Several areas of peat beds are known to exist below the sands of St Ouën's Bay, north of the St Brelade-St Peter parish boundary. An area exposed at Le Port was studied by Coventry University in the 1980's. The uppermost surface of the peat was found to be 90cm thick and a sample from its base gave a radio carbon date of between 6073 - 5848BC for the start of its formation. The study suggested that the St Ouën's peat beds were formed from an an area of freshwater marshland and fen that had formed between the land and a coastal sand barrier.