cold stages). Evolution of the river reflects its response to climatic change, local geological structure and long term tectonic activity. Although datable deposits limit determination of the age of the Solent River sequence, it is undoubtedly of considerable antiquity and potentially extends back to the Early Pleistocene. Discussion of the sequence includes placing the events within their regional context. [End of abstract. - Notes: This is an important paper on the Pleistocene deposits of the southern Hampshire Basin. Many gravel terraces are recognised and named, but are not correlated in detail with the numbered terraces of the British Geological Survey (Southampton and Bournemouth sheets). The paper includes discussion of the following gravel terraces in the Bournemouth-Southampton area from lowest to highest: Pennington Gravel (Pennington near Lymington, and with Ipswichian Interglacial deposits); Lepe Lower Gravel (Lepe Beach, under the Interglacial deposit, pre-Ipswichian); North End Copse / Holdenhurst Gravel; Pennington Gravel / Burton Rough Gravel/ Southbourne Gravel; ; Lepe Upper Gravel (Lepe Beach, Devensian); Milford-on-Sea Gravel / Bransgore Gravel /Knighton Lodge Gravel; Stanswood Bay Gravel / West Southbourne Gravel / Taddiford Farm Gravel / High Cliff Gravel / Ensbury Park Gravel; Tom's Down Gravel (near Fawley); Old Milton Gravel; Mount Pleasant Gravel; Setley Plain Gravel (New Forest); Beaulieu Heath Gravel (New Forest); Tiptoe Gravel; Sway Gravel; Holmsley Ridge Gravel (western New Forest); Whitefield Hill Gravel. The Wareham-Dorchester Pleistocene gravels are also discussed. The paper includes interesting data on gravel composition, mostly flint and chert and including the presence of Portland Rhaxella chert and oolitic chert and Upper Greensand chert.]


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Bale, B. 1984. Mineralogical and geochemical studies of the Upper Eocene sediments in the Hampshire Basin of southern England. 483 pages of text, plus a section of about another 50 to 100 pages of diagrams, photographs etc. Faculty of Science; Geology, University of Southampton. For Doctor of Philosophy. By Dr. Babatunde Bale, known informally at Southampton University as Tunde Bale. This big thesis was supervised by Trevor Clayton (now retired, Southampton University) and by the late Dr. Mike Cosgrove formerly of Southampton University. (Ian West assisted on parts). This research received financial support from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria under its Staff Development Programme. Note, this is a very large and impressive thesis of particularly good quality. Not much of this, if any, seems to have been formally published.

Abstract: Sediments of the marine Barton Clay Formation, Barton Sand Formation, and the non-marine 'Lower Headon Beds' exposed along the coastal cliffs on mainland Hampshire and Isle of Wight have been investigated mineralogically and geochemically... Sandy-clays and quartz-sand predominate and are dominated by quartz, clays and microcline feldspar with small amounts of anatase, goethite, pyrite, albite, oligoclase, biogenic calcite, aragonite and organic-carbon. The clay assemblage comprises degraded illite, smectite, kaolinite, illite-smectite and traces of chlorite... Geochemically the sediments are silica-rich but poor in alkali and alkaline-earths. Their trace element contents shows strong associations with clays and feldspars; whilst substantial concentrations of As, Ce, Cr, Cu, I, Mn, Pb, Zn occur with plant remains and/or carbonates. In general the sediments show no significant facies-related compositional variation nor evidence for substantial diagenetic alteration... Support is provided for sediment derivation from Cretaceous sediments and infrabasinally-exposed Tertiary sediments on adjoining land areas in England and horst structures in the English Channel. Continuous low-scale tectonic movements and episodic eustatic sea-level fluctuations caused alternating periods of slow, clayey deposition and relatively shorter periods of rapid sandy sandy sedimentation... Palaeosols related to red-yellow podzols and hydromorphic swamps have been identified. These contain abundant authigenic kaolinite and goethite. Lepidocrocite, jarosite and gypsum occur in association with the hydromorphic palaeosols, although these are difficult to distinguish from Recent weathering products... Authigenesis of Fe- and Ca-rich phases was widespread. Freshwater limestones were formed, dominantly composed of micritic low-Mg calcites. Glauconitic -mica formed in the Barton Clay, predominantly within microfossil tests. Its time of formation appears to be substantially less than previously considered likely. Calcian-siderite ironstones and ferroan-calcite septarian concretions formed in early diagenesis at very shallow depths. The siderite shows between 1 and 10 mol% Ca2+ substitution. The substitution is facies related, and greatest in marine and 'brackish' sediments. Ferroan calcite occurs in association with glauconie within marine sediments only. It is believed to form rather than siderite as a result of the early depletion of iron-oxide during glauconitisation. The formation of these low-Mg carbonate phases is unusual at shallow depths, and is believed to result from the high influx of iron-oxide and dissolved CaCO3... The clay assemblage, the red-yellow podzol palaeosols and the authigenic phases, together, suggest the prevalence of a warm, humid, probably sub-tropical palaeoclimate with moderate-intense weathering and active erosion. [End of Abstract].
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Barton, R.N.E. 1992. Hengistbury Head, Dorset. Vol. 2. Oxford.
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Baumann, L.M.F., Birget, D., Wagreich, M. and Peckman, J. 2016. Microbially-driven formations of Cenozoic siderite and calcite concretions from eastern Austria. Austrian Journal of Earth Sciences, Werne, 2016, vol. 109/2. By Lydia M. J. Baumann, Daniel Bergel, Michael Wagreich and Jorn Peckmann. (authors from Germany and Austria).
Abstract: Carbonate concretions from two distinct settings have been studied for their petrography, carbon and oxygen stable isotope patterns, and lipid biomarker inventories. Siderite concretions are enclosed in a Paleocene-Eocene deep marine succession with sandy to silty turbidites and marl layers from the Goseau Basin in northern Styria. Septarian calcite concretions of the southern Vienna Basin from the sandpit of Steinbrunn (Burgenland) are embedded in Upper Miocene brackish sediments, represented by calcareous sands, silts and clays.
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Blondeau , A. and Pomerol, C. 1964. Contribution a l'etude sedimentologique de l'Eocene du Kent et du Hampshire. Mem. Bur. Rech. Geol. Min., 28, 579-584.

Blondeau, A. and Pomerol, C. 1968. Contribution to the sedimentological study of the Palaeogene of England. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 79, 441-456.
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Bray , M.J. and Carter, D.J. 1996. Poole Bay and Hengistbury Head. In: Allison, R. (ed) Landforms of East Dorset. Geologists' Association Guide, Geologists' Association, London.

Bray, M. and Hooke, J. 1998a. Spatial perspectives in coastal defence and conservation strategies. Pp.115-132 in: Hooke, J. 1998. Coastal Defence and Earth Science Conservation. The Geological Society of London, Burlington House, London. 270 pp. ISBN 1-897799-96-9. [This paper puts forward broad theories and principles but also uses specific examples from Poole Bay, Bournemouth, Hengistbury Head, Christchurch Bay and Hurst Spit.]

Bray, M. and Hooke, J. 1998b. Geomorphology and management sites in Poole and Christchurch Bay. (with contributions by other authors) Pp.233-266 in: Hooke, J. 1998. Coastal Defence and Earth Science Conservation. The Geological Society of London, Burlington House, London. 270 pp. ISBN 1-897799-96-9.
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Bridgland , D.R. 2000. River terrace systems in north-west Europe: an archive of environmental change, uplift and early human occupation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 19, 1293-1303. Abstract: Staircases of large-scale aggradational river terraces are a notable feature of many valleys in the temperate latitudes, particularly in areas beyond the reach of erosive activities of Pleistocene ice sheets. It is now recognised that the cyclic fluctuations of climate during the Quaternary have driven the generation of terraces, throught the direct and indirect influence of both climate and precipitation on fluviatile activity. Where fossiliferous deposits are preserved within terrace sequences it is often possible to date these and to correlate them with the oceanic record, thus providing an important framework for the evidence of environmental change on land. Middle and Late Pleistocene terraces in different areas can commonly be seen to have formed in synchrony with glacial-interglacial cycles or with longer-periodicity megacycles. Climatic forcing alone is insufficient to cause terraces to form, however; uplift is also necessary, so that terrace sequences can provide a useful record of crustal movement. In northwest Europe, where some of the best known studies of river terrace sequences have been carried out, the fluviatile deposits are also an important repository for Palaeolithic artifacts, from which a record of early human occupation can be constructed. End of Abstract. [Notes relevant to the Solent area: p. 1294 - ..many rivers today flow in valleys that formerly extended over wide areas of continental shelf, but have been truncated by the Holocene marine transgression, which inundated and submerged their lower reaches. A future fall in sea-level would merely lead these rivers to extend themselves into these drowned reaches once again, with no requirement for significant incision." p. 1296 - "In addition to the contrast between terrace systems formed in synchony with glacial-interglacial climatic change and others with fewer terraces, perhaps driven by climatic megacycles, it seems that some sequences contain more terraces than there are full climatic cyles with which to correlate them. An example is the Solent terrace system in southern England (Fig. 5)." - Fig 5 is a very useful diagram showing a staircase of 12 terraces above sea-level, each named and their relationships in height to raised beach deposits. p. 1300. - " The extensive terrace staircase of the Solent River, for example, preserves biostratigraphic evidence only within its lowest terraces, but has yielded substantial collections of artefacts.... The terrace formed by the Taddiford Farm Gravel (Allen and Gibbard, 1994) is the richest in artefacts.." p. 1300 - " Britain, which had become an island during high sea-level phases by the late Middle Pleistocene (Preece, 1995), was apparently not occupied by humans during the last interglacial (Substage 5e).." p. 1300 - "Terraces have only formed in areas that have experienced uplift during this period and the heights of terraces above valley floors may be seen as an approximate measure of crustal elevation since the deposits were laid down. The redistribution of eroded material from fluvial catchments to depositional basins or marginal catchment areas, a process in which rivers themselves may have been the main agents, may be responsible for the uplift by causing an isostatic response to crustal unloading.."

Bridgland, D.R. 2001. The Pleistocene evolution and palaeolithic occupation of the Solent River. Pp. 15-25 in: Wenban-Smith, F.F. and Horsfield, R.T. 2001. Palaeolithic Archaeology of the Solent River, Proceedings of the Lithic Studies Society day meeting held at the Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton on Saturday 15th January, 2000. Lithic Studies Society Occasional Paper No. 7 (2001). Published by the Lithic Studies Society, c/o British Museum (Quaternary Section), Franks House, 38-46 Orsman Road, London, N1 5QJ. ISBN 0-9513246-3-2, ISSN 0950-9208. 111 pp., paperback. Abstract: The Solent River, its valley now beneath the seaway between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland, was an important agent of drainage in the Hampshire Basin throughout the Pleistocene. During this time it left an extensive staircase of north-bank terraces, now forming the hinterland to the south coast, with comparable terraces extending up the more important tributary rivers. Many of the terraces dating from the Middle Pleistocene contain Lower Palaeolithic artefacts, although these are absent from the older terraces, which pre-date human occupation, and from the lowest terraces and valley-floor gravels, which signifies the disappearance of humans from Britain prior to the last interglacial. Only the last two lnterglacials are directly represented within the sedimentological sequences of the Solent and its tributaries, so it is necessary to turn to other evidence to assess the ages of the higher terraces. Palaeolithic archaeology, perhaps surprisingly, provides a number of age indications. The first appearance of artefacts is thought likely to be around 600,000 years ago; then twisted ovates are prevalent in assemblages from OIS 11, suggesting that the Old Milton Gravel incorporates material of that age; finally Levallois technique appears in the Taddiford Farm Gravel, which by analogy with the Thames is therefore thought to date from around the OIS 9/8 transition. The Solent has more Middle Pleistocene terraces than other UK rivers, perhaps because rejuvenation has taken place twice during each climatic cycle. The age indications from the archaeological data enable some attempt at modelling the formation of these terraces in response to both climate change and background uplift, although the results remain speculative. [This is a key paper with particularly good, new maps of the Solent River system.]
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Bristow, C.R., Freshney, E.C. and Penn, I.E. 1991. Geology of the Country Around Bournemouth. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, for 1:50,000 geological sheet 329 (England and Wales). London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 116 pp. Large green paperback. ISBN 0-11-884377-X. British Geological Survey. Natural Environment Research Council. [This excellent memoir has much useful information on Hengistbury Head, in addition to that on various parts of Bournemouth, Poole, Wimborne and Ferndown areas. It is a key reference work and purchase is recommended.]
Preface: Bournemouth and Poole together represent one of the most rapidly expanding urban areas in the United Kingdom. This memoir describes the geology of the district covered by the Bournemouth 1:50,000 (329) geological sheet, published in 1991. Most of the district is underlain by Tertiary sedimentary deposits. Detailed stratigraphic sequences have been delineated on the map and described in the memoir, providing a sound framework for anticipating and solving geological problems likely to be encountered during the continued, rapid urban expansion. Potential hazards aresing from landslips, extensive areas of landfill, solution-collapse hollows developed on Tertiary formations close to the outcrop of Chalk, and former areas of underground clay extraction have been identified. Areas of bulk minerals sucha as sand, gravel and brickearth adn brickclay are described. Of some economic importance to the area is the Wytch Farm Oilfield, the largest onshore oilfield in Western Europe. Its structure and stratigraphy is desribed in detail. (Peter J. Cook, Director, British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, NG12 5GG, 1st April, 1991).
Example extract re: Hengistbury Head, pp. 66 to part 67 (by Freshney and Bristow)
Barton Clay [i.e. the "Hengistbury Beds" of previous literature at Hengistbury Head, the main clays with ironstone nodules in the cliffs; different from the typical Barton Clay at Barton.]
The formation crops out in the east from the coast at Highcliffe, northward to Crow [SZ 170 037], east of Ringwood; most of the outcrop is obscured by river terrace deposits. There is an outlier at Hengistbury Head, and an inlier near Burley in the north-east.
The formation, 26 to 60m. thick, consists of mainly yellow-weathering, greenish grey to olive-grey, commonly glauconitic clay, with a varied content of both disseminated and bedded, very fine-grained sand, particularly at the western end of Hengistbury Head (p. 72). Ironstone nodules are particularly common at Hengistbury Head where they are present at four levels (Figure 18). The nodules were quarried and collected from the foreshore for iron-making between 1847 and 1865 (Tylor, 1850; West, 1886). The Barton Clay is usually strongly bioturbated with little sand of lamination. Where unweathered, the clays are commonly shelly; the upper part of the formation is particularly rich in bivalves [but note that, in practice, it is extremely difficult to find fossils at Hengistbury Head; they are only very rarely seen].
Above the glauconitic clays in the cliff section at Warren Hill, Hengistbury, there are about 10m of very fine-grained, buff and yellow, unfossiliferous, cross-bedded sands overlain by river terrace deposits (Plate 8). The sands were first noted by Lyell (1827), but not named until 1879 when Gardner referred them to the Highcliff (sic) Sands on the basis of their supposed correlation with sands (the Boscombe Sands) that crop out under the Barton Clay at Highcliffe [SZ 200 929]. A new name Warren Hill Sand, was proposed after the type section at Warren Hill [SZ 1700 9050), Hengistbury, by Freshney et al. (1984, p. 46). Although thin beds of lithologically similar sand occur in the Barton Clay beneath the Warren Hill Sand, the base of the latter appears to be sharp; the junction is only exposed in the upper part of the cliff and is not easily accessible.
Various definations of the base of the Barton Clay have been proposed. Prestwich (1849) took it at the base of the pebble bed beneath a glauconitic sandy clay at Highcliffe Castle [SZ 203 931]. Keeping (1887) followed by Curry et al. (1978), adopted the incoming of the the foraminifera [Nummulites prestwichianus] as the base of the Barton Clay, at an horizon about 3m above that chosen by Prestwich and within an apparently uniform glauconitic sandy clay. At Highcliffe, Prestwich's basal bed consists of well-rounded black flint pebbles, set in a sandy glauconitic clay. At Hengistbury, a similar clay locally rests on on a cobble gravel at the top of the Boscombe Sand (Freshney et al., 1984, fig. 7; Plate 7). In places hereabouts, the cobbles have been incorporated into the basal bed of the Barton Clay; thus it resembles the pebble bed at Highcliffe. Elsewhere at Hengistbury, the cobble bed is only locally well developed and the Barton Clay commonly rests on clean, very well-sorted, very fine-grained sand, up to 1.25 m thick, with a lower cobble bed locally well developed at its base. Plint (1983c, fig. 2; 1983b, fig. 6) regarded the base of the cobble bed beneath the fine-grained sand (the base of his T5 transgression) as the base of the Barton Clay.
For mapping purposes, a boundary taken either at the level of incoming of N. prestwichianus (following Keeping, 1887), or at the base of the lower cobble bed (following Plint, 1938b; c) is impractical. The present authors have therefore followed Prestwich's (1849) definition, because it is based on a persistant lithological change that can be traced inland. [text continues on p. 67, referring to Gardner, Lyell and Hooker etc.]
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British Geological Survey Map . 1991. 1:50000 Series, England and Wales Sheet 329, Bournemouth. Solid and Drift Geology. [see the notes above, as listed under Bristow] Resurveyed on 1:10,000 scale by C.R. Bristow, E.C. Freshney and B.J. Williams in 1984-86. Resurvey largely funded by the Department of the Environment (D.O.E.). See also Memoir by Bristow, C.R., Freshney, E.C. and Penn, I.E. 1991. Geology of the Country around Bournemouth. Memoir for 1,50,000 geological sheet 329 (England and Wales) B.G.S. London, 116p.( Note division of "Bagshot Sands" into Poole Formation, Branksome Sand Formation and Boscombe Sand Formation.)
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British Medical Association (1934). The Book of Bournemouth. Written for the the One Hundred and Second Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association held at Bournemouth in July, 1934. President Dr. S. Watson Smith. Published at Bournemouth, 1934. 212 pages. [See particularly Henry Bury on: the geology of Bournemouth and the Isle of Purbeck, although it does not have detail on Hengistbury Head. "The rate of recession of the shore-line has probably varied from time to time, but at the end of the last century, before the erection of the present sea-walls, it amounted to about two and a half feet per annum at Southbourne."]

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Burton, E. St. J. - Mr. Edward St. John Burton, of Barton-on-Sea, the Barton Clay fossil collector and specialist (and also a violinist). He was a very enthusiastic and very successful amateur palaeontologist and collector who wrote the key papers on Barton fossils and stratigraphy. He lived in a bungalow above the Barton cliffs at a time when there no sea defences on any scale. I met him once at Bournemouth Natural Science Society. In one of his papers he gave a complete list of Barton Fossils. He also discussed some inland exposures of Barton strata.

Burton, E. St.J. 1925. The Barton Beds of Barton Cliff. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, (Southampton). Section Transactions C, 312-314.

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Burton, E. St.J. 1929. The horizons of Bryozoa (Polyzoa) in the Upper Eocene Beds of Hampshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 85, 223-241. By Ernest St.John Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S.
"1. Introduction.
This communication is the purpose of describing the horizons on which Bryozoa (Polyzoa) occur in the Upper Eocene Beds (marine clays and sands) of Hampshire. No claim is made to establish special zones with particular species confined to them, but those beds are indicated that contain a relative abundance or defiency of bryozoan remains, within the three broad divisions of the Upper Eocene (Lower, Middle and Upper Barton Beds). .. The geology of this portion of the Hampshire Basin may first be briefly reviewed. The Barton Clay and Barton Sand form part of the well-known Hampshire Syncline, and are exposed at Christchurch Bay, and also at Alum Bay and Whitecliff Bay, in the Isle of Wight. The type-section at Barton Cliffs on the mainland consists of sandy clays in the lower part (50 feet), dark sandy clays and stiff drab clays in the middle part (56 feet), and clayey sands and light-coloured sands in the upper part (96 feet). (Total= 202 feet)."

Burton, E. St.J. 1931. Periodic changes in the position of the Run at Mudeford, near Christchurch, Hants. Proceedings of the Geologists's Association, 42, 157-174. By E. St. John Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S. Received May 17, 1930.
Example extract:
"1. Introduction: The entrance to Christchurch Harbour, in Hampshire, provides an interesting study uf the physiographical conditions of the adjacent coast-line. The sand-and-shingle spit formed across the mouth of the harbour, attracted attention and received comment many years ago, and the neighbourhood has on several occasions been visited by the Geologists' Association, a first Easter Field Meeting having taken place in 1880. The present account constitutes an attempt to investigate some contributory phenomena connected with the Run. This forms the outlet of Christchurch Harbour, and is the mouth of the two rivers; the Stour and the Avon, which below Christchurch Priory (situated upon a tongue of land between the rivers), unite their waters in the final passage to the sea eastward of Mudeford this being one and half miles south-east from Christchurch. The harbour is one mile across at the widest part. The channel known as the Run, where the combined rivers reach the sea, has a width of rather less than 100 yards at highwater mark of ordinary tides opposite the quay at Mudeford. This channel broadens eastward to the extent of 200 yards nearer Cliff End, south-west of Highcliff. It enters open water at a variable point between" Gundimore" (marked on the 6 in. map) and Cliff End. During the ebb-tide, the current attains a velocity of 4. to 5 knots. The apparently anomalous course taken by the Run with respect to the geographical disposition of the land in the vicinity, is rather striking. and it may be expedient to notice such features as constitute interdependent factors in determining relationship with the direction and opening of the Run. It is here inferred that the original entrance of the Stour, and probably of the Avon also, was situated along the northern flank of Hengistbury Head, in the Recent period, when, by the presumably gradual accumulation of a bar of shingle forming an extension towards the north-east, direct egress at this point (Hengistbury Head) became impracticable, and the entrance was by degrees deflected in the direction of Mudeford." [continues]

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Burton, E. St.J. 1933. Faunal horizons of the Barton Beds of Hampshire. Proceedings of the Geologist's Association, vol. 44, Part 2, pp 131-167. [Classic paper by St-John Burton on the fossils of Barton-on-Sea with a large and important faunal list.]
1. Introduction.
This paper describes the precise horizongs of the Upper Eocene species within the three main divisions fof the Barton Beds (Lower, Middle and Upper). A special effort has been made by investigation of the 14 subdivisions composing the Barton Clay and Sand, th ascertain the frequency or rarity of all the specific forms, and to define the horizons at which they occur.
The type section at Christchurch Bay, Hampshire, indicated on the Geological Survey Maps: 'Bournemouth', Sheet 329 [this is a reference to the old edition, there is now a new one which should be seen], and 'Lymington' Sheet 330 [only the old edition is available at present], is selected as eminently suited for such an enquiry.
Gardner, Keeping and Monckton [1, p. 621] state that "the List of Barton fossils comprises 23 Vertebrates, 47 Invertebrates other than Mollusca, 257 Gastropods, and 150 Bivalves, exclusive of 120 undetermined species.
A catalogue of Older Cainozoic fossils from the Isle of Wight has lately been published [2, pp. 340-73], and with more additions made in 1928 [2, pp. 571-9], show a total of more than 200 species collected from the Upper Eocene portion of the Lower Tertiary Beds.
The catalogues also contains notes of additional horizons for species recorded in the earlier Survey Lists [3], and is the most complete that has appeared, having regard to the difficulty of collecting from nearly vertical strata and consequently narrow outcrops.
The faunal list accompanying the present paper is restricted to the records of species, the horizons of which are known to the author, but opportunities for thorough collecting from the Barton Beds may in the future be less advantageous [this is true! - Ian West, 2013], and it is thought advisable to make known the exact horizons where the species are found.
The accuracy of the records may be considered as less equivocal than would be the case if they had been obtained by indirect means. The number of species collected by the author [St.John Burton] is 480: 24 species are new to the Bartonian of England. A substantial increase is made to the list of invertebrates not mollusca, and some additional records of vertebrates (Pisces) are also included. .... [continues]..
[See particularly the long list of fossils on p. 151 to 161. This is too long to reproduce here, but it is a key work on Barton fauna:
VII, LIST OF FOSSILS,
[indating VC - very common; C - common; F - frequent; NC - not common; R - rare; VR - very rare.
[The list shows the abundance according, using the above letters, for the following horizons:
Lower Barton - A1, A2, A3, B
Middle Barton - C, D, E, F
Upper Barton - G [the Stone Band], H [Chama Bed], I, J, K.
The list now continues with nine and a half pages of small print. It cannot feasibly be reproduced here and the reader is recommended to obtain the original paper by Burton.

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Bury , H. 1934. The geology of Bournemouth and the Isle of Purbeck. By Henry Bury. Pp. 1-12 in: British Medical Association (1934). The Book of Bournemouth. Written for the the One Hundred and Second Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association held at Bournemouth in July, 1934. President Dr. S. Watson Smith. Published at Bournemouth, 1934. 212 pages. ["The rate of recession of the shore-line has probably varied from time to time, but at the end of the last century, before the erection of the present sea-walls, it amounted to about two and a half feet per annum at Southbourne." No detail on Hengistbury Head is provided.]
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Bushe-Fox, J. P. 1915. Excavations at Hengistbury Head, Hampshire, in 1911 - 12 Book, 83pp. . Oxford. Volume 3 of Reports of Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries, London. Series, Volume 3 (Two copies are held at the Talbot Campus of Bournemouth University). By Joscelyn Plunket Bushe-Fox, George Francis Hill (and one other author). Published by Horris Hart for the Society of Antiquaries. [Eleven of the round barrows of Hengistbury Head were excavated; three by Bushe Fox in 1911–12. There was later excavation by B.W. Cunliffe 1979-1984 (Cunliffe, 1987).
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Calkin , J.B. and Green, J.F.N. 1949. Palaeoliths and terraces near Bournemouth. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 15, 21-37.
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Carter , R.W.G., Allen, J.R.L., Carr, A.P., Nicholls, R.J. and Orford, J.D. 1991. Coastal sedimentary environments of southern England, south Wales and southeast Ireland. 13th International Sedimentological Congress, Nottingham U.K. 1990, Field Guide, No. 2. 86p.

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[Palaeobotanical work by Marjorie Elizabeth Jane Chandler (1897-1983). Marjorie Chandler was a young palaeobotanist from Newnham College, Cambridge, who worked with the palaeobotanists and geologists Eleanor and Clement Reid, who lived at Milford-on-Sea, close to the Barton cliffs. Chandler published much on the local south coast region. She was supported by grants from the Natural History Museum, London.]

Chandler , M.E.J. 1960. [or may be 1961 - exact date of publication uncertain] Plant Remains of the Hengistbury and Barton Beds. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Geology), vol. 4, (1959-1961) No. 6, pp. 191-238, The British Museum (Natural History), London.
Abstract:
Plants are described from the isolated headland of Hengistbury, Hampshire and the Bartonian of Highcliffe and Barton on the mainland. The geology of Hengistbury Head is briefly discussed and alternative suggestions as to the position of these beds with reference to the the Bartonian and pre-Bartonian are summarised, especial mention in this connection being made of Mr. D. Curry's [Dennis Curry's] discovery of Nummulites prestwichianus in the Upper Hengistbury Beds [now regarded as part of the Lower Barton Clay]. The distribution of the plants in the strata and a plant-list are given showing eighteen families, twenty-one genera. Twenty-four species are described. The large number of water plants is noted and the presence of tropical elements in Nipa and Mastixioideae. Almost as many species pass into the Barton or younger beds as are found in the Bournemouth Marine Beds and Highcliff Sands [what does Highcliff Sands mean here? Probably the Boscombe Sands in the modern sense.]
For Bartonian geology use is made of E. St. John Burton's detailed classification of the strata. Earlier records of plants are few but recent discoveries have added much to our knowledge of the Lower Bartonian plants, especially of Horizon A. The plant-list of the whole Bartonian comprises seventeen families, twentyotwo genera. At least twenty-eight species are described. Again a fairly large number of water plants are present and the characteristic tropical families Capparidaceae, Anonaceae, Icacinaceae and Mastixioideae occur. A species of Stratiotes, common in the Bournemouth Marine and Hengistbury Beds, dies out at the top of the Bartonian. The plants alone do not appear at present to throw any light on the relationship of the Hengistbury Beds to the coastal sequence.
[end of abstract]
Introduction.
In the following pages plant remains from two sites in close geographical proximity are described. The specimens are due to the persevering efforts of Mr. D. Curry unless otherwise stated.
The deposits of Hengistbury Head, Hampshire, have been regarded by workers as Auversian or Bartonian.
The Barton Beds of the type section at Highcliff and Barton clifs in the same county on the mainland include the Highcliff Sands [now considered as Bracklesham, Boscombe Sands] of Cliff End near Mudeford, Hampshire (see Table, Chandler, 1960: 8).
The limits of the formation adopted are those given by E. St. John Burton in 1933. The Barton Beds are truely marine and well-documented with a rich fauna. They pass gradulaly upward at Beckton Bunny [Becton Bunny] through transition beds into estuarine and freshwater deposits of the Lower Headon [now part of the Headon Hill Formation] of Hordle Cliff.
[End of Introduction. The text continues with the next section on: 1 The Hengistbury Beds, 1. Geology.]
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Chandler, M.E.J. 1963. Lower Tertiary Floras of Southern England, 3. Flora of the Bournemouth Beds, the Boscombe and Highcliff Sands. British Museum (Natural History).

Chandler, M.E.J. 1964. The Lower Tertiary Floras of Southern England, IV, A Summary and Survey of Findings in the Light of Recent Botanical Observations, British Museum (Natural History), London, 151 pp.

Chandler. [For Headon Beds flora see also Reid and Chandler.]
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Chapman , F. 1913. On some foraminifera from the Eocene Beds of Hengistbury Head, Hampshire. Geological Magazine, Decade 5, volume 10, December 1913. pp. 555-559. By Frederick Chapman, Palaeontologist to the National Museum, Melbourne. The article is available online from Cambridge Journals for a fee. It is also in the online State Library of New South Wales, Australia (Mitchell Library). (Frederick Chapman (13 February 1864 - 10 December 1943) was the inaugural Australian Commonwealth Palaeontologist. There is an account of his life in Wikipedia)
Extract: In the March Number of this Magazine Mr. Cowper Reed recorded the interesting discovery of a series of fossils which points to a Bartonian horizon for the Hengistbury ironstone. Upon reading this paper I was reminded of some chocolate-coloured clays with Foraminifera which I had collected from a seam between the ironstone bands at Hengistbury Head in August, 1895. The washings from these clays afforded abundant tests of arenaceous forms; and since, so far as I am aware, no Foraminifera have yet been recorded from this locality, it may be of some interest to publish the results of an examination of the material collected.
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Christchurch Borough Council. 1997. Mudeford Sandbank C.P.W.: Environmental Impact Assessment. Christchurch Borough Council, Christchurch, Dorset.
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Cooper, J. 1976. British Tertiary Stratigraphical and Rock Terms, Formal and Informal, Additional to Curry, 1958, Lexique Stratigraphique International. Tertiary Research Special Paper, No.1, 37pp. 1 pl.

Cooper, N.J. and Harlow, D.A. 1998. Beach replenishment: implications for sources and longevity from the results of the Bournemouth schemes. Pp. 162-177 in: Hooke, J. 1998. Coastal Defence and Earth Science Conservation. The Geological Society of London, Burlington House, London. 270 pp. ISBN 1-897799-96-9. Abstract: Beach replenishment is an effective shoreline management tool which can restore immediately coast protection and amenity functions of a beach... Issues concerning sediment sources and replenishment schemes longevity need to be addressed as future scheme use proliferates... From analysis of a long-term beach monitoring record in Poole Bay, southern England, it is suggested that a viable trade-off can be made between tight particle size grading control and the presence of retention structures in the design of effective replenishment schemes... The conservation of sediment resources is essential if replenishment is to be a sustainable option in the longer term. [This paper includes a map, Fig. 13.1 on page 165, which shows surveyed profiles in Poole Bay and includes Hengistbury Head. All the groynes are shown numbered on this map. The Long Groyne of Hengistbury is G 61, for example. See also May, 1990.]
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Cope, J.C.W. 2012. Geology of the Dorset Coast. Geologists' Association Guide, No. 22. 232pp., with many colour photographs and diagrams. New edition by John C.W. Cope. (See also the earlier editions by House, M.R. 1989 and 1993.). Also a second edition in 2016.
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Copley , G.J. 1958. An Archaeology of South-East England. A Study in Continuity. Pheonix House Ltd., London, 324 pp.


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Costa , L.I. and Downie, C. 1976. The distribution of the dinoflagellate Wetzeliella in the Palaeogene of north-western Europe. Palaeontology, 19, 591-691.

Costa, L.I., Downie, C. and Eaton, G.L. 1976. Palynostratigraphy of some Eocene sections from the Hampshire Basin (England). Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, London, 87, 273-284. Microplankton assenblages from the coastal sections at Bournemouth and Hengistbury Head and from a section in the New Forest have been studied. The dinoflagellate evidence indicates tha the Hengistbury Beds above the Nummulites prestwichianus Bed correlate with the lowermost Barton Beds of the type-section, and that the Bracklesham/Barton boundary at Hengistbury Head probably coincides with the position of the Nummulites prestwichianus Bed. The Hengistbury Beds below the Nummulites prestwichianus Bed, the Boscombe Sands and the Bournemouth Marine Beds, correspond with the youngest microplankton zone of the Bracklesham Beds, their time equivalents lying within the interval represented at Prestwich's beds 25-29 at Alum Bay and Fisher's beds XVII-XIX at Whitecliff Bay. The sediments from the Studley Wood section also appear to be belong to this zone.
[Note that there is a disagreement here in that these authors place the Bracklesham/Barton boundary at the Nummulites prestwichianus Bed (and this is shown by them higher in the section than by Curry (1977)). Bristow et al. (1991) have taken the base of the "Lower Hengistbury Beds", i.e. just above the Boscombe Sands as the base of the Barton Clay Formation and in lithological terms this seems sensible.]
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Cunliffe , B. 1978. Hengistbury Head. Elek Books Ltd. 54-58 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9RN. ISBN 0 236 40125 4 (cased), 0 236 40107 6 (paperback). 95 pp. London. Printed by the Camelot Press, Southampton. By Professor Barry Cunliffe, Professor of European Archaeology, University of Oxford. Contents: 1. The site and its early exploitation. 2. Trading port and oppidium: the archaeological evidence. 3. Hengistbury as a port of trade. Appendix A. The present location of the archaeological material. Appendix B. The Hengistbury barrows. Appendix C. Iron Age coins from Hengistbury. Bibliography. Index. [This is an archaeological book on this important site, but contains much of interest to geologists.]
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Curry, D. - the late Professor Dennis Curry, the well-known, specialist on Eocene palaeontology and stratigraphy. He was a distinguished amateur geologist and researcher whose career involved running the Curry's stores. He was much involved with the Geologists' Association. He wrote many papers on the geology of the Tertiary strata of the Hampshire Basin and elsewhere.

Curry, D. 1937. The English Bartonian nummulites. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 48, 229-246.

Curry, D. 1965. The Palaeogene Beds of south-east England. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 76, (2), 151-174.

Curry, D. 1966. Problems of correlation in the Anglo-Paris-Belgian Basin. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 77, (4), 437-467.

Curry, D. 1977. (or 1976) The age of the Hengistbury Beds (Eocene) and its significance for the structure of the area around Christchurch, Dorset. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 87, Part 4, 401-408. By the late Professor Dennis Curry.
Abstract: Further evidence is adduced for correlating the Hengistbury Beds with the lower part of the Barton Beds (Upper Eocene, Hampshire Basin, England). The palaeontological evidence for the age of the Hengistbury Beds is reviewed and, although much of this is inconclusive, several elements are considered to indicate definitely a Lower Barton and not a Bracklesham age. The palaeoecology of the Hengistbury Beds is discussed and their apparently anomalous location is ascribed to the action of a fold system en echelon with the Bouldnor and Thorness synclines and the Porchfield anticline to the east. This whole group of folds is tentatively interpreted as a drag phenomenon associated with left-lateral movement along the line of the Purbeck-Isle of Wight tectonic disturbance. [end of abstract]
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Faunal evidence of the age of the Hengistbury beds
3. Lithological evidence in the cliff sections for correlation, and the nummulitic horizons.
4. The ecology of the hengistbury beds
5. Stratigraphical evidence inland
6. Structure
References
1. Introduction:
The age of the Hengistbury Beds has long been disputed. According to Prestwich (1849) they are of the same age as the lower part of the Barton Beds and the pebble beds in the cliffs at Hengistbury (SZ 175905) and Cliff End (SZ 197928), Highcliffe represent the same horizon. Gardner (1879, 212) however thought that the general easterly dip visible in the Hengistbury Head sequence continued across the Stour - Avon estuary to Cliff End and as a result decided that the pebble bed at Hengistbury was at a level some 40-50 m below that at Cliff End. As the base of the Barton Beds was defined by Fisher (1862) to occur above the pebble bed at Cliff End, Gardner relegated the Hengistbury sequence to well down in the Bracklesham Beds. A recent article by Hooker (1975) gives a comprehensive account of work published to that date and adds details of the author's recent personal investigations. The publication of this account and of a paper by Costa, Downie and Eaton (1976) makes it appropriate to publish further evidence on this long disputed question and to draw some conclusions in relation to the structure of beds in the Bournemouth-Milford area. [continues]

Curry, D., Adams, C.G., Boulter, M.C., Dilley, F.C., Eames, F.E., Funnel, B.M. and Wells, M.K. 1978. A correlation of Tertiary rocks in the British Isles. Geological Society, London, Special Report No. 12, 72pp. Abstract: This paper discusses the correlation of the Tertiary sequences of the British Isle and surroundings seas and relates them to the some important Tertiary successions of Continental Europe. In a total of five correlation tables the sections considered are related to internationally recognised biozonal schemes, to the standard chronostratigraphical scale and to a numerical time-scale. The paper includes sections on methodology and on problems of Tertiary chronostratigraphic nomenclature.

Curry, D., Hodson, F. and West, I.M. 1968. The Eocene succession in the Fawley Transmission Tunnel. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 79, 179-206. This paper mainly deals with Auversian (Upper Bracklesham strata, and some Barton Clay Formation). The data is from boreholes and site visits during the constuction of Fawley Power Station and the associated tunnel under Southampton Water. [by the Late Professor Dennis Curry, the Late Professor Frank Hodson, and with the text written mainly by Dr. Ian West]. The relevance to Hengistbury Head is that some of the strata are of approximately the same age.
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Druitt , H. 1934. Christchurch: A few notes on early Christchurch to the reign of Henry I. Pp. 67-108 in: British Medical Association (1934). The Book of Bournemouth. Written for the the One Hundred and Second Annual Meeting of the British Medical Association held at Bournemouth in July, 1934. President Dr. S. Watson Smith. Published at Bournemouth, 1934. 212 pages.
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Eaton, G.L. 1971. The use of microplankton in resolving stratigraphical problems in the Eocene of the Isle of Wight. Journal of the Geological Society, London, vol. 127, pp. 281-283.

Eaton, G.L. 1976. Dinoflagellate cysts from the Bracklesham Beds of the Isle of Wight. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), vol. 26, pp. 227-332.
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Edwards, E. 1981. A History of Bournemouth: the Growth of a Victorian Town. Phillimore, 164 pp. By Elizabeth Edwards.
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Few , R., Brown, K. and Tompkins, E.L. 2004. Scaling Adaption: Climate Change Response and Coastal Management in the the UK. Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Working Paper No. 60, 19pp, October 2004. By Dr. Roger Few, Overseas Development Group, University of East Anglia; Professor Katrina Brown, School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia; and Dr. Emma L. Tomkins, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ. This paper has been submitted to Environment and Planning A in September 2004.
[This paper discusses the future prospects of Christchurch Bay, Barton-on-Sea, Christchurch Harbour, Mudeford, Hengistbury Head etc. in term of coast erosion and flooding in relation to rising sea-level. It is available online and has a good reference list.]
Summary:
The focus of this paper is on scale dilemmas in environmental decision-making, particularly those dilemmas posed in space and time by the challenges of societal adaptation to climate change impacts. The analysis draws insights from a case study of strategic coastal management and decision-making at Christchurch Bay in southern England, where communities face long term threats of increased coastal erosion and coastal flooding. In terms of spatial scale, the paper exposes a mismatch between the broad geographical scale at which strategic planning takes place in the UK and the narrower spatial scale of decision-making on coastal management interventions. In terms of temporal scale, it finds that the time horizons of coastal planning are generally too short to mandate consideration of climate change impacts. Both sets of scale issues inhibit anticipatory response capacity of institutions, and the barriers to adaptation are particularly evident at the local decision-making scale in the context of local political, financial and technical constraints. Together, they point to a 'problem of fit' between the climate change threat and local capacity to take advance action to address that threat, under conditions of long term change and scientific uncertainty. [end of summary].

[The paper deals with climatic change and coastal management in the more difficult situation expected in the future. Amongst other topics this paper briefly mentions the possibility of a catastrophic breach to the south across the low-lying portion of Hengistbury Head. Problems of flooding around Christchurch Harbour are considered and there is discussion of Mudeford Spit.]
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Fisher , O. 1862. On the Bracklesham Beds of the Isle of Wight Basin. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 18, 263-285. [Classic paper by the Reverend Osmond Fisher, F.C.P.S., F.G.S., Fellow and Tutor of Jesus College, Cambridge. The paper contains a description of Bracklesham strata at western Highcliffe and a cliff section. The pebble bed and nummulite bed etc is discussed - see page 86 et seq.]
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Gao, S. and Collins, M.B. 1994. Beach Profile Changes and Offshore Sediment Transport Patterns Along the SCOPAC Coast: Phase 1 Technical Report. Report No. SUDO/TEC/94/95/C. Department of Oceanography, University of Southampton.
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Gardner , J.S. 1879. Description and correlation of the Bournemouth Beds. Upper Marine Series. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 35, part 2, p. 209-228. [by J. Starkie Gardner].
He considered the sands with slump or seismite feature at Highcliffe to lie above the clays with ironstone nodules of the "Hengistbury Beds. In other words, the siderite-bearing clays of Hengistbury Head are beneath the ground at Mudeford. The following extract is from page 221.
"These sands [his "Highcliffe Sands"] dip conformably with the Barton and Hordwell series, one and a half to two degrees east. The curious turn the water flowing from Christchurch Harbour has taken within the the last few years, known as the Run, has fortunately revealed the section to the very sea-level; and it is now seen that these sands rest upon another and lower series of dark sandy clay with ironstone nodules.."
[My note, 2017: thus the base of the Barton Clay Formation is not above the sands as once thought, but lower, at Hengistbury Head, and the glauconitic clays with ironstone nodules are lying, stratigraphically conformable, underneath the Haven House peninsula at Mudeford, and they have been exposed there at very low tide. If this is true, as seems likely then there is no need to involve faulting or folding. It is simply that the base of the Barton Clay is lower than was originally thought. Modern confirmation is needed, though.].
[Gardner continuing] "These [the dark sandy clays with ironstone nodules] can be almost directly traced to the headland, where they form the cliffs; for at the ferry, about midway between them, the landing place is on hard compact clay, upon and about which are alying a few indentical similar, ironstone nodules. The sands themselves, however, have not resisted denudation and, like the Boscombe Sands on the other side of the Head, have been removed from the space of a mile."
... [continues]

Gardner, J.S. 1879-1886. British Eocene Flora. Vols. 1 and 2.

Gardner, J.S. 1880. Excursion to the Hampshire Coast. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, London, vol. 6, no. 7, July, 1880, pp. 316-320. Journal edited by J. Logan Lobley, F.G.S., University College, London. Price 1s, 6d.

This field report is of some interest particularly with regard to the cliffs of Bournemouth, which were then exposing good plant fossils, and also in relation to Hengistbury Head, Barton and eastwards. It has no diagrams but the text is reproduced in full, below:

Gardner, J.S. 1882. Description and correlation of the Bournemouth Beds, Part II, Lower or Freshwater Series. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 38, pp. 1- 15. By J. Starkie Gardner, F.G.S. Esq.
"About two years ago I had the honour of laying before this Society a description of the marine beds of the Middle Bagshot, exposed between Highcliff and Bournemouth. In continuation of my former paper, I now propose completing the description of the Eocene cliffs of this part of Hampshire, as far as Poole Harbour." continues. [This paper does not relate to Hengistbury Head but to older strata (now Branksome Sand Formation etc., to a large extent to the west of Bournemouth Pier. [A reference to this paper in Bristow et al. 1981, p. 67, re "Hengistbury Beds" may be in error and perhaps should be a reference to Gardner, 1879, (Bournemouth Beds, Part 1, Upper Marine Series), QJGS, vol. 35, 209-228.]



EXCURSION TO THE HAMPSHIRE COAST.

EASTER MONDAY, MARCH 29TH, 1880 AND FOLLOWING DAY.

Director :J. STARKIE GARDNER, Esq., F.G.S.
(Report by Mr. GARDNER.)

The head-quarters of the Association were fixed at Bournemouth, and Members not arriving until Monday were indebted to Mr. Swain for procuring rooms, etc. A large number arrived during the previous week, and were able to explore the Fresh-water series to the west of Bournemouth, which could not be visited on the Monday or Tuesday. An excavation opened a few days previously by Professor Morris, Dr. Hy. Woodward, Prof. Corfield and Mr. Birch, yielding fine leaves, was visited by Dr. John Evans, Prof. McKenny Hughes, Mr. Warrington Smyth, Prof. Bonney, and many Members of the Association. .

First Day .- The Members and visitors, between 60 and 70 in number, met together at Bournemouth pier and proceeded along the shore towards Boscombe. On the way the Director pointed out the position of the Bournemouth series in the Eocene formation, and the chief geological features of the coast. Far to the west, and close to Poole harbour, could be seen the cliffs which contain a rich dicotyledonous flora, shed apparently from forest trees which clothed the hilly slopes of the right bank of the Eocene river. This flora, or rather series of floras, differ remarkably from those found nearer towards Bournemouth, especially in the hitherto total absence of remains of palm. The central ranges of cliffs are almost unfossiliferous, and from their confused bedding are conjectured to present a transverse section of the silting up of the old river channel. From the pier for nearly a mile, the eastern series of leaf-beds extends, containing the remains of a very much more tropical-looking flora, probably derived from the low-lying shores of the left bank of the river. Among the palms, which are very abundant, such genera as Phoenix, Calamus, Iriartea, Sabal, etc., are conspicuous, and among the ferns, some scarcely differing from such magnificently tropical forms as 0smunda javanica and Chrysodium aureum, Gleichenia dichotoma, Lygodim dichotomum, etc. Beyond these cliffs, skirting the nearly vertical Chalk downs, are the Lower Bagshot Beds, in which the well-known leaf-beds of Alum and Studland Bays are situated, invisible on Monday through the haze, and beneath these the Lower Tertiaries. Only the upper part of the Bournemouth Fresh-water series which are estimated to be 400 ft. thick, was actually passed on Monday. The broken angulated blocks, imbedded in sand, whence come Aroids and a representative of Araucaria Cunninghami, not met with higher in the series, were pointed out. Within a few hundred yards the Freshwater series, with its white clays, sharp quartzose sands, and entire absence of flint, became replaced by the Marine series. Owing to the absence of any slips, and the consequent inaccessibility of most of the beds, few fossils could be obtained, although indistinct leaf impressions of the reticulated fern-fronds, which immediately underlie the marine beds, were seen. The passage of Marine to Fresh-water beds at this point was pointed out. The marine beds are stiff liver-coloured clays, becoming black on exposure to the air, containing casts of several genera of Bryozoa and Crustacea, and greenish sandy clay with casts of Bracklesham molluscs. They are highly charged with lignitic matter, and contain in places very perfect fruits, and much teredo-bored wood. Overlying them are the clean white sands, with flint shingle-beds of the Boscombe series, and above these are thick capping of angular Quaternary gravel. The Eocene shingle beds consist of perfectly rounded flints, showing the existence, at the time they were deposited, of a heavy surf. In many cases the condition of the silex is changed, and appears a soft, chalk-like mass. Pebbles are met with in every stage of the change, whol1y converted, with black flint nucleus, half converted, or merely with a thickened white coat. The process and nature of the change gave rise to much discussion. The party were here met by Dr. Allman, President of the Linnrean Society, and Mr. Pike, owner of the vast china-clay pits near Corfe Castle. Nearing Boscombe, the positions of the various fruit-beds were pointed out, and the curious tubular borings of annelids fil1ed with horizontally-arranged lignitic matter or with fine sand, which, in places riddle the dark clays. At the corner of Boscombe Chine, instances of the denuding power of wind were seen, and in the extraordinary Honeycombe Chines, that of springs in rapidly excavating deep cirques in the soft strata. The zone of Nipadites was well seen, the empty husks floated out to sea, and now filled with sand, being in places crowded together. At another spot fragments of proteaceous or myricaceous leaves were found.

The party then proceeded somewhat rapidly to Hengistbury Head, a distance of about four miles. On the way it became apparent that, as the Fresh-water beds present a transverse section across a vast river-channel, so the Marine beds present a section through a great Eocene beach or sandbank, behind which lay a stagnant lagoon. The shingle in them became larger and larger towards the east, their well-rolled appearance indicating the distance they had travelled. Attention was called to their resemblance to the so-called Upper Bagshots of the London Basin.

The principal features of the Head-land itself were fully described in the "Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society" for May, 1879, p. 213, and the divisions were clearly made out. Having skirted it along the shore, the party mounted to the top over the debris of the old quarries, and after enjoying the magnificent view, quickly made their way through the heather, past the prebistoric double ramparts and ditch, to the ferry over the Stour and Avon, and thence to Christchurch. Mr. George H. Birch, F.R.S., B.A., who bad travelled from London for the purpose, gave, in the failing light, an able and only too brief sketch of the history of the ancient and striking Priory Church. The Members then returned by rail to Bournemouth, and dined together at the Criterion Restaurant.

Second Day (Tuesday.) - The party proceeded by rail to Christchurch, when the fine Norman house attracted attention, and the church was again examined while waiting for conveyances. The different building stones used were pointed out by Mr. Birch, these included Hengistbury ironstone for the foundations, and Bembridge, Binstead, Headon, Portland, Purbeck and Caen limestones for the edifice. The Members then drove to Mudeford, and thence found their way along the base of the cliffs to Highcliff. The new channel recently created by the Stour and Avon for a mile along the base of these cliffs caused much surprise when the rapidity with which it had been formed became known. The thin Nummulite bed, which is considered by the Rev. O. Fisher to divide the Bracklesham and Barton Series, could not be found in the short time at disposal, owing to the cliff under Highcliff Castle having been sloped and drained. The main features of the coast were, however, pointed out, the sequence of the beds from Hengistbury to Highcliff, the Barton Clays and Sands, the Upper Bagshots and Headon Beds of Hordle. During the short halt for lunch, Prof. Morris favoured a number of the party with an eloquent address, in which he clearly pointed out the sequence and chief characteristics of the beds and their correlation with the Eocenes of Europe, and briefly sketched, in eulogistic terms, the work of those whose labours have made it possible to trace the history of their deposition.

Dr. Henry Woodward and Prof. Bonney and the Director, having also made a few remarks, the party dispersed to collect the well-known Barton shells, which usual1y lay exposed in thousands upon the slopes of the cliffs, and notwithstanding the dryness of the weather being unfavourable, many beautiful specimens of the characteristic shells and teeth were obtained. Beyond Chuton [Chewton] Bunny most of the party again came together. Owing, however, to the shingly character of the beach, and time pressing, a large number soon after chose the coast path, and viewed the Hordle part of the series from above. Lord Justice Thesiger, of Hordle House, wrote to express his regret at being unable to join the excursion. During a short halt, when Dr. Foulerton kindly proposed a vote of thauks to the Director, the magnificent panorama which stretched for 50 miles, embracing the Isle of Wight, the Solent and the whole coast to St. Alban's Head, and the Purbeck Hills, was fully appreciated. The Members soon after entered the conveyances provided for them at Milford, and drove to Lymington. The 5.50 train to London took the party to Brockenhurst, where a number left it to return to Bournemouth. The Excursion, was largely attended, and owing to the magnificent weather and the beauty and interest of the country traversed, was keenly enjoyed. [end of report]

Gardner, J.S., Keeping, H. and Monckton, H.W. 1888. The Upper Eocene, comprising the Barton and Upper Bagshot Formations. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 44, 578-635. [For Barton see particularly pp. 580, 583-4, 587-591, 594, 601, 620-633].



Gautier, D. L. 1982. Siderite concretions: indicators of early diagenesis in the Gammon Shale (Cretaceous). Journal of Sedimentary Research (1982), vol. 55, part 3, p. 859-871. [for comparison with Hengistbury siderite]
Abstract: The Upper Cretaceous Gammon Shale in the northern Great Plains contains abundant siderite concretions ...



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Gilkes , R.J. 1966. The Clay Mineralogy of the Tertiary Sediments of the Hampshire Basin. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Geology Department, University of Southampton, UK.

Gilkes, R.J. 1968. Clay mineral provinces in the Tertiary sediments of the Hampshire Basin. Clay Minerals, 7, 351-361. By Robert J. Gilkes, Department of Geology, Southampton University [there is also a Ph.D. Thesis on this topic]. Abstract: An X-ray diffraction study of over 600 specimens has shown that Tertiary sediments of the Hampshire Basin are divided into two clay mineral provinces. The western province is characterised by kaolin from the West Country granites whilst the highly montmorillonitic sediments of the eastern province were partially derived from the dissolution of Chalk by tropical weathering.
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Green , J.F.N. 1936. The terraces of southernmost England. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 92, 58-88. [Pleistocene gravels].

Green, J.F.N. 1946. The terraces of Bournemouth, Hants. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, London, 57, 82-101. [Pleistocene gravels].
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Halcrow, Sir William and Partners, 1980. Poole and Christchurch Bays Research Project, Phase One Report, 2 Volumes. Report to the Department of the Environment.

Halcrow Group. 1998. Western Solent and Southampton Water Shoreline Management Plan . Halcrow Group Ltd., Burderop Park, Swindon, Wiltshire, UK.

Halcrow Group. 1999. Poole and Christchurch Bays Shoreline Management Plan . Halcrow Group Ltd., Burderop Park, Swindon, Wiltshire.

Halcrow Group. 2003. Poole and Christchurch Bays Strategy Studies: Discussion Paper on Hengistbury Head . Halcrow Group Ltd., Burderop Park, Swindon, Wiltshire.
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Herbert, J. 1947. We Wander in Wessex. Ward, Lock and Company, London and Melbourne, 224pp.
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Hodson, F. and West, I.M. 1972. The Holocene deposits of Fawley, Hampshire and the development of Southampton Water. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 83, 421-444. Abstract: Holocene estuarine deposits up to 21 m. in thickness, which were encountered in boreholes and excavations at Fawley, partly fill the southwestern side of the drowned valley of Southampton Water. Saltmarsh clays with peat lie above and below tidal-flat clays of Atlantic age. The mollusc, foraminifera and ostracod faunas and the coccolith and diatom floras of these Holocene deposits are discusssed. Gravels of Calshot Spit are interbedded with these sediments to a depth which suggests the existence of the spit in Atlantic times or earlier. The spit has deflected the deep channel eastwards and has protected the south-western borders of the estuary from erosion... In the northern part of Southampton Water, late Holocene estuarine beds transgress northward over Holocene freshwater sediments. Much of the thick estuarine sequence at Fawley corresponds in age to a thin freshwater succession in the north. [end of abstract]
[Information on sea-level changes during the Holocene in the Southampton region. Not specifically on Hengistbury Head.]


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Hoodless, W.A. 2005. Hengistbury Head: The Whole Story. Book of 192 pp. Published by Poole Historical Trust (founded 1974). Primarily a very thorough geographical, descriptive and historical publication. Although a paperback thisis impressively in its content and it is extremely well-illustrated. See particularly Chapter 5, Ironstone Mining Catastrophe. See particularly, Fig. 19. Ironstone Quarry and Beer Pan Rocks, 1870. Reproduced from the Ordnance Survey map of that date.
Opening comments to Chapter 5. Ironstone Mining Catastrophe. "The removal of the Headland is an evil in itself as destroying a good landmark, and a certain amount of shelter for small craft, but also as causing the dispersion of the loose soil of which it is composed , into a tideway.., and it may be safely averred that whatever value the stones carried away may possess, it will entail a cost 100 times greater to compensate for the evil done, and to arrest further mischief. Captain Vetch R.E. 1834." See particularly description of the ironstone workings from 1848 to 1870, given on pages 56 and 57 of the Hoodless book.
[As a matter of interest, the comments below, reproduced by Hoodless, protected Hengistbury Head. The ending of the surface quarrying was necessary. It is rather unlikely that these ancient regulations would apply to modern deep underground exploration (local oil exploration, fortunately does extend under Hengistbury Head anyway). They still prevent surface quarrying, though.
See on p. 58:
"TAKE NOTICE that you and all others are forbidden to dig out, excavate, break, dredge up or otherwise disturb, take or remove any Stone, Shingle or other Soil or matter at or from the Shore below high water mark at Hengistbury Head, otherwise called Christchurch Head, or the water adjacent thereto, or at any part of the Bays called Poole Bay and Christchurch Bay, or the shores thereof, the same being the property of Her Majesty. And that if contrary to this Notice you do on any pretence whatever dig out, excavate, break, dredge up or otherwise disturb, take or remove any such Stone, Shingle or other Soil or matter from the said Shore or Shores, Water or Bays, of any of them, you will be prosecuted according to Law. Dated this 1st day of March, 1856, Willm Frogett Robson, Solicitor to the Admiralty." ]
Read on further about the legal dispute in the Hoodless, Hengistbury Head book.
It must be emphasised that the main, but short, geological section commences at page 174: Geology of Hengistbury Head: An Introduction. On page 179 there is a section the geology of the ironstones. This continues, with diagrams to p. 183. It is a brief account, but providing modern maps and taking into account Velegrakis et al. 1999. etc. Overall the book is very good and is notable for good descriptive accounts and particularly numerous maps of various dates. Several of the maps are of geomorphological significance.
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Hooker, J.J. 1975. Report of a field meeting to Hengistbury Head and adjacent areas, Dorset, with an account of published work and new exposures. June 23rd 1973. Tertiary Times, vol. 2, pp. 109-121. Subsequently, reprinted in 2004 in Tertiary Research, vol. 22, pp. 156-164. By Jeremy John Hooker of the Natural History Museum, London. [A well-known, vertebrate palaeontologist studying the origins of modern mammalian orders and who has published many important papers relating to the Dorset and Hampshire area.]

Hooker, J.J. 1977. A mammal from the Upper Eocene of Hengistbury, Dorset. Tertiary Research, 1, 91-94. By Jeremy John Hooker of the Natural History Museum, London. (The journal Tertiary Research commenced publication in 1976 and ceased with volume 22 for the year 2000. Copies are available on a CD).
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Huggett, J.M. 1994. Diagenesis of mudrocks and concretions from the London Clay Formation in the London Basin. Clay Minerals (1994), vol. 29, pp. 693-707. [Extract re siderite in Concretion Diagenesis on p. 703:]
The formation of siderite can only occur where there is high bicarbonate activity, low oxidation potential and extremely low concentrations of dissolved sulphide (e.g. Garrels and Christ, 1965; Coleman, 1985; Curtis, 1987). The occurrence of minor but ubiquitous siderite cement in the OCK2 concretion, therefore, indicates locally the supply of reduced Fe exceeded the supply of dissolved sulphide. This could have come about through a lack of suitable organic nutrients for sulphate reducing bacteria, through effective loss of dissolved sulphide as H2S, through a relatively high detrital Fe content or through pre-sulphide reduction zone formation of the siderite. In the Sheppey concretions siderite is rare and only associated with replacement of wood fragments, which suggests that wood was not a suitable organic nutrient for sulphate-reducing bacteria, or that sulphate replenishment was reduced through increased sediment rate..... [continues]

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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) . 2007. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Summary for Policymakers, 21pp. Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This Summary for Policymakers was formally approved at the 10 Session of Working Group 1 of IPCC, Paris, February 2007. [Available online on the Internet.]
"Introduction:
The Working Group I contribution to the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report describes progress in understanding of the human and natural drivers of climate change, observed climate change, climate processes and attribution, and estimates of projected future climate change. It builds upon past IPCC assessments and incorporates new findings from the past six years of research. Scientific progress since the TAR is based upon large amounts of new and more comprehensive data, more sophisticated analyses of data, improvements in understanding of processes and their simulation in models, and more extensive exploration of uncertainty ranges...
Human And Natural Drivers Of Climate Change:
Changes in the atmospheric abundance of greenhouse gases and aerosols, in solar radiation and in land surface properties alter the energy balance of the climate system. These changes are expressed in terms of radiative forcing, which is used to compare how a range of human and natural factors drive warming or cooling influences on global climate. Since the Third Assessment Report (TAR), new observations and related modelling of greenhouse gases, solar activity, land surface properties and some aspects of aerosols have led to improvements in the quantitative estimates of radiative forcing...." [continues]

Future sea level rise estimates for the Wessex coast

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Kemp, D.J. (David John Kemp). 1982. Fossil Sharks, Rays and Chimaeroids of the English Tertiary Period: A Complete Illustrated Guide. Gosport Museum, 1-47, 10 figs, 3 tables, 16 plates. First editionw was 1977. This is the second edition of 1982. Printed by Gosport Borough Council. Original Price - one pound, 50 pence.

Kemp, D. (David), Kemp, L. (Liz), and Ward, D. (David). 1990. An Illustrated Guide to the British Middle Eocene Vertebrates. Published by David Ward, London, October 1990. 59pp. [On sale at Portsmouth City Museums, and very good value for the original price of four pounds. It contains illustrations of sharks' teeth, remains of bony fish and of reptiles. Recommended!]

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King, M.E. 1974. Beneath Your Feet: The Geology and Scenery of Bournemouth . County Borough of Bournemouth Education Committee, Bournemouth, 36pp. [Booklet by Michael P. King, B.A. Useful information and diagrams regarding the coast, including the Hengistbury Head region.]


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Kingzett, C.T. 1884. On a chalybeate water and saline deposit from Southbourne-on-sea. The Analyst, vol. 10, pp. 26-30. [By C.T. Kingzett, FIC, FCS.]
Southbourne-on-Sea is situate towards the eastern extremity of Bournemouth Bay [Poole Bay], and was founded some thirteen years ago by Dr. T.A. Compton, a retired physician, formerly of Bournemouth. It is a remarkable healthy and charming table land, with full southern exposure. During excavations which were recently made for the foundations of a Sea Wall and Esplanade, which are constructed seven feet in and below a bed of solid greyish black clay, and about ten or eleven feet (on an average) below the upper surface of the sandy beach, there was discovered a spring of water, which was thought by the workmen to be derived from the sea by permeation through the clay at high tide. Dr. Compton was led, however, to form a different opinion, in which he was confirmed by tasting the water, which has an inky taste, not shared by any of the spring waters above the surface level of the beach; and having sunk a well about 20 feet north of the Sea wall, samples of the water and a saline deposit found upon the clay were sent to me for analysis, the results of which Dr. Compton has very kindly allowed me to publish in this communication. The saline deposit strongly resembled alkali waste, in appearance, but it was more sand-like in character, being impregnated with green and yellow granules. [presumably continues, but the remainder of the article has not been seen].
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Lin, C.Y. 2015. [Technical Question on Research Gate] Re the formation of siderite. This may be relevant to the Hengistbury Head siderite. Question by Mr. Chin Yik Lin, researcher at Cambridge University]. Why is precipitation of siderite favoured over calcite in an organic-rich, anoxic environment when the pore fluid Fe/Ca > 0.2?
We are working on siderite concretion found in the salt marsh of UK. Quartz approx 50 percent, orthoclase approx 15 percent, siderite approx 20 percent, Mg-calcite approximately 10 percent, gypsum, albite and pyrite are minor. Amorphous minerals such as FeS, goethite are also present. pH of the pore fluid are approx 7, Ca approx 5mM, Mg approx 25 mM, Fe approx 1 mM, SO4 approx 20 - 40 mM (vary with -depth of core sediment), Mn is rather trace.
Contributed reply: Dear Mr. Lin. The system is more complex than being depicted by a simple ratio like the Fe/Ca ratio. Keep in mind there are other elements such as bivalent Mg and Mn competing for the same position in the lattice of carbonate minerals. They are conducive to a wide range of solid solution series in the dolomite-, siderite- and calcite system (see e.g. Fe calcite). Temperature plays a role as important as the presence of sulfur with its variability as to the valence state. Without a full-blown overview of your anoxic system as to the mineralogy and chemical composition, in my opinion, every answer will be rather premature and will conduce to a horse-tailing of the discussion. Please give full particulars as to the points raised, and I am sure that you will get rather sound answers. Calcite is a common mineral in the "mineral kingdom", but associated with other minerals often can be very "rebellious". Best regards, H.G.Dill
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Lim, D.I, Jung, H.S., Yang, S.Y. and Yoo, H.S. 2004. Sequential growth of early diagenetic freshwater siderites in the Holocene coastal deposits, Korea. Sedimentary Geology, vol. 169, pp. 107-120. [not specific to Hengistbury Head siderites].
Abstract: Spherulitic siderite grains ranging from 100 to 250 microns in diameter occur abundantly in a sediment layer, which is almost 8,600 years old, in Namyang Bay, on the west coast of Korea. These large siderite grains consist predominantly of FeCO3 (average 65 percent) and MnCO3 (average 22 percent) and have low Mg/Ca and Mg/Fe ratios. Compositional scatter plots, together with the high Mn and low Mg contents, indicate that meteoric pore water was mainly involved in the siderite precipitation. Examination of the siderite grains with an electron microscope reveal a systematic, micron-scale, center to margin compositional variation within individual grains. Three zones are recognised on the basis of compositional variations: Zone 1 (center) in which Mn decreases and Fe increases, Zone II (intermediate) in which Mn increases and Fe decreases, and Zone III (outer) in which both Mn and Fe decrease and Mg increases. This zoning is interpreted as a result of of depth-related early diagenetic reactions with with different Fe, Mn and Mg concentrations in the sediment pore waters. Meanwhile, compositional mapping of spherulite grains implies that a siderite grain conists of numerous tiny siderite precipitates. Such dust-like tiny siderite precipitates appear to be adhered to the large spherulitic siderite grain. In some cases, large siderite grains are adjoined together and occurred as a siderite aggregate. We suggest that a spherulitic siderite grain is growing sequentially by adhering of numerous tiny siderite precipitates formed in each diagenetic zone onto the siderite grain like the formation of a snowball. [Probably not a suitable analogue re Hengistbury Ironstone because this discussed freshwater siderite, whereas the Hengistbury Ironstone, with plant debris and of nearshore origin, is associated with Bartonian marine fossils.]
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Linaker, E.E. 1981. Reclaiming Christchurch Bay: an exciting pipe dream lives again. Hampshire County Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 10, pp. 61-62. By Edward E. Linaker. In 1966 John Arlott wrote in the same magazine asking for writers on marinas to put forward a project for Christchurch Bay. Linaker responded, writing under the name "The Ocean Tramp", and suggested a caison breakwater from Hengistbury on Christchurch Ledge, with an entrance and then another breakwater on Dolphin Bank and Shingles Bank to Hurst Castle. Roads would be built on the breakwaters, with an approach roads coming in through Hengistbury Head and Hurst Castle Spit. The scheme was to include marinas, fishing boat harbours, fish farming lagoons and a fresh water reservoir fed by rivers from Christchurch harbour. A new town was also suggested but this idea was badly received. The 1981 paper includes a modified version without the town. An earlier idea of a major airport is also mentioned. A letter had suggested that a 9 mile long runway, the largest in the world for a civil airport could be built in reclaimed Christchurch Bay, saving valuable agricultural land. The airport would be in easy motorway contact with London. One of these major development schemes, with or without the airport, would remove the present coast of Barton and Highcliffe from the open sea and, in so doing, once and for all solve the problem of coast erosion. [The loss of Christchurch Bay whether it be to a backwater, an offshore carpark, a new town or an airport might not, however, be popular with other than developers!]
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Love , L.G. and Murray, J.W. 1963. Biogenic pyrite in recent sediments of Christchurch Harbour, England. American Journal of Science, 261, 433-448.
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Lyell , C. 1827. On the strata of the Plastic Clay Formation exhibited in the cliffs between Christchurch Head, Hampshire and Studland Bay, Dorsetshire. Transactions of the Geological Society, London, series 2, vol. 2, pp. 279-286. By Sir Charles Lyell.

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Mace, A. 1959. The excavation of a Late Upper Palaeolithic open-site on Hengistbury Head, Christchurch, Hants. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 25, 233-259.
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May, V. 1990. Replenishment of the resort beaches at Bournemouth and Christchurch, England. Journal of Coastal Research, SI (6), 11-15.
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Melville, R.V. and Freshney, E.C. 1982. British Regional Geology: The Hampshire Basin and Adjoining Areas. British Geological Survey (formerly the Institute of Geological Sciences), London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 146 pp. [Paper-back explaining the geology of the region. This is the latest of several editions, e.g. Chatwin.
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Morley, G. 1994. Smuggling in Hampshire and Dorset 1700-1850. Countryside Books, Newbury, Berkshire, 220pp. Paperback. ISBN 0 905392 24 8. By Geoffrey Morley. First Published 1983, Reprinted 1984, 1985, 1987, Revised and reprinted 1990, 1994.
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Morris, D. (Ed.) 1914. Bournemouth Natural Science Society. Pp. 365-370 in: Morris, D. 1914. A Natural History of Bournemouth and District; including Archaeology, Topography, Municipal Government, Climate, Education, Fauna, Flora and Geology. By the members of Bournemouth Natural Science Society. Published by the Bournemouth Natural Science Society, Bournemouth, 400pp. Editor - Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G., J.P., M.A., D.C.L., D.Sc., F.L.S., F.R.H.S., President of Bournemouth Natural Science Society.

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Moreton, A. 2016. A Collection of Eocene and Oligocene Fossils; compiled by Alan Moreton. Go to:
A Collection of Eocene and Oligocene Fossils, compiled by Alan Morton.
This Eocene and Oligocene Web Site of Alan Morton displays more than 2,000 of the characteristic fossils of the Eocene and Oligocene deposits of England. The photographs are of very high quality and very impressive. The main subsections, which can clicked on to enter, are: London Clay, Bracklesham Beds, Barton Beds, Headon Beds, and Hamstead, Osborne and Bembridge Beds. The particular collection that is the source of the specimen or specimens is cited. The author of the species is given, and with the date. The size is given in millimetres. Varieties are specified, with the name of the author. The CONTENTS list includes: THE COLLECTION; Instructions; What's New; Stratigraphy; References; Links; Acknowledgements; Contact Alan Morton. This website has been given the "Golden Trilobite Award" of the Palaeontological Association. It is an extremely useful and quite remarkable website.

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Mosby , J.E.G. 1939. The Horsey Flood, 1938, an example of storm effects on a low coast. The Geographical Journal, 1939. The Royal Geographical Society, with the Institute of British Geographers. [On 12 February 1938 a northwesterly gale demolished 512 yards of sand dunes on the east Norfolk coast and flooded 7,500 acres of low-lying hinterland. Not on Hengistbury Head but background information regarding sand spits and coast erosion.]
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Ord , W.T. (Dr William T. Ord) 1914. Geology. Pp. 303-356 in: Morris, D, 1914. (Editor - Sir Daniel Morris, K.C.M.G, J.P., M.A., D.C.L., D.Sc., F.L.S., F.R.H.S., President of the Bournemouth Natural Science Society). A Natural History of Bournemouth and District; including Archaeology, Topography, Municipal Government, Climate, Education, Fauna, Flora and Geology. By the Members of the Bournemouth Natural Science Society. 400pp. Published by the Natural Science Society. Sold by Horace G. Commin, 100, Old Commercial Road and Bright's Stores Ltd., The Arcade, Bournemouth. (see p. 67)

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Palaeobiology Database - Hengistbury Head. Go to: Palaeobiology Database - Hengistbury Head.


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Pepin , C. E. 1967. Handbook of the Hengistbury Head Nature Trail. Bournemouth. By Cecil Etienne Pepin.

Pepin, C.E. 1975, Hengistbury Head. 2nd edition revised. 74pp. 4 maps. Edited by C. E. Pepin. Pepin, C. E. (Cecil Etienne). Published by Roman Press Ltd for the Dorset County Council Education Committee, 1975.

Pepin, C. 1985. Hengistbury Head. Bournemouth Local Studies Publication. Printed by the Roman Press Limited, Bournemouth. 79pp. By Cecil Pepin, first published 1967, fourth edition - revised and enlarged - 1985. ISBN 09503884 2 4. This includes: Pepin - Preface; Pepin - Introduction; Lavender, J. - Land Shape and Geology; Lavender, J. - Ecology and Vegetation; Yule, P. and Pepin, C. - Check-list of Plants; Goodyear, K. - Sea and Seashore; Goodyear, K. and Pepin, C. - Dragonflies; Pepin, C. - Grasshoppers and Bush Crickets; Pepin, C. - Butterflies; Pepin, C. - Moths; Goodyear, K. and Pepin, C. - Beetles; Pepin, C. - Reptiles; Pepin, C. and CHOG - Birds; Pepin, C. and CHOG - Mammals; Barton, N. and Bergman, C. - The Stone Age; Cunliffe, B. - From Neolithic to Roman Times; Lavender, J. - The Historic Period; Holloway, M. - Management and Conservation. There is a further reading list of 25 publications relating to Archaeology and History, most of which are not reproduced here.

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PLINT
[now - Dr Guy Plint, (Professor Guy Plint) Department of Earth Sciences, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. He has written key papers on the Eocene sediments of the Hampshire Basin, southern England, including Bournemouth, New Forest, Isle of Wight, English Channel Hampshire-Dieppe Basin etc.]

Plint, A. G. 1980. Sedimentary Studies in the Middle Eocene of the Hampshire Basin. Unpublished DPhil (Doctor of Philosophy) Thesis, University of Oxford (3 volumes).

Plint, A.G. 1982. Eocene sedimentation and tectonics in the Hampshire Basin. Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 139, pp. 249-254.
Abstract
Sedimentary evidence in the Eocene (Cuisian-Lutetian) of the Hampshire Basin indicates important intra-Eocene movement on the Isle of Wight and Purbeck Monoclines, and on the Ridgeway Fault. Evidence for syn-depositional movement includes Jurassic and Cretaceous chert and flint pebbles in the Eocene, the distribution of which suggests derivation from both E and W. At Whitecliff Bay, two units of cross-bedded sand have northward-directed palaeocurrents and may have been deposited as localized fans of debris reworked from earlier Tertiary sediments on the upwarped side of the monocline. Three units of laminated muds are intercalated with marine sediments in the eastern part of the basin and suggest periods of low salinity, tideless conditions. These episodes are attributed to the periodic isolation of the Hampshire Basin from the fully marine Dieppe Basin to the SE. This may have been the result of intermittent movement on a tectonic barrier to the SE of Selsey. The onset of uplift and subsequent exposure of the Chalk along the southern margin of the basin proceeded unevenly from ?early Cuisian to late Lutetian times. Movement on the Portsdown Anticline probably occurred over a similar period. The Isle of Wight and Purbeck Monoclines are the superficial expressions of faults in the Palaeozoic basement, and not the result of lateral 'Alpine' pressures. A minor series of syn-depositional folds trend NW-SE across the basin and may reflect a component of sinistral strike-slip on basement faults. [This key paper has a good, speculative palaeogeographic map showing sediment sources. It has references to Curry, Daley and Edwards, Gale etc.] [The paper is also also relevant to Creechbarrow Hill and Creechbarrow Limestone, Dorset, the underlying sediments of which contain unabraded or sub-rounded flint nodules, weighing up to 30lb or 136kg - Huddleston 1903. Re Creechbarrow see also the work of Hooker on vertebrates.]

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Plint, A.G. 1983a. Facies, environments and sedimentary cycles in the Middle Eocene, Bracklesham Formation of the Hampshire Basin: evidence for global sea-level changes? Sedimentology, vol. 30, pp. 625-653.
Abstract:
The Bracklesham Formation is of Middle Eocene age and occurs throughout the Hampshire Basin of southern England. The basin is elongated east-west and filled with Lower Tertiary sediments. Its southern margin is marked by either large, northward-facing monoclines, or faults, both of which underwent differential movement, with uplift of the southern side throughout the Middle Eocene. The Bracklesham Formation, which is up to 240 m thick, shows pronounced lateral facies changes with dominantly marine sediments in the east passing to alluvial sediments in the west. Four principal sedimentary environments: marine, lagoonal, estuarine and alluvial are distinguished. Marine sediments comprise six facies including offshore silty clays and glauconitic silty sands, beach and aeolian dune sands, and flint conglomerates formed on pebble beaches. Offshore sediments predominate in the eastern part of the basin, as far west as Alum Bay [Isle of Wight], where they are replaced by nearshore sediments. Lagoonal sediments comprise four facies and formed in back-barrier lagoons, coastal marshes and, on occasions, were deposited over much of the basin during periods of low salinity and restricted tidal motion. Five estuarine facies represent tidal channels, channel mouth-bars and abandoned channels. These sediments suggest that much of the Bracklesham Formation was deposited under micro- to meso-tidal conditions. Alluvial sediments dominate the formation to the west of Alum Bay. They comprise coarse to fine sands deposited on the point-bars of meandering rivers, interbedded with thick sequences of laminated interchannel mudstones, deposited in marshes, swamps and lakes. Extensive layers of ball clay were periodically deposited in a lake occupying much of the alluvial basin. In alluvial areas, fault movement exposed Mesozoic rocks along the southern margin of the basin, the erosion of which generated fault-scarp alluvial fan gravels. Locally, pisolitic limestone formed in pools fed by springs emerging at the faulted Chalk-Tertiary contact. In marine areas, flint pebbles were eroded from coastal exposures of chalk and accumulated on pebble beaches and in estuaries. From other evidence it is suggested that older Tertiary sediments were also reworked. The Bracklesham Formation is strongly cyclic and was deposited during five marine transgressions, the effects of which can be recognized throughout the basin in both marine and alluvial areas. Each of the five transgressive cycles is a few tens of metres thick and contains little evidence of intervening major regression. The cycles are thought to represent small-scale eustatic sea-level rises ('paracycles,) superimposed upon a major transgressive 'cycle' that began at the base of the Bracklesham Formation, following a major regression, and was terminated, at the top of the Barton Formation by another major regression. This major cycle can be recognized world-wide and may reflect a period of rapid northward extension of the mid-Atlantic ridge.

Plint, A.G. 1983b. Liquefaction, fluidization and erosional structures associated with bituminous sands of the Bracklesham Formation (Middle Eocene) of Dorset, England. Sedimentology, vol. 30, issue 4, pp. 525-535. First Published August 1983. [available online in full, 17th July 2018]
At Hengistbury Head, [near Bournemouth] Dorset, the Boscombe Sands (Middle Eocene, Bracklesham Formation) are of estuarine channel facies. A mud-filled channel is exposed, the banks and eastern flank of which have a black carbonaceous stain, the degraded remains of a bitumen. At the time of deposition, the bitumen rendered the sediment firm and it was extensively burrowed by a Thalassinoides-forming organism (crustacean). The bituminous sand on the eastern channel bank suffered brecciation and dilation as a result of liquefaction and flowage of the underlying sediments. This is thought to have been due to rapid expulsion of pore water, possibly as a result of seismic shock. The layers of bituminous sand below the surface were ruptered during water escape, resulting in localized zones of rapid flow causing fluidization and the development of dewatering pipes up to 1.2 m. long. The estuarine sediments were subsequently transgressed during which the bituminous sand was exposed on the seafloor, when it was eroded into a hummocky topography and heavily burrowed. Blocks of bituminous sand were reworked into the marine basal conglomerate, composed mainly of flints, demonstrating the remarkable strength of the bituminous cement.

[Plint (1983) reported on p. 526 that:
"Samples of black sand from bed 4 were analysed, using gas chromatography. The pigment was shown to have the characteristics of a 'Type 2' bitumen, probably derived, in large part, from the waxy cuticular coatings of plant leaves (P. Walko, personal communication)."

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Plint, A.G. 1988. Sedimentology of the Eocene strata exposed between Poole Harbour and High Cliff, Dorset, UK. Tertiary Research, vol. 10, pp. 107-145. By Dr. A. Guy Plint of Western University, Richmond Street, London, Ontario, Canada. This paper is available in full online, and is free. This is a key work on sedimentological structures in the Eocene strata of the Bournemouth area. It provides many detailed diagrams in addition to the text. It is highly recommended for geological and sedimentological details of the cliffs of Bournemouth, Hengistbury Head, Friars Cliff and Highcliffe [High Cliff - in the paper] etc..
Abstract: This paper is intended to provide an historical record of the coastal exposures visible from 1977-1980 and a full description and interpretation of the various sedimentary facies. The cliffs of Poole Bay have been the subject of geological investigation since 1826, the main interest being the abundant and diverse fossil flora. In this account the sediments are divided into 9 sedimentary facies A-I). The description of the strata is supplemented by 22 representative vertical sections and 6 detailed horizontal sections. Some of these sections have now been grassed over. Between Sandbanks and Bournemouth Pier the sediments are alluvial (the Bournemouth 'Freshwater' Beds) and comprise medium to coarse-grained, mainly cross-bedded sandstones (facies A), deposited on river point bars. The sandstones are interbedded with and enclose lenticular laminated bodies, each a few metres thick and tens or hundreds of metres wide (facies B,C and D)that represent levees and fills of abandoned channels. To the east of Bournemouth Pier, the alluvial sediments pass laterally into estuarine deposits of the Bournemouth 'Marine' Beds which are divided into two facies F and G. Facies G comprises thinly bedded and laminated, upward-fining sequences of fine sandstone and mud with a depositional dip of up to 5 degrees. Facies G is interpreted as the deposits of large, muddy tidally-influenced point bar and channel fill: The contact between this unit and alluvial facies to the west is complex and may represent a slumped channel bank. Facies F comprises bidirectionally-crossbedded medium to fine-grained sandstones that enclose lenticular masses of laminated, organic-rich mudstone forming channel plugs. Facies F appears to be laterally-equivalent to facies G. The Bournemouth Freshwater and Marine Beds are erosively overlain by the Boscombe Sand Formation, comprising facies E, H and I. The lower 9m of the Boscombe Sand comprises very fine grained, well-sorted sandstones with lenticular beds of flint pebbles (facies I) which represent a marine transgression and subsequently easterly progradation of the shoreface. The upper 16m comprises (in the west) bidirectionally, cross-bedded fine-grained sandstones with lenticular flint pebble beds up to 14m thick (facies E), interpreted as a tidal channel deposit. This passes laterally eastward into upward-coarsening sequences with spectacular ball and pillow structures (facies H), interpreted as channel mouth-bar deposits. Correlation of the Poole Bay section with Alum Bay has been attempted on the basis of both dinoflagellates and 'event' stratigraphy based on marine transgressive surfaces: each method gives quite different results.
A. G. Plint, Department of Geology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5BY. Accepted 20th October 1988. [The main account which follows has many drawn vertical sections and also photographs. There are 34 references given at the end.]

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Plint, A.G. 1988. Global eustasy and the Eocene sequence in the Hampshire Basin, England. Basin Research, vol. 1, pp. 11-22.
Abstract:
Recent improvements in biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic control in the Eocene sediments of the Hampshire Basin prompted direct comparison of depositional sequences in outcrop with those predicted by the latest and most detailed Exxon coastal onlap chart. This study focused on the upper two cycles of the London Clay Formation, the Bracklesham Group and the Barton Formation, comprising nine depositional sequences, each a few 10s of metres thick. The sediments were divided into three basic facies associations: marine, estuarine and alluvial. Depositional sequences invariably rest on a regional erosion surface cut during sea-level lowstand. The lower part of each sequence consists typically of 'estuarine' sediments (including tidal channel, lagoon, tidal flat and marsh deposits), laid down under brackish conditions during the early stages of sea-level rise. Estuarine deposits are typically erosively overlain by marine shoreface or shelf deposits; the eroded, pebble-strewn contact marks the passage of the marine shoreface. Marine deposits may be erosively overlain by alluvial sediments that record coastal progradation in response to stable or slowly falling sea level. Magnetostratigraphy, in the form of truncated or absent magnetozones provides supporting evidence for significant erosion during periods of lowstand. Every sequence can be matched to the Exxon coastal onlap chart, with one exception, which, on biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic evidence has been shown to be absent from the Hampshire Basin. The Exxon chart suggests that in this exceptional instance, coastal onlap was insufficient to effect marine deposition in the Hampshire Basin.

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Poole and Christchurch Bays, Shoreline Management Plan - SMP - Key Publications

See these important documents on the plans for the coastal management or shoreline management of the area. Summarised contents of a version are given below and look for the section of interest. However, this SMP is not the final version, and there will be an update. If you do not find it directly from the links here, search by Google etc for the latest version, using the keywords - "Poole Christchurch SMP".

Poole and Christchurch Bays Coastal Management Group. 2010. (SMP - Shoreline Management Plan)
Poole and Christchurch Bays Coastal Management Plan (or SMP - Shoreline Management Plan). Draft SMP2. Draft version of the SMP, later to be replaced by final version (see this when it is available. SMP2 is due to be published in April 2010.). Available online as PDFs at Poole and Christchurch Bays Coastal Management Plan.

Contents: Draft SMP2
Section 1, Introduction
Section 2, Environmental Assessment
Section 3, Basis for Development of the Plan
Section 4, Appraisal of Options and Rationale for Preferred Plan:
Section 4.1, Introduction.
Section 4.2, Policy Development Zone 1 Central and Eastern Sections of Christchurch Bay (Hurst Spit to Friars Cliff).
Section 4.3, Policy Development Zone 2 Christchurch Harbour and Central Poole Bay (Friars Cliff to Flag Head Chine).
Section 4.4, Policy Development Zone 3 Poole Harbour and Associated Coastline (Flag Head Chine to Handfast Point, including Poole Harbour).
Section 4.5, Policy Development Zone 4 Swanage (Handfast Point to Durlston Head).
Section 5, Summary of Preferred Plan and Implications
Section 6, Policy Summary, including Policy Summary Map.
Appendices (all documents open in a new window)
Appendix A, SMP Development.
Appendix B, Stakeholder Engagement.
Appendix C, Baseline Process Understanding, including Coastal Process Report and Flood and Erosion Mapping. Accessible from a separate page including No Active Intervention (NAI) and With Present Management (WPM) assessments, and summaries of the data used in assessments.
Appendix D, Natural and Built Environment Baseline (Thematic Review).
Appendix E, Issues and Objective Evaluation.
Appendix F, Strategic Environmental Assessment.
Appendix G, Scenario Testing.
Appendix H, Economic Appraisal.
Appendix I, Estuary Assessment.
Appendix J, Habitat Regulation Assessment - Appropriate Assessment.
Appendix K, The Metadatabase, GIS and Bibliographic Database is provided to the operating authorities on CD. It will be included in the final SMP.
Appendix L, Water Framework Directive (WFD)
Appendix M, Review of Coastal Processes and Associated Risks at Hengistbury Head.

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Popplewell , L. 1986. Ironstone Canyon. Bournemouth.
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Powell , M. 1995. Christchurch Harbour. Natula Publications, Christchurch, Dorset. ISBN 1 897 887 07 8. 143 pp. [By Mike Powell. This has much information on Hengistbury Head and includes a bibliography. There are various maps, including part of a chart of 1785. There is an 1836 map of the headland, showing the small stream valley at the southeastern end.]


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Prestwich, J. 1846. On the Tertiary or Supracretaceous Formations of the Isle of Wight, etc. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London, 2, 255-259. [by Sir Joseph Prestwich, (1812-1896), President of the Geological Society]
[Not much detail is given in this paper regarding Bournemouth and Hengistbury Head. There are various fossil lists. Here is small example extract of the text from p. 409:
"The Barton cliff section represents the strata as far as Muddiford near Christchurch. The base of the Barton Clay is there exposed [at what is now known as Friars Cliff] reposing upon light-coloured sands [now regarded as Eocene Boscombe Sands] without fossil shells but full of fragments of soft carbonised wood. A break in then made by Christchurch harbour on the other side of which [i.e. Hengistbury Head] the cliffs resume and range uninterruptedly to Poole harbour and the chalk at Studland. The strata of coarse sands and impure clays, forming these cliffs correspond with the central beds of Alum Bay and the Bracklesham Bay series. No fossils have been found in them except the vegetable impressions of Bournemouth. For a description of these strata see Mr. Lyell's memoir (Trans. Geol. Soc., 2nd Series, vol. ii, p. 279). The colouring of the sections indicates roughly the most generally prevailing colours of the several formations."

Prestwich, J. 1849 [also wrongly listed as 1848]. By Sir Joseph Prestwich. On the position and general characters of the strata exhibited in the coast section from Christchurch Harbour to Poole Harbour. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 5, pp. 43-49. Go to the Lyell Collection of the Geological Society of London; Lyell summary of paper follows, but see full version.
(He stated on p. 45 that he had found a few Bracklesham and Barton Clay species above the "lower part of the clay" at Hengistbury Head.)
[General extract from paper] I have on former occasions described the eocene strata of White-cliff Bay and of Alum Bay. The sections of these two localities show in a remarkable manner the changes there undergone, in the comparatively short distance of twenty miles, by the series of sands and clays forming the Bracklesham Bay beds, and included between the London clay and the Barton clay. I also gave the commencement of the section of the Barton clays at Barton, to show their connection with the upper part of the section at Alum Bay. I have recently had the opportunity of further examining the coast-sections from Barton Cliff to Poole Harbour, with a view to continue the sequence of superposition lower in this more westward portion of the series. This part of the coast was described by Sir Charles Lyell in a paper read before this Society in March 1826. I need not therefore enter into a detailed description of the strata, but will confine myself to the question of the exact position which they bear with reference to the Barton clay, and to a few general observations on their physical conditions. The progress made by the sea in the destruction of the cliffs has also, I believe, brought to light some new features. In the first place I have, I think, obtained evidence of the existence of the Barton clays to the westward of Christchurch Harbour ; consequently the section downwards from them, which I had discontinued at Muddiford, can now be taken up.

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Reed, F.R.C. 1913. Note on the Eocene beds of Hengistbury Head. Geological Magazine, 50, pp. 101-103. By Cowper Reed. [In the March Number of this Magazine Mr. Cowper Reed recorded the interesting discovery of a series of fossils which points to a Bartonian horizon for the Hengistbury ironstone. ]
The succession of the Eocene beds exposed on Hengistbury Head, near Christchurch, was described in some detail by Mr. J.S. Gardner in 1879. Four divisions were recognised by him and they were termed in descending order (1) the Highcliff Sands (2) (3) the Upper and Lower Hengistbury Beds, and (4) the Boscombe Sands. No list of fossils from any of these divisions seems to have been published, but on the Survey Map, Sheet 16, the following fossils are mentioned in the beds of Hengistbury Head, though no precise horizon is given :-
Cardium semigranulatum; Cytherea obliqua, Solen affinis, Thracia sp., Lamna elegans [shark's tooth], Otodus appendiculatus, Leaves of Dicotylodonous plants. Prestwich mentioned a Modiola, and Mr Gardner records "a few casts of bivalves" from the lower part of the Hengistbury Head Beds, (without giving any generic determinations), as well as sharks' teeth from the ironstones.
During a brief visit to the headland a considerable number of fossils were collected by me in the clays between the two upper bands of ironstone concretions exposed in the large quarry on the Head. The upper band of ironstone concretions is here about 5 - 6 feet below the base of the Highcliff Sands which cap the side of the quarry, and it was in the lower part of the 6 feet of buff or pale chocolate-coloured sandy clays which lie between this band and the second band of ironstone nodules that the fossils were found. Nearly all of them were in the state of casts [moulds] and are difficult to extract whole, so that their determination is sometimes difficult or .... [continues in the old QJGS]. [see also, elsewhere, the report of Curry's find high in the cliff at the end of the Head]
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Rees, B.J. 1993. The Mudeford Quay Newsletter. Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan. 1993. Issued by the Technical Services Division of Christchurch Borough Council. Mudeford Quay in danger of sinking. There are holes in sea-defences. One million pound bid to save the Quay.
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Reid , C. 1989. The Geology of the Country around Bournemouth. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. [old edition - see also White, 1917 and the recent edition by Bristow et al., 1991.]
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Robinson, A.W.H. 1955. The harbour entrances of Poole, Christchurch and Pagham. Geographical Journal, 121, 33-50.
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SCOPAC
SCOPAC in Solent Forum Web Site - including Coastal Protection. See details of specific locations within this website.

SCOPAC, 1993? Coastal Sediment Transport Study. Leaflet on this is available from the Conference Secretariat at the Isle of Wight County Council, contact Helen Gaches 0983-823287. University of Portsmouth.

SCOPAC - Mannion, M. 1993? (pre 1994). Coast protection at Highcliffe. This may be the title page of a Report of SCOPAC, Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline. Sea-Level Rise and Global Warming: Scenarios, Physical Impact and Policies, University of Portsmouth. It is published in one volume of about 200 pages and could be obtained on pre-payment of £25.00 + £2.00 postage and packing from Christchurch Borough Council. Plus other titles of reports on Barton and Highcliffe.

SCOPAC. 1998 et seq. SCOPAC News. (issue no. 4, 1998 seen) Newsletter of the Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline. More information from Mr J. Pulsford, Secretary to the Conference, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1UD or telephone Barbara Herbert on 01983-823282.

SCOPAC. 1999. A Critique of the Past - A Strategy for the Future. Executive Summary. SCOPAC - Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline. January 1999. Report to Standing Conference on Problems Associated with the Coastline by Rivers and Coastal Research Group (RACER), University of Portsmouth. 4 page brochure. For further information on the availability of the Report, please contact: SCOPAC Secretariat, c/o Isle of Wight Council, County Hall, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1UD, tel. 01983-823282
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Smeaton, J. 1762. Christchurch Harbour . London.
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Sylvester, J. 1836. Christchurch Harbour . London.
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Thomas, J. and Ensom, P. 1989, 2002. Bibliography and Index of Dorset Geology, by Jo Thomas and Paul Ensom, Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, 1989. First published in 1989 by The Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1XA. Adapted for the World Wide Web in 2002 by John Palmer. © DNHAS, J. Thomas and P. C. Ensom, 1989 and 2002. [This is a key publication for finding papers on Dorset geology up to 1989.]
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Todd, J.E. 1913. More about septarian structure. Geological Magazine, 10, 361-364.
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Tyhurst, M.F. 188?. Coast protection measures at Hengistbury Head and their effect upon Christchurch Bay . Report of Borough of Christchurch, Borough Engineer's Department. M.F. Tyhurst, Senior Assistant Engineer (Coast Protection).

Tyhurst, M.F. 1994. Mining and Engineering works at Hengistbury Head and their effects upon Christchurch Bay . Report No. MFT/MP/C/R13. Borough of Christchurch, Technical Services Division, May 1994. M.F. Tyhurst, Principal Engineer (District). 5 pp.
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Tylor, A. 1850. On the occurrence of productive iron ore in the Eocene formations of Hampshire. [Hengistbury Ironstone]Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, London , vol. 6, pp. 133-134. January 1850. [On the Hengistbury Head, sideritic Ironstone and the quarrier Mr John E. Holloway.] By Alfred Tylor. F.G.S. Esq.
Abstract:
The presence of large ferruginous Septaria, containing carbonized wood, principally in small fragments, was noticed in the lower part of the Barton clays, between Barton Cliff and Muddiford, by Mr. Prestwich and myself about two years ago. At that time we did not proceed west of Christchurch, and I was unable to accompany Mr. Prestwich in his more recent visit to the cliffs between Christchurch and Poole, when Mr. Prestwich also noticed the very ferruginous condition of these large tabular Septaria.
Having lately had an opportunity of paying a visit to Hengistbury Head, I was much interested in finding that these blocks have been found to contain so large a percentage of iron as to be available for economic purposes. As productive iron ores have not previously been known to occur in the English tertiaries, I have thought the fact of sufficient interest to be laid before the Geological Society.
Mr. Holloway [Mr. John E. Holloway, Hengistbury Mining Company 1848-1872, brought coal from Southampton and took back ironstone as ballast], of Christchurch, who has undertaken these works, informs me that the occurrence of large masses containing iron in these cliffs appears to have been discovered in the reign of Charles II., during a survey of the adjoining harbour of Christchurch. The king was recommended to establish iron-works here for the purpose of founding cannon; the ore was to be obtained from the shore, and the charcoal from the neighbouring New Forest; this scheme, however, was not carried out. Within the last three years Mr. Holloway sent specimens to South Wales for examination. The first impression of the ironmasters .... [continues]
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Velegrakis , A.F. 1994. Aspects of the Morphology and Sedimentology of a Transgressional Embayment System: Poole and Christchurch Bays, Southern England. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Oceanography, Southampton University, 319pp.

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White , H.J.O. [H.J. Osborne White] 1917. Geology of the Country around Bournemouth: Explanation of Sheet 329 [Geological Survey 1 inch to one mile sheet for Bournemouth]. 2nd Edition. Memoirs of the Geological Survey, England and Wales. Published by order of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury. Printed by J. Truscott and Son, Ltd, under the authority of His Majesty's Stationery Office. 79 pp. [This is an old edition of the Geological Survey Memoir - see also - Bristow, C.R., Freshney, E.C. and Penn, I.E. 1991. Geology of the Country around Bournemouth. Memoir for 1:50,000 geological sheet 329 (England and Wales). British Geological Survey, London, 116p. There is also the first edition of 1898 by Clement. Reid. Preface to the Second Edition by A. Strahan, Director: "The first edition of this Memoir, which was written by the late Mr. Clement Reid, was exceptionally brief, a general memoir descriptive of the Hampshire Basin as a whole having been at that time in contemplation. Circumstances have prevented the preparation of the larger work, and opportunity has now been taken ot the exhaustion of the stock of the original pamphlet to produce a memoir on the lines of other New Series Sheet Explanations... continues .. Much of the ground has been re-examined by Mr. White in order to bring the memoir up to date, but the map remains unaltered as the edition published in 1895 and colour-printed (Drift) in 1904."]
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Wright, C.A. and Wilson, J.R. 1970. Jarosite from the Eocene of the Hampshire Basin. Mineralogical Magazine, vol. 37, No. 292, p. 941. Short Communications.
Four concentrates of jarosite, KFe38+(OH)6(SO4)2, have been prepared as a by-product of a micropalaeonto1ogical investigation. Two are from the Barton clay at Alum Bay and the other two are from Whitecliff Bay, Isle of Wight, one in the Barton clay and one in the upper Bracklesham beds.
The jarosite was identified by X-ray diffraction, the d-spacings agreeing very closely with those observed by Warshaw (I956). Partial chemical analyses by wet methods confirmed the identification and an X-ray spectrometer scan identified small amounts of Pb, Sr, Ni, Ti, and Ca, which may be substituting in the jarosite. Silver was not detected. The mineral occurs as a yellow, finely crystalline coating on quartz grains and is closely associated with limonite. In the Bracklesham specimen the jarosite forms a gradation from the limonitic staining of a sandstone band within the clays. Also frequently present are glauconite and gypsum, this association according with the record of Briggs (1951). Sass et al. (I965) and Pough (1941) reported jarosite associated with gypsum and pyrite. These authors suggest that jarosite results from a series of reactions initiated by the oxidation of pyrite, as either a weathering or early diagenetic feature. In the Eocene samples, jarosite appears to be a product of the alteration of limonite, which may result from the initial weathering of pyrite.
[end of main text; only a short note. Authors from Department of Geology, Bristol University. Four reference given in short format.]

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Young, J.A. 1989. The Story of Southbourne. Bournemouth Local Studies Publications, No. 695. The Professional Education Centre, 40 Lowther Road, Bournemouth, BH8 8NR. 50pp. with photographs. ISBN 0 906287 63 4. [Not on the Highcliffe, Barton, Hordle coast but showing the effects of erosion and destruction of sea-defences at Southbourne, Bournemouth.]

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Disclaimer: Geological fieldwork involves some level of risk, which can be reduced by knowledge, experience and appropriate safety precautions. Persons undertaking field work should assess the risk, as far as possible, in accordance with weather, conditions on the day and the type of persons involved. In providing field guides on the Internet no person is advised here to undertake geological field work in any way that might involve them in unreasonable risk from cliffs, ledges, rocks, sea or other causes. Not all places need be visited and the descriptions and photographs here can be used as an alternative to visiting. Individuals and leaders should take appropriate safety precautions, and in bad conditions be prepared to cancell part or all of the field trip if necessary. Permission should be sought for entry into private land and no damage should take place. Attention should be paid to weather warnings, local warnings and danger signs. No liability for death, injury, damage to, or loss of property in connection with a field trip is accepted by providing these websites of geological information. Discussion of geological and geomorphological features, coast erosion, coastal retreat, storm surges etc are given here for academic and educational purposes only. They are not intended for assessment of risk to property or to life. No liability is accepted if this website is used beyond its academic purposes in attempting to determine measures of risk to life or property.

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Dr Ian West, author of these webpages

Webpage - written and produced by:


Ian West, M.Sc. Ph.D. F.G.S.

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at his private address, Romsey, Hampshire, kindly supported by Southampton University,and web-hosted by courtesy of iSolutions of Southampton University. The website does not necessarily represent the views of Southampton University. The website is written privately from home in Romsey, unfunded and with no staff other than the author, but generously and freely published by Southampton University. Field trips shown in photographs do not necessarily have any connection with Southampton University and may have been private or have been run by various organisations.


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