The original geological survey of the area comprising sheet
SZ 19 was made by H W Bristow and J Trimmer at the one-inch to one-mile scale (1:63 360) as parts of Old Sheets 15 and 16 published in 1856 and 1855 Series Geological
respectively. The drift deposits were not represented on these maps. Clement Reid resurveyed the area on the six-inch to one-mile scale (1:10,560) in 1893, and his results were incorporated in New Series One-Inch
Geological Sheet 329 (Bournemouth), published in 1895 in both Solid and Drift editions, and in the accompanying memoir (Reid, 1898). A second edition of this memoir was produced by H J 0 White, and was published in 1917. White re-examined much of the ground, but the published maps remained unaltered.
In 1983 the Institute of Geological Sciences (now British
Geological Survey) was commissioned by the Department of the
Environment (contract PECD7/1/0103-149/82) to provide new 1:10,000 geological maps of the Poole-Bournemouth area. This contract comprises the survey of ten 1:10,000 sheets, and parts of four others, (Figure 1) over three years, to form a basis for the planning of urban and industrial development, and the safeguarding of mineral and water resources. During 1983, in the first phase of the contract, the four constituent quadrants of Sheet SZ 19 were mapped as follows, under the direction of R W Gallois, District Geologist: SZ 19 NW B J Williams; SZ 19 NE E C Freshney; SZ 19 SW E C Freshney; SZ 19 SE C R Bristow
