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27-05-2004, 04:25 PM

In article ,
(Leo) wrote:

Part of my garden in St Albans has not much topsoil.
The subsoil is a heavy clay with plenty of flints.
After a lot of digging in organic matter and picking
out rocks I have a pretty good vegetable bed. I've
noticed that at least one area has a lot of lumps of
chalk as well.

Does anyone have an idea whether these are a feature
of the local soil, or perhaps plaster debris from the
building of the house (30s) or something else?

Leo

Well the bedrock to St Albans is chalk (if you drive along Batchwood
Drive you are driving down a classic chalkland dry valley). Basically
the area is chalk lee slope (the scarp slop faces north at Dunstable)
topped by post-glacial outwash (hence the flints). If you want to see
the same without the clay topping go up to Dunstable Downs.

I suppose it is possible that the construction of the house got down to
the bed, but it doesn't feel very likely.

--
"Noah's Ark is a problem...We'll have to call
it early quantum state phenomenon--
Only way to fit five-thousand
species of mammal on the same boat"