Geology Site Account

Site name: Boarded Barns Farm Glacial Lake

Grid reference: TL 562 047

Brief description of site:

In 1983 a mammoth tusk was found during construction of an irrigation reservoir for the May and Baker Research Station at Boarded Barns Farm, Shelley, near Ongar. The find was reported in the Essex Chronicle newspaper of 8th July 1983 with a photograph of the tusk (Lucy 1999).

The tusk was preserved in silts and sands laid down in a glacial lake during the Anglian glaciation 450,000 years ago. The lake deposits are described in the geological survey memoir (Millward et al. 1987) but inexplicably there is no mention of the mammoth tusk.

The lake deposits are extensive and extend north from here almost as far as Fyfield.

The tusk was donated to Chelmsford Museum.