"The BGS holds over a million borehole records and these can be viewed online in the dedicated borehole viewer ( https://www.bgs.ac.uk/data/boreholescans/home.html). Coverage across Great Britain is clustered (generally within urban centres and corridors). This map only shows borehole data that has been captured to date (additional data may exist).

Boreholes are drilled for assessing ground conditions for construction, water and mineral resources. They are generally not drilled for the purpose of recording soil information. However, many boreholes note the depth of deposits classed as 'Topsoil' and so BGS has started to compile a dataset of reported 'Topsoil' depths. Most records suggest that the driller has identified a generic 'Topsoil' layer. Some records provide further details that indicate the topsoil layer has differing properties, or is not solely a topsoil layer but a combination of soil and other materials (e.g. parent material, peat and artificial ground). Users should therefore be aware that the term 'topsoil', as used in borehole records, should be regarded as a very simple description of what soil-scientists might regard as a combination of O, A, E and possibly B horizons."