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Holocene Environmental History and Palaeoecology of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall Thesis

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Holocene Environmental History and Palaeoecology of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall Thesis Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Holocene Environmental History and Palaeoecology of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall Thesis How to cite: Garbett, Geoffrey George (2013). Holocene Environmental History and Palaeoecology of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2013 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000f111 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Ovo e e s rre ji Holocene Environmental History and Palaeoecology of the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall A thesis presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Geoffrey George Garbett B.Ed Hons (Wales), MSc (Dunelm), MA (Open) December 2012 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research The Open University United Kingdom £>A-re oP so B m issio n - & o!Ji. op i S Pi.ouS ProQuest Number: 13835943 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13835943 Published by ProQuest LLC(2019). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract The vegetational history and palaeoenvironments of the Lizard Peninsula are poorly understood with previous palynological research providing only fragmentary data from coastal sediments and inland palaeosols. In this study sediments from the plateau in the centre of the peninsula are analysed. This addresses questions regarding a possible preanthropogenic forest, the origins of the heathlands and the history of the endemic Erica vagans L Three sites were identified as having suitable pollen archives. The longest sequence has a basal l4C date of 7489±64 cal. years BP and provides firm evidence of a closed canopy birch/pine forest with hazel understory and a ground flora of ferns. There is evidence of a Mesolithic clearance phase before the rise of alder and oak at ca. 5 175± 125 cal. years BP. This site is 50 m below and 4 km south of the high point of the plateau on Goonhilly Downs. The sequence here has a basal l4C date of 4 152±254 cal. years BP and provides evidence of Bronze Age arable farming. This ceases at ca. 3000 years BP coinciding with evidence of cooler, wetter weather. Discontinuities in the sedimentary record at both sites interrupt the landscape reconstruction. Iron Age arable farming and heathland is indicated at the lower site at ca. 2230±82 cal. years BP with the heathland largely disappearing during the medieval period. The third site, on the edge of the Downs, indicates a predominantly heathland environment at ca. I 100 A D with some pastoral agriculture. Less than 100 years later there is unequivocal evidence of arable farming alongside heathland, and a shift from Calluna to E. vagans dominated heathland. The landscape remains stable until the 19th century when pine and later fir plantations are evidenced. Changes in the pollen assemblage in this agriculturally marginal area appear to reflect socio-political rather than climatic changes. Acknowledgements This thesis has been a very long time in the making and without the help of a large number of people who have kept the faith it would never have seen the light of day. Foremost among these are my supervisors who have been with me from the start, Charles Turner and James Scourse. Since first meeting Charles at Luton Airport in 2003 he has been patiently supporting me through the sometimes overwhelming difficulties of working in isolation alongside a demanding job. He somehow had the knack of knowing when I needed help and coming up with the right solution. I am forever grateful for his hospitality when I was visiting the Cambridge quaternary labs and for taking me under his wing during field trips and conferences when the throngs of learned people could be a bit daunting. James turned up at my front door on a sunny Cornwall morning in spring of the same year. I had the first hint of his endless enthusiasm and masterful judgement when, while searching for suitable sites on Goonhilly Downs, he spotted a line of Phragmites cutting through the dry heathland. In a flash we were off with our auger and the rest is Bronze Age history. When Charles retired from the O U Bob Spicer stepped in and quickly spotted that I needed a lift. He played ‘good cop’ when my long suffering long time supervisors were giving me dire warnings for my slow rate of data collection. He demonstrated a confidence in me that I hope has not been misplaced. I’ve had much other help from members of the quaternary community, Steve Boreham who welcomed me to the Cambridge labs and talked me through my first pollen diagram drawing programme, Rob Scaife and Keith Bennett who advised me on slide preparation and pollen identification at crucial moments and Chris Caseldine who agreed to my use of the Tremough campus laboratories. O f particular help over the past couple of years has been Michael Grant whose interest in my work has been followed by enormously valuable advice that has kept my writing-up on track. Very special thanks must also go to Brian Long of Bangor who prepared most of my material for counting with great speed and effectiveness. Massive thanks are due to the research department of Cornwall College who have paid for most of my carbon dates, field trips, conference visits and trips to Walton Hall. Their faith in the importance of research is heart warming. And to my colleague Bruce Forrest I cannot say thank you too many times. He has been a constant source of encouragement, provided pivotal support in the use my second stratigraphical computer programme and spent a hot exhausting day with me on Hendra mire collecting transect data. Yvonne Oates selflessly made her skills with GIS available to me, Mike Williams and Steve Brown were always prepared to talk me through anything with a mathematical angle and Michael Hunt was a great source of encouragement, anecdote, and science department funds when the research department closed its doors. For allowing me access to the various sites on the Lizard Peninsula I’d like to thank Ray Lawman of Natural England, Robert Gilbert of Erisey Barton and Dennis Roberts, the owner of the Hendra mire site. All supported my scientific endeavours without hesitation. Finally none of this could have been possible without the support of my wife Ntsebo. She has happily entertained all my supervisors when they have visited, a list that includes my early mentor and inspiration Judy Turner from Durham who came to wish me God’s speed at the outset. Ntsebo has always been very positive towards this seemingly endless endeavour, never questioning the cost in time and money. She even allowed me, without a murmur, to highjack her holiday plans so we could visit Switzerland and the IN Q U A conference. I only hope I can do the same for her some day. Thank you, thank you one and all. Table of contents Abstract ....................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................... iii Table of contents ....................................................................................... v List of figures ............................................................................................. xi List of tables ............................................................................................... xiii Chapter I INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... I I. I Geology and geomorphology of the Lizard ............................................... 2 1.2 Soils of the Lizard ................................................................ 8 1.3 Extant flora of the Lizard ........................................................................ 9 1.3.1 Erica vagans and the Lusitanian debate ......................................... 14 1.4 Environmental history of Cornwall ...................................................................... 19 1.4.1 Late Devensian, Early Holocene ..................................................... 20 1.4.2 The human impact on the vegetation ............................................. 22 1.4.3 The environmental history o f the Lizard Peninsula ....................... 26 1.5 The archaeological record for Cornwall ..................................................... 32 1.5.1 The Mesolithic .................................................................................. 32 1.5.2 The Neolithic .................................................................................... 35 1.5.3 The Bronze Age ............................................................................... 38 1.5.4 The Iron Age and Roman
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