Lake Harrison

The existence of such a lake was originally proposed by W. Jerome Harrison, a pioneer of Midland glaciology, whose 1898 paper{{sfn|Harrison|1898|}} recognized the importance of the convergence of great glaciers 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 stands on a part of the glacial lake basin.{{sfn|Harrison|1898|p=407}}

F. W. Shotton argued in 1953{{sfn|Shotton|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 and Lake Lapworth.{{sfn|Shotton|1953|p=246}} For a time the lake's existence was unquestioned, but more recent studies following the British Geological Survey's mapping of the Warwick area{{cite web |url=https://webapps.bgs.ac.uk/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?pub=WAWK |website=British Geological Society |title=The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units: Warwickshire Group |access-date=1 November 2021}} breathed "a refreshing air of controversy into the topic."{{sfn|Harwood|1987|pp=115–6}} According to Doug Harwood, "A significantly smaller proportion of the Wolstonian sequence is now regarded as lacustrine or deltaic in origin."{{sfn|Harwood|1988|pp=145–7}} 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.{{sfn|Coope|1994|p=423}}{{sfn|Shotton|1983|}}

Jonathan Radley stated in 2009: "Accordingly, Shotton’s concept of a single widespread lake has been superseded by a new model involving diachronous development of transient lakes and ponds, associated with ice sheets advancing from the north and east."{{sfn|Radley|2009|p=83}}

Furthermore, Della and Julian Murton{{sfn|Murton|Murton|2012|p=124}} consider that the Bosworth Clays and Silts,{{sfn|Little|1984|p=34}} also known as the Lower Wolston Clay{{sfn|Shotton|1983|p=274}} (part of the Wolstonian which Shotton himself defined){{sfn|Coope|1994|p=422}} are well defined enough to allow a reversion to its original name, Lake Bosworth.

;Citations

{{reflist}}

;Bibliography

• {{cite journal

|last=Coope

|first=G. R.

|author-link=Russell Coope

|title=Frederick William Shotton, 8 October 1906 – 21 July 1990

|journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society

|volume=39

|date=February 1994

|url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbm.1994.0023}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Harrison

|first=W. Jerome

|author-link=William Jerome Harrison

|title=The ancient glaciers of the Midland counties of England

|journal=Proceedings of the Geologists' Association

|volume=15

|issue=9

|date=August 1898

|url=https://ur.booksc.me/journal/20071/15/9}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Harwood

|first=Doug

|journal=Journal of Geography in Higher Education

|volume=11

|issue=2

|date=1987

|title=Teaching Controversy by Seminar: an example in Quaternary geomorphology

|doi=10.1080/03098268708709002

|url=https://swab.zlibcdn.com/dtoken/bd7227544859e48b95c2d5ad7a1559c4}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Harwood

|first=Doug

|journal=The Mercian Geologist

|title=Was there a glacial Lake Harrison?

|volume=11

|issue=3

|date=July 1988

|url=http://www.emgs.org.uk/Mercian/Mercian%20-%20Complete%20issues/MG11_3_1988_complete.pdf}}

• {{cite thesis

|last=Little

|first=John Antony

|date=1984

|title=Engineering properties of glacial tills in the Vale of St. Albans

|type=D. Phil. thesis

|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/163076711.pdf}}

• {{cite journal

|last1=Murton

|first1=Della K.

|last2=Murton

|first2=Julian B.

|title=Middle and Late Pleistocene glacial lakes of lowland Britain and the southern North Sea Basin

|journal=Quaternary International

|issue=260

|date=2012

|url=https://coek.info/download/middle-and-late-pleistocene-glacial-lakes-of-lowland-britain-and-the-southern-no_5a356ce2d64ab23b186c1c09.html}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Radley

|first=Jonathan D.

|title=The Geological Evolution of Warwickshire

|journal=The Mercian Geologist

|volume=17

|issue=2

|date=2009

|url=https://lgs.wgcg.co.uk/WarwickshireGeology.pdf}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Shotton

|first=F. W.

|author-link=Frederick William Shotton

|title=The Pleistocene deposits of the area between Coventry, Rugby and Leamington and their bearing upon the topographic development of the Midlands

|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Series B. Biological Sciences

|issue=646

|volume=237

|date=7 July 1953

|doi=10.1098/rstb.1953.0004

|url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstb.1953.0004}}

• {{cite journal

|last=Shotton

|first=F. W.

|title=The Wolstonian stage of the British Pleistocene in and around its type area of the English Midlands

|journal=Quaternary Science Reviews

|volume=2

|issue=4

|date=1983

|url=https://ur.booksc.me/book/24665442/608237}}

• {{cite book

|last=Waugh

|first=David

|year=2000

|title=Geography: an Integrated Approach

|publisher=Nelson Thornes

|isbn=9780174447061

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7GH0KZZthGoC&pg=PA122}}

{{Pleistocene Lakes and Seas}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison}}

Category:Former lakes of the United Kingdom

Category:Proglacial lakes