Ryton and Brandon Gravel Pits

Also within

Warwickshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Habitats

Fast flowing river and stream

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Quaternary · Rock Type: Flint

Landscape processes: Fluvial, Glacial

Description

Area, 2.1 ha. 5.18 ac. Description These three sections provide important exposures which link the Quaternary fluvial sequence associated with the present drainage of the area i.e. terraces of the River Avon with an earlier system having no relationship to present topography. The two most southern sections show Avon Terrace 4 gravels overlying Baginton Gravel. The latter forms part of the Wolstonian penultimate glacial stage sequence recognised in this part of the Midlands, the type site being nearby at Wolston. It is a fluvial gravel attributed, on the basis of palaeocurrent data, to a north eastward flowing river. These deposits reach the land surface in the northern part of the area and the section north of Brandon Lane appears only to show Baginton Gravel. This northernmost section is of considerable importance, however, in that organic beds of interglacial or interstadial origin are present within the Baginton Gravel here. Investigation of these has only just started, but will hopefully provide important information about the age of this fluvial sequence. Pollen and plant macrofossils are present in abundance and present excellent potential for relative dating and correlation of the Baginton Gravel with the established British Pleistocene chronology, something which has yet to be carried out satisfactorily. Over much of this area the Baginton Gravel is overlain by the later Avon Terrace 4gravels, which have palaeo currents to the west and a conspicuous flint component absent in the Baginton Gravel. In both the southern two sections the Baginton Gravel and the terrace deposits are locally separated by further gravels, deeply channelled into the former. These contain flint, but considerably less than the Terrace 4 Gravel. They have been interpreted as equivalent to Avon Terrace 3, which some workers have considered earlier than Terrace 4. This interpretation requires a most unusual sequence of events to have occurred, reversing the conventional order of these Avon terraces. Research is currently being carried out which may determine whether this reversal has occurred. An alternative interpretation of the channel gravels at Brandon and Ryton, based on a more conventional terrace stratigraphy, is that they merely represent earlier sedimentation within the period of aggradation represented by Terrace 4. The exposures at Brandon and Ryton are clearly of major stratigraphic importance and have considerable potential for further research.

Plant communities