Brimpton Pit

Site of Special Scientific Interest · 51.3820, -1.1886

Also within

Berkshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Favourable (1)
UnitFeatureConditionArea (ha)Assessed
SU565650 Favourable 1.58 2010-03-28

Geology & landscape

Landscape processes: Glacial

Description

Area, 1.64 hectares 4.05 ac Description This working gravel pit is of very considerable importance to geologists because of the evidence which it provides for environmental changes during the Ice Age. The gravels are inter bedded with silts which contain fossil molluscs and pollen and which indicate that the sediments were laid down during a warm period which separated two phases of glacial advance. The warm phase has been called by geologists the ‘Brimpton Interstadial’ and this is the locality at which the evidence for this warm phase was first recognised. It is also a key site in elucidating the history of the development of the Thames and its tributaries.