Late Middle Pleistocene ice‐marginal sedimentation in E ast A nglia, E ngland

Investigation of isolated landforms on the eastern margin of the East Anglian F enland at Feltwell and Methwold Hythe, Norfolk has demonstrated that they represent glacifluvial delta‐fan and related sediments. Section logging, borehole records and previous descriptions together indicate that the deposits were laid down as an ice‐marginal delta complex and feeder channel into a proglacial lake. The internal structure and form of the delta and related feeder channel have also been determined using ground‐penetrating radar. The sequence indicates deposition at the ice front, together with minor ice‐front movements, a substantial discharge event and repeated solutional collapse of the underlying bedrock. Postdepositional solifluction and cryoturbation also occurred. The glaciomarginal landform complexes form part of a line of delta‐fan and associated accumulations (the ‘Skertchly Line’) deposited at the margin of an ice lobe that entered the Fenland. Here the ice dammed westward‐aligned rivers to form a lake, here called Lake Paterson. These observations reinforce earlier descriptions of a late Middle Pleistocene glaciation of the Fenland termed the ‘Tottenhill glaciation’. Previous research concluded that the glaciation occurred at c . 160 ka, that is, during the late Wolstonian (= late Saalian) Stage (Drenthe Substage, early Marine Isotope Stage 6), a correlation supported by evidence from the North Sea floor. The implications of these conclusions are discussed.