The early geography of Midley

There is confusion between the sands on the surf ace near Mid 1 ey Church ( a mi le south of Old Romney) and a bluish grey sand which occurs at some depth beneath other deposits in many areas of the Marsh. Both of these sandy deposits have been given the name the "Midley Sands", although that at Midley is clearly younger and probably has a different origin to the lower sands. This is one of the most important problems which needs an answer if the early geography of the Marsh is to be understood.

Work has therefore been undertaken in an attempt to establish the age and environment of deposition of the sand and other deposits at Midley itself. In 1990 Wa 11 a series of several borings was made on the north-east side of the Midley near Hawthorn Corner. Beneath a metre of sand was half a metre of herbaceous peat, which rested in turn upon a blue-grey silty clay. Beneath this was further sand.

The occurrence of peat promised to provide useful information about the history of the sequence. Laboratory analysis of the pollen preserved in the peat has begun to clarify the environmental history. The blue-grey clay which underlies the, peat bed appears to be marine in origin, since pollen grains of many plants of saltmarsh and coastal fringe habitats have been identified in the base of the peat. These plants include Thrift, Sea Aster, Sea Plantain and maritime species the Goosefoot family. Analysis of diatoms (microscopic algae) has confirmed this interpretation of the clay. During the deposition of the peat itself the local vegetation was dominated by freshwater aquatic and fenland plants and by grasses and sedges, evidence that conditions at Midley had evolved to become a freshwater environment. Alder and willow carr existed nearby. Local wood land was dominated first by oak and alder, and subsequently by birch and hazel scrub.

The impact of man upon the landscape is demonstrated in the upper layers of the peat bed by the pollen of cereals and of certain weeds which are associated with agriculture. site. It Evidently some farming was taking place on drier soils near the is possible that this farming activity may have contributed to destabilisation of local sand deposits, and encouraged their redeposition at Midley, needed. although further investigation into the cause of sand deposition is needed.

The pollen analysis has shown that the peat bed was deposited more recently than 5000 years ago, because elm pollen frequencies are very low. Further stratigraphic and pollen work will be undertaken in 1991, to clarify further the distribution, age and type of sediments present, and samples will be submitted for dating by radioccarbon means.

Dr. Jim Innes
Department of Geography, University of Durham