Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
Location | Suffolk |
---|---|
Grid reference | TM 405 774 [1] |
Interest | Geological |
Area | 1.6 hectares [1] |
Notification | 1988 [1] |
Location map | Magic Map |
Holton Pit is a 1.6-hectare (4.0-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Halesworth in Suffolk. [1] [2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site. [3]
This was thought to be the only site known to show the sequence of the early Pleistocene Westleton Beds overlain by "quarttzose gravels" deposited by the proto-Thames river as the Kesgrave Sands & Gravels. The "quartzose gravels" are now thought most likely to be Anglian glacial outwash. The Westleton Beds mainly consist of sand but were quarried here for gravels that were a coastal gravel accumulation, especially gravels washed into large channels, and the site is close to their known inland boundary and throws light on their spatial limits. [4]
Footpaths from Holton go through the site.