Geoscientist Online

HERTFORDSHIRE GEOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE

This is the most important book ever written on Hertfordshire’s Earth heritage - an elegant summary of geology and physical landscape, attractively presented. It stands as a testament to John Catt’s editorial and writing skills as well as his deep personal knowledge, and to his determination that Percy and Enid Evans’ original idea (of a book ‘for naturalists who are not geologists’) should be realised.

With few exceptions, the book successfully treads the narrow line between detail and generality. The elements of geology are briefly but succinctly explained before Hertfordshire’s geological history, which occupies almost half the book, is recounted. Chapter two deals with bedrock geology, from borehole data and remote sensing to the earliest outcropping strata. Chapter three is devoted to the Chalk, and Chapter four to the Palaeogene, including a valuable treatment of the Hertfordshire Puddingstone and allied silcretes.

The strength of chapters five and six lies in the way they explain landscape development in the Neogene and Quaternary. The erosion surfaces and drainage network of the Chilterns, the influence of buried structural features, the story of the proto-Thames and its suite of river terraces, and the profound impact of the Anglian glaciations are all detailed - with interesting diversions upon Devensian periglacial features and the cultural uses of puddingstone and sarsenstone. This book is likely to become a nationally important reference on the subject of Neogene landscape development.

The next two chapters explore soils and their links with ecology and agriculture (Chapter seven), prehistoric archaeology and human settlement (Chapter eight) and hydrogeology (Chapter nine). In places, most notably with hydrogeology, the editor has clearly had a difficult task deciding how much unfamiliar science to include, and more detail could have been omitted without detracting from the important discussion of water-related themes in this dry county. The final chapter treats the built environment and mineral resources. Here we find the highest density of photographs, which bring the subject alive. The book is rounded off with 35 pages of references and a twelve-page index.

Hertfordshire Geology and Landscape will complement A Geological Conservation Strategy for Hertfordshire, (Herts RIGS Group, 2003). Its multidisciplinary approach will assist partnership work between heritage interest groups. It represents good value for money, and deserves to find a permanent place on the shelf of anyone interested in understanding Hertfordshire’s natural and cultural environment.

Reviewed by Tim Holt-Wilson


HERTFORDSHIRE GEOLOGY AND LANDSCAPE
JOHN CATT (Ed). Published by: Hertfordshire Natural History Society, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9521685-9-1 (hbk). 374pp
List price: £39.50 incl p&p.  £34 if collected from HGS meetings or from HNHS.
www.hnhs.org

• Editor writes: See the Online version of this issue for an extended article by John Catt on the writing of this book.