Romney iVfarsh: Coa.~ttrl and Landscape Clzange thr~ough the .4ges fed -4. Long, S. H~pkm and H. Clurke), OUX4 Monograph 56, 2002, 2>39 2. Late PleistoceneIEarly Holocene Environmental Change in the Rornney Marsh Region: New Evidence fiom Tilling Green, Rye Martyn Waller and Jason Kirby New stratigraphic data nre presented which provide injormation on the late Pleistocene/early Holocene evolu/ion of the lower Tillingham Valley, near Rye. During the late Pleistocene the Tillingham experienced channel incVisrotz (with the bedrock channel below -25 m OD), sediment movement (solifluction) nnd aggradation (/he deposition of gravels). Organic sediment accumulated during the early Holocene. Pollen analysis shows /he vegetation of the Tillingham Valley to have been dominated by Corylus avellana from c. 9700 to c. 9200 cal. yr BP. Marine braclnsh diatoms are recorded immediately prior to the deposition of clastic sediments. A tr-ansgressive contact at -24.65 m OD provides the earliest sea level index point from tlze Romney Marsh region. Rapid rates of relative .yea-level rise (c. 12 mm yr-') are recorded between c. 9200 and 7800 cal. yr HP during which time c. 16 m offine-grained sediment was deposited zn the lower Tillingham Vallejj. A thin ~nlercalated peat recordssan expansion offi.eshwater communities c. 7800 cal. j3r BP. Explanations jor the occurrence of this deposit are outlined. From c. 7800 to 6000 cal. yr BP the rate of relative sea-level rise declined to c. 4 mm jjr-'. Introduction With relative sea le\el (RSL) below c -30 m OD at the opening of the Holocene. sediment deposited in the Ronlney Marsh area in response to early Holoce~le sea- level rise is likely to be deeply bur~ed Long et al. (1996) investigated nlaterial recovered during a borehole survey for a proposed road by-pass for Rye. The sequences recorded between -25 and -12 m OD are composed of clastic sediments, deposited under estuarine conditions. The absence of organic material between these depths negated robust chronological control and prevented the type of detailed palaeoenvironme~~tal reconstruction that has been so successfully undertaken from the mid and late Holocene sedilnents of the marshland. Organic nlaterial of early Holocene age does. however, exist in this region. While at Pannel Bridge (Waller 1993: Waller 2002) sediment of this age (at c. -8.50 m OD) accumulated uell above rising sea le\el, a borehole record from Tilling Green, Rye (Shephard-Thorn 1975) describes organic material at depth. In 1971 Kent Counh Council (KCC) drilled several boreholes on the Tilling Green housing estate (Fig. 2.1). one of which (here referred to as TGA) recorded bedrock at a depth of c. -25.401nOD (28.80 m below the surface) and two deep organic layers. The lowest \?;as described as a black peat with grey sllt and occurred at a depth of between -24.60 to -24 m OD. This layer was overlain by coarse clastic sediments, a further lan~inated peat (between -23.10 to -22.10 m OD) and fine clastic sediments which extended to -3.6 m OD. A sample of the upper of the two peats at c. -22.65 m OD was provided to the British Geological Survey (BGS) and a radiocarbon date of 11200- 10506 cal. I r BP (95651120 yr BP; Welin et al. 1974) obtained. No biostratigraphic data nere collected to complement this sequence. Nevertheless, the TGA bore- hole offers the prospect of the presence of organlc material