Thorne Moors : a palaeoecological study of a bronze age site : a contribution to the history of the British insect fauna

Abstract

Thorne Waste, or Moors, comprises, with the contiguous bogs of Snaith and Cowick, Goole and Crowle Moors, roughly 21 sq. km. of degraded Sphagnum bog, the largest surviving area of lowland ombrophilous mire in Eastern England. To the south and east, the Moors are bounded by the alluvium of the former main channel of the River Don which, until the drainage in the seventeenth century, flowed eastwards to the Trent at Adlingfleet. The alluvium of the Ouse forms the limit to the north, and westwards the deposits of the River Went can be traced beneath the Turnbrigg Dyke, a diversion of the Don of mediaeval or earlier construction. The present surface of the Moors, after peat cutting, lies at about 2 m. O.D.

The canals area, east of the now defunct Thorne Moorends Colliery, has a very diverse acid bog flora and several uncommon species from the fen environment survive on the edges of the warplands.