Middle Pleistocene Thames-Medway deposits at Clacton-on-Sea

Abstract

In 1987 an archaeological investigation was undertaken during redevelopment of the erstwhile Butlin’s holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea, on the grounds that the Middle Pleistocene Clacton Channel Deposits, containing the type-Clactonian Palaeolithic industry, were known to extend beneath the site. Excavations for a storm-drain allowed sampling at points along a longitudinal traverse of the main Clacton Channel. Analysis of these samples has provided new palaeontological information, including data pertaining to the rise in relative sea level during the interglacial represented. Systematic studies of molluscs and ostracods, the latter undertaken at Clacton for the first time, have been particularly valuable. Information from the Butlin’s site supplements evidence previously gathered from the West Cliff section and from other localities at Clacton. The calcareous clay (‘marl’) that underlies the Clacton golf course extends beneath Butlin’s, where it was found to be part of the Freshwater Beds, not the Estuarine Beds, as hitherto supposed. The Clacton Estuarine Beds, restricted to the eastern end of the site, have their base just below 2 m O.D., implying that their superposition upon the Clacton Freshwater Beds occurred when relative sea level in this area was close to present ordnance datum. Correlation of the Clacton Channel Deposits with the interglacial immediately following the Anglian/Elsterian Stage appears secure; equivalence with Oxygen Isotope Stage 11 of the oceanic sequence is most probable. A borehole survey and subsequent excavation revealed a Holocene sequence of unlithified tufa and organic sediments beneath part of the site