ABSTRACT
The development of the paleo-argillic concept which implies humid, temperate, soil-forming processes prior to the Devensian Glaciation has taken place in an open-ended stratigraphic framework and has, so far, made any contribution of significance to the interpretation of the British Quaternary stratigraphy, although there is no doubt that the potential exists. When the Geological Society of London issued its Special Report Correlation of Quaternary deposits in the British Isles the stratigraphic units were identified on lithological and biological evidence, and correlations were made by radiocarbon dating and diagnostic spectra of plant, animal and rock assemblages. The Valley Farm Soil gives a history of environmental change in a part of the British Quaternary succession that has hitherto been difficult to resolve. Palaeosols have been identified at a wide range of occurrences in the British Quaternary stratigraphy, but in the majority of cases the evidence is fragmentary, profiles are disrupted and truncated, and the stratigraphic resolution is crude.
