Geological notes and local details for 1:10 000 sheet TG 22 NE (Westwick) : part of 1:50 000 sheets 147 (Aylsham) and 148 (North Walsham)

Hamblin, R.J.O.. 1997 Geological notes and local details for 1:10 000 sheet TG 22 NE (Westwick) : part of 1:50 000 sheets 147 (Aylsham) and 148 (North Walsham). Nottingham, UK, British Geological Survey, 41pp. (WA/97/077) (Unpublished)

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Abstract/Summary

The following report is designed to be used in conjunction with 1 : 10 000 Geological Sheet TG 22 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 Walsh). It formed part of Old Series One-Inch sheet 68E, and was surveyed at a scale of 1 : 63 360 by H B Woodward in 1879. An accompanying memoir was published (Reid, 1882). The district was resurveyed at 1 : 10 000 scale by the present author in 1996-7, with Dr I R B a s h as regional geologist. The area lies to the north of Norwich (Figure 1). The market town of North Walsham extends onto the northern part of the sheet, and Worstead into the south-eastern corner. Apart fiom this the area is predominantly rural, with the small settlements of Westwick, Swanton Abbott and Skeyton in the south. In the north of the area the land rises to a plateau, with maximum altitudes of over 40m OD at Lord Anson's Wood [26 281 and North Walsham [28 291. Small streams drain this plateau to the west, south and east, including Skeyton Beck in the northwest and Stakebridge and Westwick becks in the south. All are tributaries of the River Bure, which flows into the area known as the Norfolk Broads and ultimately drains to the sea at Great Ymouh. In the east the ground drops away rapidly into the valley of the River Ant, a major tributary of the Bure. In general the high plateau formed by the sands of the Corton Formation, which is very well drained, forms poor agricultural land and is traditionally grazed by sheep, hence the importance in medieval times of cloth manufxture in the village of Worstead. Nowadays much of this higher land is given over to commercial woodland and pheasant rearing. The remainder is wed for arable crops but requires intensive irrigation. However, some areas of the Corton Formation outcrop, particularly at lower levels, are covered by up to rather more than a metre of cover silt, and these areas, along with the outcrop of the Crag Group, produce excellent agricultural land, neither too heavy nor too light. 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. The alluvium and peat outcrops of the Stakebridge Beck and Westwick Beck are given over to woodland and permanent pasture, grazed by cattle, sheep and horses. 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 prefixed TG 22 NE. Complete logs of the non-confidential wells and boreholes can be obtained fiom BGS Information Services (Geological Records) at Keyworth.

Item Type:	Publication - Report
Programmes:	BGS Programmes > Other
Funders/Sponsors:	NERC
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	This item has been internally reviewed but not externally peer-reviewed
NORA Subject Terms:	Earth Sciences
Date made live:	20 Aug 2010 10:35 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/10715

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