It's clear from my correspondence file, that Ixer, Bevins & Co are moving their focus of attention away from Pembrokeshire, having caused quite enough trouble to be going on with. The new focus is on the Bristol Channel coasts, and the hundreds of glacial erratics that are scattered along its shorelines and hinterlands. That includes all the areas I have referred to in my recent publications -- Gower, the Vale of Glamorgan, the Bristol Channel islands, Devon, Cornwall and Somerset, and probably even the Isles of Scilly.
Over the years I have listed most of the erratic finds, and while I doubt that there is any new fieldwork going on, I applaud any new research that will give us a more accurate indication of where the erratics have come from and how they have travelled. Kellaway and various others have, over the years, speculated about possible ice streams travelling in parallel -- for example a stream dominated by "Scottish ice" and a stream with a dominant Welsh erratic component. To me, the picture looks more messy than Kellaway suggested, since most of the coastal erratics (and those further inland) will have been deposited and re-mobilised several times during the Ice Age. But let's see what comes up from a more detailed examination of the erratics themselves and a more detailed summary of the main source areas.
The Altar Stone debate comes into the frame too, in view of the strong feeling in some quarters that it might have come from western Scotland and might have been transported southwards by the Irish Sea Ice stream.
Of course, one of the main purposes of the research will be to "prove" that the erratics are concentrated within a very narrow vertical range and that they are therefore ice-rafted -- I have already crossed swords with the Bevins gang on this, and I genuinely can't understand why this should be such an obsession, given that glacial till exists at an altitude of over 60m near Fremington, and given that the GCR volume for the South-West gives an upper altitude of c 200m for glacial materials on the Devon coast.......
Anyway, best of luck to them, and I look forward to see what they come up with when and if they get their results published. As ever, I will be on hand to apply due scrutiny.........
For further background information, just type "Bristol Channel erratics" into the blog search box.
Some posts:
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/the-bristol-channel-glaciations.htmlhttps://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2017/10/on-redistribution-of-bluestone-erratics.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2022/02/glaciation-of-cotswolds-and-mendips.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2018/10/strange-boulders-on-coast-of-brittany.html
https://brian-mountainman.blogspot.com/2024/08/in-praise-of-ailsa-craig.html
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