Late Pleistocene terrace deposits at Beckford,Worcestershire, England

The Pleistocene deposits in the area of the village of Beckford, in the Carrant Valley, Worcestershire are described. A radio-carbon date of 27,650±250 years B.P. has been obtained from plant material in the terrace deposits in the valley. Detailed studies have been made of the terrace sediments and of the remains of Mollusca and Coleoptera in fossiliferous layers. Frost structures are described and their stratigraphy considered. The nature of the local environment and regional climate in the final stages of the Upton Warren Interstadial period is reconstructed in detail. The terrace appears to have aggraded in a periglacial environment, dominated initially by solifluction processes. Extensive solifluction may have led to local diversions of drainage. In time, the climate deteriorated, becoming cooler and somewhat less continental with the onset of the main Devensian glaciation. This latter stage was characterised by extensive ice-wedge growth, aeolian activity and, subsequently, by river incision.