The following report is designed to be used in conjunction with 1 : 10 000 Geological Sheet
TG 21 NE. Uncoloured copies of the map may be purchased fiom the Survey's offices at
Keyworth. The district covered by the map is included in 1 : 50 000 Geological Sheets 147
(Aylsham) and 148 (North Walsham). It formed part of Old Series One-Inch sheet 66 NE,
which was surveyed at a scale of 1 : 63 360 by H B Woodward in 1875-1880. An
accompanying memoir was published (Woodward, 1881). The district was resurveyed at
1 : 10 000 scale by the present author in 1995-6, with Dr I R Basham as regional geologist.
The area lies to the north-east of Norwich (Figure 1). The town of Wroxham lies on the
eastern margin of the area, with Coltishall and Horstead along the northern margin, and
Spixworth in the south-west. Smaller settlements within the district include Belaugh and
Crostwick, while the bulk of the district is mal. The river Bure flows across the district fiom
north to east, but has no signicant tributaries. It flows eastwards into the area known as the
Norfolk Broads and ultimately drains to the sea at Great Yarmouth. The land takes the form
of a heavily dissected plateau, rising locally to a maximum of 26m OD [2880 15291, with the
River Bure below 5m. Generally, the Breydon Formation peats form flat marshlands at or just
below river level. The area underlain by Upper Chalk at rockhead slopes gently up to around
7m OD, the Crag outcrop has significantly steeper slopes, and the Corton Formation forms
the almost flat plateau surface.
The plateau of the Corton Formatioq which is locally covered by up to rather more than a
metre of cover silt, produces excellent agricultural land, neither too heavy nor too li&t. Large
crops of wheat, barley, sugar beet and potatoes are grown, and owing to the water-retentive
properties of the cover silt, little artificial irrigation is required despite the low rainfall in this
part of the country. However, the land underlain by the Crag and Upper Chalk are very well
draiied and form relatively poor arable land, requiring much artificial irrigation. Much of this
land is wooded and used for commercial shooting. The floodplain of the Bure is given over
to pemnanent pasture, which is largely grazed by cattle. This floodplain lies at an artificially
low level as a result of shrinkage of the ground owing to drainage: the peats within the
Breydon Formation are particularly prone to shrinkage and oxidation on drying.
National Grid References in this report are given in square brackets; these all fall within 100-
kilometre square TG. All depths and thicknesses in the report are given in metres. The nonconfidential
water wells and boreholes in the district are shown on Figure 2; identification
numbers quoted are those of the BGS records collection, in which they are prefmed
TG 21 NE. Complete logs of the non-confidential wells and boreholes can be obtained fiom
BGS Information Services (Geological Records) at Keyworth
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