The stratigraphic sequence from Parrick House bog, upper Teesdale – a palaeoenvironmental archive for the north Pennines, England

Abstract

Pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of a sedimentary sequence from mid-Teesdale, in the north Pennines of northern England, are reported. Organic sedimentation began before the start of the Lateglacial Interstadial above a clastic unit that had accumulated since local ice retreat. The lithology does not contain a mid-profile clastic unit typical of sedimentation during the Lateglacial Loch Lomond Stadial, which, supported by an anomalously old date in the age–depth sequence, indicates a depositional hiatus, probably caused by permanent freezing of the water body during that severely cold phase. Other radiocarbon dates form a smooth age–depth curve for a pollen record extending from the Lateglacial Interstadial's start until soon after the mid-Holocene Elm Decline. The vegetation history is analogous to that at other sites in upper Teesdale and at higher altitude sites in the Pennines generally, although Holocene woodland was less open than at the highest altitude sites. Radiocarbon ages for pollen zone boundaries are similar to those at high-altitude sites, but significantly later than the dates for these boundaries at regional lowland sites. There are no indications of pre-Elm ( Ulmus ) Decline, Late Mesolithic-age woodland disturbance. Low-scale woodland opening occurs at and after the Elm Decline in the early Neolithic period.