THE MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF WAVERLEY WOOD PIT, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND

A complex of channels underlying the Baginton-Lillington Gravel (Bagin ton Formation) at Waverley Wood Quarry, Warwickshire is described. Fos sil pollen and plant macrofossils, Coleoptera, Ostracoda, Mollusca and Mammalia are described from the channel-fill deposits. Consideration of all the evidence allows the identification of four separate stages of channel fill which largely occurred under a cool temperature climat e. At the top of Channel 2 evidence for a cold, continental climatic e pisode can be recognised, suggesting that the whole complex was deposi ted under a fluctuating climate at the end of a temperate stage. At tw o levels in the channels human artefacts were recovered confirming the presence of Palaeolithic people in Warwickshire during the deposition of the sediments. Amino-acid geochronology suggests an age within the 'Cromerian Complex' Stage for the channels. The small vertebrate and molluscan faunas indicate that the deposits are no older than the latt er part of the 'Cromerian Complex' Stage of East Anglia. The regional stratigraphic significance of the Waverley Wood succession is outlined .