Geology Site Account

Site name: Ferriers Farm Pit (also known as Bures Pit)

Grid reference: TL 896342

Brief description of site:

Former gravel pit with exposures of sand gravel laid down by a former course of the Thames. Pit now used for off-road motorsport.

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Summary of geological interest

Type site of the Bures Gravel (part of the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels). These gravels represent a former course of the River Thames over 500,000 years ago prior to the river being diverted south by the Anglian Ice Sheet.

Formerly exposed here was a section exhibiting Kesgrave Sands and Gravels overlain by Boulder Clay (with sharp planar base) laid down by the ice sheet with glacial gravel at the top of the section. The top part of the Kesgrave gravels is thought to represent a fossilised arctic soil. See Braintree BGS memoir (Ellison & Lake 1986).

Pit is currently used as a centre for off-road motorsport (www.bures-pit.co.uk).

Ferriers Farm Pit in 1975. Photo © British Geological Survey (P212033)