ABSTRACT
This chapter traces a consistent scheme of pre-Quaternary landform development for southern Britain. It concentrates on the evidence obtained from weathering residues and sediments. In studying landform development, evidence of weathering or soil formation is valuable in two ways. First, weathered rocks and soil horizons may survive in situ and so indicate the position and environmental context of palaeosurfaces. Second, weathering products preserved in sediments yield a record of the environmental conditions in the erosional province from which those sediments are derived. The pre-Quaternary origin of significant elements in the relief of the British Isles has long been accepted. On the Chalk of south-east England, debate has centred on whether the bulk of denudation took place in the Palaeogene or in the Neogene. The most elevated parts of the south-west peninsula may have escaped submergence, but over the rest of southern Britain a continuous cover of chalk was deposited.
