Soil Associations

0711u HOLDERNESS

Soil and site characteristics

Slowly permeable seasonally waterlogged fine loamy soils and similar soils with only slight waterlogging. Narrow strips of clayey alluvial soils.

Geology

Chalky till

Cropping and Land Use

Cereals and some short term grassland.

Component soil series

Subgroup	Series name	Percentage	WRB 2006 link
7.11	HOLDERNESS	62%	Eutric Albic Luvic Stagnosols
5.72	BURLINGHAM	30%	Endostagnic Luvisols

Covers 796 km² in England and Wales

Soilscapes Classification

18	Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils

0711u HOLDERNESS

Detailed Description

The Holderness association consists mainly of slowly permeable fine loamy and moderately permeable coarse loamy soils on chalky till and glaciofluvial drift. It also includes narrow strips of clayey alluvial soils. The till is usually clay loam but can be sandy clay loam in texture, with a clay content of 25 to 30 per cent. Stones are common and vary widely in origin-igneous and metamorphic material from Scotland and Scandinavia occurs amongst Carboniferous and Jurassic limestone fragments and shale from Northern England. Flints are common throughout but chalk stones occur only in the underlying unweathered calcareous till.

The association occurs on gently undulating and hummocky ground between 3 and 60 m O.D. and is extensive in Humberside, both in Holderness and around Immingham and Grimsby, and in Lincolnshire where it covers 235 km². Within about 5 km of the North Sea coast and beside the Humber estuary the land suffers from exposure. The most extensive soil is the Holderness series, fine loamy typical stagnogley soils. Profiles are rarely strongly gleyed but distinct mottling at less than 40 cm depth distinguishes them from profiles of the other major soil within the association, Burlingham series, stagnogleyic argillic brown earths.

The soil pattern is simple, Holderness soils occupying relatively level ground whilst the Burlingham series is on more sloping land, including hummocks on the till plain. Alluvial soils are common along streams and the pattern is more complex in north Lincolnshire where Fladbury series occurs as narrow strips winding between undulations of the till. Elsewhere glaciofluvial deposits associated with the till give rise to coarse loamy Arrow soils and Holderness soils with a coarse loamy topsoil. Fine loamy calcareous Cannamore soils which are less gleyed than the dominant Holderness series occur near the tops of some hummocks. In the Huttoft district, the till appears as islands rising above marine alluvium in a complex pattern. Some soils developed in thin marine alluvium over till are thus a feature of the association here. In the west, towards the Lincolnshire Wolds, reddish till gives occasional profiles of the Salwick, Salop or Flint series. ). Around Withernsea a reddish till gives occasional profiles of the Salwick series and of the Salop or Flint series. To the north of Killingholme, south of the Humber, profiles of the Holderness and Cannamore series have a coarse loamy topsoil.

Soil Water Regime

Holderness profiles are slowly permeable and seasonally waterlogged (Wetness Class III), but Burlingham profiles are only occasionally waterlogged (Wetness Class II or III). Drainage measures are essential for continuous arable cropping and most areas now have tile drain systems, although some are old and of doubtful efficiency. Some areas of long established permanent pasture remain undrained but here ancient ridge-and-furrow helps to prevent excessive waterlogging. Absorption of winter rainwater is moderate. In a normal year the soils become moderately droughty for grass and only slightly so for most other crops, remaining non-droughty for sugar beet.

Cropping and Land Use

The association provides good arable land, well suited to continuous cereal growing but also capable of growing grass and brassicas. The principal crops are winter wheat and winter barley. Oilseed rape is increasingly grown as a break crop. The soils of the association are only moderately suited to spring cereals, sugar beet and potatoes. With good management, the yield of direct-drilled winter cereals is likely to be similar to that produced by conventional cultivations, but the yield of spring crops is likely to be reduced considerably. There is only a small poaching risk and a moderate or slight risk for slurry application. spring cultivations are restricted on these soils especially in wet years, though this is less true for Marlow than the others.

The land in this heterogeneous association is used in many ways. Although woodland and permanent pasture are common on the gravelly St Albans, Bockmer and Southampton soils, the less stony soils are frequently under cultivation with cereals and ley grass the main crops. There is a slight risk of poaching on Hornbeam and Berkhamstead soils and negligible risk on the others. Grass growth is curtailed by summer drought. All the soils are acid unless limed, and the levels of nutrients in the St Albans and Southampton soils are usually low (Avery 1964). Some gravel is extracted from land with St Albans and Southampton soils, and much of the land now under woodland shows signs of former small scale shallow gravel working. The Reading Beds, beneath the Plateau Drift, have been exploited for brickmaking at Northchurch, near Berkhamsted.

0711u HOLDERNESS

Distribution Map

Note that the yellow shading represents a buffer to highlight the location of very small areas of the association.

Keys to component soil series

Eastern Region

Northern Region

Typical Landscapes

Eastern Region

All information Copyright, Cranfield University © 2024

Citation: To use information from this web resource in your work, please cite this as follows:
Cranfield University 2024. The Soils Guide. Available: www.landis.org.uk. Cranfield University, UK. Last accessed 19/04/2024