The is remarkable for its near natural form and as such is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) throughout its length. Known as the 'Wild Daughter of the River Severn' due to its sinuous nature, it twists its way for 81 miles from its source on Cilfaesty Hill, Powys, Wales, through its often steep-sided valley to its confluence with the River Severn near Worcester. However, the course of the River Teme has a most complicated history.

The history of the River Teme encompasses glacial diversions, river captures, Teme Valley towards Knucklas, Powys glacial lakes, melt-water torrents and bygone river systems. Some 500,000 years Over the last one million years Britain has not always enjoyed its current mild ? climate, although the general shape of Britain’s scenery has been much the same ago, prior to the Anglian ice-sheet invading the area, the Mathon River flowed Leintwardine ? Ludlow ? as we see it today (though our area was still attached to Europe). As the global along the western margins of the and Malvern Hills (map A to right) Newnham ? Wigmore Eardiston River climate began to cool, polar ice-caps increased enormously, sea-levels dropped encompassing parts of the present Middle Teme. The Anglian Ice-sheet then Wooferton

Lugg and we fell into the grip of the recent Ice Age. Several cold phases occurred during blocked the flow of the Mathon river forming an ice damned glacial lake which a period of time referred to as the Quaternary. extended north of . After the ice had retreated the lake emptied and the Knightwick Worcester

Mathon River disappeared. Ri An artist’s impression of Pleistocene periglacial ver conditions. Image courtesy of Worcester City Art Gallery The Quaternary is subdivided into two epochs; the Pleistocene which started 2.6 M Malvern

Prior to the Devensian glacial episode a joined-up ath and Museums Ice Age exhibition million years ago and ended approx. 10,000 years ago, and the Holocene, River Teme system did not exist. Instead, two on representing our modern day climatic conditions. It is the climatically controlled Map A - Pre Anglian drainage (*) separate routes existed (map B); in the south a processes associated with the Pleistocene which have had a profound influence diverted route of the Mathon River flowed east at upon landform development in Britain. The Pleistocene climate fluctuated Leintwardine Knightwick passing through the hills, to the north a Ludlow between temperate (interglacial) and cold (glacial or periglacial) climatic Newham river flowed westwards to form a tributary of the Wigmore Eardiston conditions, the latter comparable to present day arctic environments. Wooferton River Lugg. River

Over the last 500,000 years there have been three episodes of glaciation in Lugg Martley During the late Devensian further river diversions Knightwick Britain: The Anglian (between 480,000 and 416,000 years ago), the Wolstonian ensued. Two glacial lakes altered the course and Worcester (380,000 to 130,000 years ago) and the Devensian (120,000 to 10,000 years size of the River Teme. Overflow from Lake ago). Climatic reconstructions suggest that the average air temperature in Britain Malvern Wigmore cut the Downton Gorge whilst overflow 14,000 years ago was -9 degree Celsius and reached as low as -20 degrees Post Anglian drainage from Lake Woofferton reversed the flow of the proto Map B - Post Anglian drainage (*) Celsius during winter. Each glacial episode was separated by interglacial periods An artist’s impression of Pleistocene interglacial mid-Teme to the east and cut the conditions. Image courtesy of Worcester City Art Gallery when the climate was somewhat warmer than today. We now live in an interglacial and Museums Ice Age exhibition steeply incised gorge that that started around 10,000 years ago. A map showing the Late characterises the Teme between Devensian Wye Valley ice Riv tongue and the glacial Eardiston and Knightwick. The upper er Teme lakes Wigmore and Woofferton. Map by Cross catchment of the Lugg had now been

captured by the new River Teme. River Teme * Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2010

The Anglian ice-sheet is believed to have covered Martley about 480,000 years ago (an ice-sheet is a glacier of more than 50 000 km2 that buries the landscape). Remnants of a former cover of glacial till left by the Anglian ice-sheet have been The present-day course of the River Teme from Powys to Worcester (*) found just to the north of Martley. Glacial till is rock-flour produced by the grinding action of ice-sheets and glaciers as they pass over solid bedrock. The ice also picks up boulders and rock fragments that it uses at its base as grinding tools. A wide variety of animals lived in Britain during the Quaternary. Woolly mammoths, woolly When the ice retreats it leaves behind a mixture of clay and boulders. rhinoceros, reindeer, wolf packs and bison roamed the harsh periglacial landscape of the A map of Britain during t he height of the Anglian Woolly mammoth molar tooth and tusk, Devensian cold stage. During interglacial conditions straight tusked elephants, hippopotamus, glaciation, about 450,000 years ago. There was no Martley lay outside the limit of the Devensian ice-sheet from about 15,000 to found in . A feature of the red deer, aurochs and spotted hyena made their homes here. Interlinked with the fluctuating ice English Channel, but a precursor of the River Thames Ice Age exhibition case at Worcester City flowed to the north of its present valley 10,000 years ago. However, the area was exposed to extremely cold periglacial Museum and Art Gallery sheets is the story of human evolution. conditions similar to the modern day high latitude zones of Alaska and Northern Scandinavia. Freeze-thaw activity and the frost weathering processes associated Woolly mammoths are extinct members of the elephant family that lived in Europe, Asia and North with periglacial environments produced a mantle of superficial debris ('Head'), America in cold, dry grassland environments. They lived from about 4.6 million years ago, and which is notably present on the eastern lower slopes of the Abberley Hills. became extinct around 5 000 years ago. In 1987 a woman walking her dog in Condover, near Shrewsbury, stumbled on a woolly mammoth bone. This extraordinary find revealed that mammoths lived in Britain as recently as 14,000 years ago, 7,000 years after they were believed to have died out. Further excavations at the site uncovered an adult and at least three juvenile

Interpretation by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage T rust mammoths. The adult mammoth is the most complete and best preserved skeleton ever found in www.EarthHeritageTrust.org.uk Woolly mammoth 01905 855184 / [email protected] Britain and the group is the last record of mammoths living in north-west Europe. Registered Charity No 1144354