Photo 9 (Return)

Browndown gravel foreland, 2001. A series of low gravel and sand ridges have accreted along a frontage of 1.5km in length and up to 500m in width covering some 64 ha. Although disturbed by use as an MOD firing range, numerous morphological features remain. An abandoned cliffline (now a vegetated slope) representing a former shoreline can be seen in the top of the photo. Origin and evolution remain uncertain although the gravel rests upon peats dated at 6,000 to 7,000 years before present. The gravel composition is consistent with supply by drift from erosion of the updrift (north west) coastline during the rising sea-levels of the late-Holocene. It is an important habitat for vegetated shingle, mature grassland, acid grass heath with landward transition to scrub woodland.