Lake Harrison or Lake Bosworth is the name given to a lake that in parts of the Last Glacial Period may have covered much of

the Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefords ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

around

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon, Warwickshire, River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined wit ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

. It is suggested that it was formed when ice sheets over

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and

Northern England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the Historic counties of England, historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, County Durham, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmo ...

blocked drainage north-eastwards, trapping a lake between this and the

Cotswolds The Cotswolds ( ) is a region of central South West England, along a range of rolling hills that rise from the meadows of the upper River Thames to an escarpment above the Severn Valley and the Vale of Evesham. The area is defined by the bedroc ...

. Finally the lake made two overflow courses, until drainage by the

Cole Cole may refer to: People and fictional characters * Cole (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Cole (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname * Cole tribe ...

and Soar could resume due to glacial retreat: *South-east. Across the

Fenny Compton Fenny Compton is a village and parish in Warwickshire, England, eight miles north of Banbury. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 808. Its name comes from the Anglo-Saxon ''Fennig Cumbtūn'' meaning "marshy farmstead in a valley". In 14 ...

Gap into the Cherwell which drains into the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

. This has become a

wind gap A wind gap (or air gap) is a gap through which a waterway once flowed that is now dry as a result of stream capture. A water gap is a similar feature, but one in which a waterway still flows. Water gaps and wind gaps often provide routes whic ...

. *South-west. This course became lasting for the south-west zone of where the lake was, as the

River Avon, Warwickshire The River Avon ( or ) in central England flows generally southwestwards and is a major left-bank and easternmost tributary of the River Severn. It is also known as the Warwickshire Avon or Shakespeare's Avon, to distinguish it from River Avo ...

which flows into the

Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

. See also

stream capture Stream capture, river capture, river piracy or stream piracy is a geomorphological phenomenon occurring when a stream or river drainage system or watershed is diverted from its own bed, and flows down to the bed of a neighbouring stream. This ...

. The extent of this proposed lake has been disputed, and it is now thought that several smaller

proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier, a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around t ...

s may explain the glacial deposits in the area.

History

The existence of such a lake was originally proposed by W. Jerome Harrison, a pioneer of Midland glaciology, whose 1898 paper recognized the importance of the convergence of great

glacier A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s from the north-west and north-east upon the central counties of England, and postulated that they had ponded up a lake in Leicestershire. Harrison named it Lake Bosworth, since

Bosworth Field The Battle of Bosworth or Bosworth Field ( ) was the last significant battle of the Wars of the Roses, the civil war between the houses of Lancaster and York that extended across England in the latter half of the 15th century. Fought on 22 ...

stands on a part of the glacial lake basin. F. W. Shotton argued in 1953 that a specific place name was inappropriate for such a postulated large area of water, and proposed the name Lake Harrison. He acknowledged that other similar lakes were named after rather better-known geologists such as

Lake Agassiz Lake Agassiz ( ) was a large proglacial lake that existed in central North America during the late Pleistocene, fed by meltwater from the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet at the end of the last glacial period. At its peak, the lake's area wa ...

and

Lake Lapworth Lake Lapworth was a postulated glacial lake in Great Britain, believed to have formed during the last ice age when glaciers ended the northern outlet of the Severn. This ran through the Dee (which passes by Chester). At some point or points it ra ...

. For a time the lake's existence was unquestioned, but more recent studies following the

British Geological Survey The British Geological Survey (BGS) is a partly publicly funded body which aims to advance Earth science, geoscientific knowledge of the United Kingdom landmass and its continental shelf by means of systematic surveying, monitoring and research. ...

's mapping of the Warwick area breathed "a refreshing air of controversy into the topic." According to Doug Harwood, "A significantly smaller proportion of the Wolstonian sequence is now regarded as lacustrine or deltaic in origin." Shotton found it impossible to agree with this alternative view and in 1983 fought a "spirited rear guard action" in defence of his original interpretation. Jonathan Radley stated in 2009: "Accordingly, Shotton’s concept of a single widespread lake has been superseded by a new model involving

diachronous In geology, a diachronism ( Greek ''dia'', "through" + ''chronos'', "time" + ''-ism''), or diachronous deposit, is a sedimentary rock formation in which the material, although of a similar nature, varies in age with the place where it was deposite ...

development of transient lakes and ponds, associated with ice sheets advancing from the north and east." Furthermore, Della and Julian Murton consider that the Bosworth Clays and Silts, also known as the Lower Wolston Clay (part of the

Wolstonian The Wolstonian Stage is a middle Pleistocene stage of the geological history of Earth from approximately 374,000 until 130,000 years ago. It precedes the Last Interglacial (also called the Eemian Stage) and follows the Hoxnian Stage in the British ...

which Shotton himself defined) are well defined enough to allow a reversion to its original name, Lake Bosworth.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison Former lakes of the United Kingdom Proglacial lakes