see also Stone Age Britain
The area between Christchurch and the sea has changed a great deal in the 17,000 or so
years since the last Ice Age. A chalk ridge stretched between the Purbecks in the west
and the needles on the western extremity of what is now the Isle of Wight and protected
the land to the north of it from encroachment by the sea.
The area from the Purbecks to Southampton was drained by the Grand Solent river which
meandered westwards to empty into the sea somewhere to the east of modern Southampton.
The river Avon flowed to the north of Hengistbury
Head (which was then several kilometres inland), while the river Stour flowed to the south of the Head's bulk. Both are believed to
have been tributaries of the Grand Solent.
©2002, Bill Rees
In time, with the river cutting into the ancient chalk ridge from the north and the sea
eroding it from the south, it was breached and the river flowed out to sea somewhere
between The Needles in the east and Old Harry in the west. Continued erosion led to the
destruction of the chalk ridge and the exposure of the much softer soils lying to its north
to be washed away by the power of the waves and tides leaving the coastline which we
witness today.
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Evidence for the Stour running to the south of
the head lies in the alluvial gravel's and soils that can be clearly seen in the exposed
strata near the Double Dykes.
There still exists a small stretch of the old Stour
river bed just south of the main car
park at Hengistbury Head.
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It appears that after the Stour and the Avon eroded the ridge that divided them (about 1
kilometres north west of the head) they joined and the final reaches of the
Stour ended up
following the same course as the Avon.
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One final bizarre twist to this junction took place,
another small river began to flow in the old Stour
bed, but this time it flowed in the
opposite direction. This would indicate that the
Stour and Avon joined up in Christchurch
while the Head was still several Kilometres inland and the plain between it and the chalk
ridge was capable of providing enough water for this short lived impostor. It is probable
that this river was actually the small river that flows through the centre of Bournemouth
called the river Bourne. Although today this river flows out to sea several kilometres
west of Hengistbury Head, in the past, before
coastal erosion the river hooked round and
joined the Stour and Avon at
Hengistbury head.
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