GEOGRAPHY & GEOLOGY
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The Thames hasn’t always followed the path it does today. The view of the Thames as seen from the viewpoint above (Lardon Chase) is relatively new (geologically speaking). The Thames would not have passed through Goring. It never reached Oxford or London but passed through St Albans and Ipswich. The ancient river is known as proto-Thames.
During the last Ice Age about 110,000 years ago, the glacial advance had the effect of pushing the course of the river gradually southward. As Glacial ice started to melt it caused mass movement of water. The water was blocked by ice sheets and therefore made new “gaps” or valleys through the soft chalk, hence the Goring Gap was formed.
During the last Ice Age about 110,000 years ago, the glacial advance had the effect of pushing the course of the river gradually southward. As Glacial ice started to melt it caused mass movement of water. The water was blocked by ice sheets and therefore made new “gaps” or valleys through the soft chalk, hence the Goring Gap was formed.
Around 10,000 years ago, when the ice melted, the melt water caused sea levels to rise sufficiently to flood the valley between Britain and northern mainland Europe. Britain became an island. The ice that flowed through the soft chalk created this wooded valley, steeper on the Streatley (Berkshire) side than the gentler slope on the Goring (Oxfordshire) side.
The source of the Thames is in the Jurassic limestone of the Cotswold Hills. It then flows on to Oxford clay before cutting into the chalk escarpment of the southwestern end of the Chiltern Hills, here in the Goring Gap As a consequence of our geological location, Goring is a major provider of water to the region for about a third of a million people. In the Gatehampton area of Goring, there are seven major boreholes in the chalk which form the largest groundwater abstraction project in Europe. Up to 48 million litres of water (enough to fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools) is pumped in underground pipes to Oxford and Swindon every day.
The source of the Thames is in the Jurassic limestone of the Cotswold Hills. It then flows on to Oxford clay before cutting into the chalk escarpment of the southwestern end of the Chiltern Hills, here in the Goring Gap As a consequence of our geological location, Goring is a major provider of water to the region for about a third of a million people. In the Gatehampton area of Goring, there are seven major boreholes in the chalk which form the largest groundwater abstraction project in Europe. Up to 48 million litres of water (enough to fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools) is pumped in underground pipes to Oxford and Swindon every day.
Goring is very old. It has been occupied for at least 10,000 years and evidence of man having settled in Goring after the end of the last ice age is well documented. Flint blades and reindeer bones were found in Gatehampton (southern Goring), where settlers butchered migrating animals at the narrowest section of the Goring Gap being a river crossing point. A 10,000 year old Mammoth’s jaw was found by bathers in the river in Goring relatively recently, which can be seen in the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock.
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