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Bucks Earth Heritage Group
Ouse Valley Park
Grid
reference: SP 790 410
Location:
Known as the Great River Ouse Walk, parking lies off Watling Street in Stony
Stratford.
The
Ouse Valley Park lies on the floodplain of the Great River Ouse. This is
a meandering river typical of many in southern
England
and could be used as an educational area for river processes. The nearby
balancing lakes add to this story by reflecting on how we manage water supplies
and cope with a sudden high rainfall in an urbanized area. There is little
geological exposure, but the geological interest lies with:
- Landscape aspects (geomorphology), there are subtle undulations in the landscape either side of the river which have a direct relation to geology some as river terraces and some as harder rocks beneath the surface;
- Past use of the underlying geology (sands and gravels of the 1st and 2nd Terrace deposits) the extraction of which has provided the lakes;
- The older solid geology (beneath the gravels) which is largely the Blisworth Limestone and Cornbrash (some can be seen as nearby building stones);
- Link between geology, soils and the plants and animals that live in the area.
Stony
Stratford
buildings are a good way to see some of the underlying geology - the Blisworth
Limestone and lesser amounts of Cornbrash. Several old buildings in the High
Street area for instance show good use of local stone. These can be used to look
in detail at the rock characteristics and its sedimentary structures, lithology
and fossils - all clearly visible in buildings such as The Moghul Palace (the
old church, now an Indian restaurant), the old barn just off the High Street,
the Parish Church of St Mary and St Giles (in Church Street) as well as a number
of private houses, their garden walls and rockeries.
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