Walcott, Norfolk - History - Geology, Geography and Climate

Geology, Geography and Climate

The geology and geography in the vicinity of Walcott have been shaped by past ice ages, sea incursions and rivers that have deposited material over the underlying chalk.

The last ice sheet left Norfolk around 16,000 BC allowing pine trees to colonise the region.

Between 10,000 - 6000 BC the climate became warm and dry allowing alder, oak, elm & lime into the region.

The increasing temperature caused the sea level to rise and around 5000 BC the North Sea was first connected to the English Channel via a narrow strait. Eventually there were wide inter-tidal estuaries around Norfolk, which started to deposit marine clay over the original peat in the Broadland area.

Around 3000 BC the Norfolk coastline was roughly similar to today's outline, although the local cliffs continued to erode. Some of the eroded material goes to form the sand bar, a few kilometres offshore, that runs parallel with the coastline and is a danger to local shipping.

During the Bronze Age (2,500 - 800 BC) the climate slowly became cooler although the sea level continued to rise and around 750 BC the sea started to breach the spits across the estuaries further south. This resulted in Walcott becoming part of a large peninsula with numerous islands and waterways in the south and east. This peninsula would have made an ideal area for man to colonize with fresh water, fishing and reeds (for thatch) in the west, sea fishing in the east. The good farming land and its isolation would have offered some degree of defence.

From the Iron Age to the end of the Roman period (800 BC - 410 AD) the climate became wet and cold and locally the sea level probably reached about 1.0 m above today's average.

Around 500 AD (during the Anglo-Saxon period) spits of land further south started once again to exclude the sea from the local estuaries and the inlets forming the peninsular began to 'dry out'. These natural barriers have subsequently been maintained by man to protect the farmland behind.

The coastal erosion in the vicinity has been estimated at an approximate rate of 1.0 m per year and accounts for the loss of an approximate 2.0 km wide strip of land since the Roman invasion of AD 43 as a result of which several medieval villages (e.g. Waxham Parva, Markesthorpe) disappeared into the sea.

Note: Details of the past vegetation and climate of the region have been determined from borehole logs (and pollen analysis) such as that at Ranworth Broad.