New evidence of glaciation on Salisbury Plain?

Prof Colin Pillinger and the Lake House Meteorite

New evidence of glaciation on Salisbury Plain? Er, no, actually.  But the latest info on the BBC's "The Sky at Night" (and on the BBC web site) refers to the glaciation of Salisbury Plain as if such a thing is perfectly well accepted, which of course it isn't.  Well, not at the time Colin Pillinger wants it, anyway......

The meteorite is apparently 4.5 billion years old, and Prof Pillinger thinks it has been on planet Earth for about 32,000 years.  Presumably on Salisbury Plain, where it was later incorporated into a Bronze Age barrow at some unknown location, possibly near Barbury Castle in Wiltshire.  The reason for that piece of reasoning?  Well, the traces of chalk on the meteorite surface, suggesting that it was embedded in chalk or covered with chalk at the time when it was found and taken away by Rev Edward Duke prior to ending up on the doorstep of lake House.  There is a lot of doubt about the provenance and the story..... but that is for others to discuss.

So where did the glaciation theory come from?  I have written to Colin about this, and await a reply.  But I assume that the thesis is that the meteorite is pretty well preserved, and that it therefore landed on something soft like a snowdrift or a glacier surface (the alternative is presumably that it landed on the ground surface, which would have been hard enough to ensure the shattering of the whole meteorite and the wide dispersal of all the bits.)  The other line of evidence appears to be that there is remarkably little surface weathering of the meteorite -- and this also leads Colin to the assumption that it was covered, buried or protected by some medium or other -- and he has suggested ice.

Much as I would like to go along with this thesis, I'm afraid it doesn't seem to fit with what I know about the Devensian.  Around 30,000 years ago we were in an interstadial -- warmer -- phase prior to the rapid cooling that led to the Devensian Glaciation of around 25,000 - 20,000 BP.  I'm not even sure that there would have been extensive snowfields and permafrost at the time.  Maybe there were cold winters and seasonal snowbanks, but they would certainly have melted away in the summers.

I'm not even sure that a glaciated landscape would have ensured a "soft" landing for the meteorite.  Glacier ice is pretty hard -- often harder than a normal ground surface with a soil layer and bedrock beneath.  Even under a periglacial regime, permafrost is pretty hard too if it is at the ground surface (during the winter) or maybe a metre or two down (during the summer.)

Before going any further with this, I would like to know what the basis for the date of 32,000 BP is, and where the "radiocarbon" date of 10,000 BP came from.  I'm not aware of any publication in which all is explained.......