Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
Location | West Sussex |
---|---|
Grid reference | TQ 212 125 [1] |
Interest | Geological |
Area | 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres) [1] |
Notification | 1991 [1] |
Location map | Magic Map |
Horton Clay Pit is a 0.4-hectare (0.99-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Small Dole in West Sussex. [1] [2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site. [3] It was once much bigger and a popular area for looking for fossils and many marine creatures have been found in the Gault Clay by professional and amateur fossil hunters alike, especially molluscs - ammonites and belemnites, bivalves and gastropods. [4]
This site displays a thick and stratigraphically important sequence of rocks dating to the Folkestone Beds of the Early Cretaceous. It shows evidence of a major structural basin which controlled sedimentation in the western Weald. [5]
In 1913 a series of beetle fossils were recovered from its peaty bed. Researchers have used these fossils to suggest a detailed picture of the local environment during the Weichselian glaciation period and have concluded that a sour pool existed here in open heathland with a few coniferous trees. Through Mutual Climatic Range analysis they have predicted that although July was only a mean 1 degree cooler, January was 6 degree cooler. [6]
In 1991, the clay pit was granted planning consent for restoration using landfilling. The landfill lies on one side of a shallow excavation with the SSSI lying on the other side. More recently plans have been drawn to bury the SSSI with inert infill to prevent further erosion. This has been agreed in principle by Natural England if the Gault Clay is protected by a marker layer. Additional grassland and woodland planting have been promised that will enable habitat linkages across the restored landfill. [7]
Hamsey is a civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex, England. The parish covers a large area and consists of the villages of Hamsey, Offham and Cooksbridge. The main centres of population in the parish are now Offham and Cooksbridge. Around the main settlements are enlarged fields, isolated old cottages and farms. The winding and undulating parish lanes between banks, old hedge rows, trees, flowery verges and ditches are popular with cyclists and give good views of the Downs.
Clock House Brickworks is a 35.9-hectare (89-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Capel in Surrey. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Netherside Stream Outcrops is a 2.9-hectare (7.2-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-east of Haslemere in Surrey. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Smokejack Clay Pit is a 56-hectare (140-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Cranleigh in Surrey. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Roswell Pits is an 8 hectare nature reserve on the eastern outskirts of Ely in Cambridgeshire. It is managed by the Environment Agency. It is part of the Ely Pits and Meadows Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)) and Geological Conservation Review site. The SSSI designation for both biological and geological interest. The site was formerly managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
River Line SSSI is a 2.2-hectare (5.4-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest south of Robertsbridge in East Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Offham Marshes, also known as The Pells and Offham Marsh, is a 39.1-hectare (97-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the northern outskirts of Lewes in East Sussex in parish of Hamsey. It includes the Pellbrook Cut, an area to the north of it called The Pells and the marshland to the south of the Cut and east of the railway track.
The geology of East Sussex is defined by the Weald–Artois anticline, a 60 kilometres (37 mi) wide and 100 kilometres (62 mi) long fold within which caused the arching up of the chalk into a broad dome within the middle Miocene, which has subsequently been eroded to reveal a lower Cretaceous to Upper Jurassic stratigraphy. East Sussex is best known geologically for the identification of the first dinosaur by Gideon Mantell, near Cuckfield, to the famous hoax of the Piltdown man near Uckfield.
Double Arches Pit was a sand quarry near the village and civil parish of Heath and Reach, Bedfordshire, England. It is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Geological Conservation Review site.
Elmstead Pit is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Elmstead in the London Borough of Bromley. Formerly known as Rock Pits, it is a small area of 0.05 hectare. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Harrow Weald SSSI is a 3.7 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Harrow Weald in the London Borough of Harrow. It was formerly part of the Stanmore and Harrow Weald Commons and Bentley Priory SSSI. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Harefield Pit is a 1.8-hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Harefield in the London Borough of Hillingdon. It occupies much of a partially filled-in chalk quarry. It has two entries in the Geological Conservation Review database.
The geology of West Sussex in southeast England comprises a succession of sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age overlain in the south by sediments of Palaeogene age. The sequence of strata from both periods consists of a variety of sandstones, mudstones, siltstones and limestones. These sediments were deposited within the Hampshire and Weald basins. Erosion subsequent to large scale but gentle folding associated with the Alpine Orogeny has resulted in the present outcrop pattern across the county, dominated by the north facing chalk scarp of the South Downs. The bedrock is overlain by a suite of Quaternary deposits of varied origin. Parts of both the bedrock and these superficial deposits have been worked for a variety of minerals for use in construction, industry and agriculture.
Bierton Clay Pit is a 0.07-hectare (0.17-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Bierton in Buckinghamshire. It is listed by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee as a Geological Conservation Review site.
Heacham Brick Pit is a 0.8-hectare (2.0-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Heacham, north of King's Lynn in Norfolk. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Coneyhurst Cutting is a 0.2-hectare (0.49-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest south-east of Billingshurst in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Slinfold Stream and Quarry is a 2.3-hectare (5.7-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Horsham in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Beeding Hill to Newtimber Hill is a 321 ha (790-acre) biological and geological Downland Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) north of Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex. It is a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade 2, and it includes Devil's Dyke Geological Conservation Review site.
Warnham SSSI is a 28.5-hectare (70-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Horsham in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
Perry Copse Outcrop is a 0.2-hectare (0.49-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Fernhurst in West Sussex. It is a Geological Conservation Review site.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)