| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
  Location within Wrexham | |
| Location | Clwyd |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | SJ 2958 5345 |
| Coordinates | 53°04′26″N3°03′11″W / 53.07382°N 3.05318°W |
| Interest | Geological |
| Area | 0.52 hectares (56,000 sq ft) |
| Notification | 14 July 2015 |
| [1] | |
The Brymbo Fossil Forest is a palaeobotanical site [2] near Brymbo, Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It is known as a significant area of Early Carboniferous fossils, and is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
It is located on the former iron and steelworks site closed in 1990, it is roughly the size of half an association football pitch, and is home to a wide variety of fossilised plants and trees such as arborescent club mosses and horsetails, [3] dating over 300 million years ago, from the Early Carboniferous period. [2] [4]
Some fossils were transferred and conserved at National Museum Wales, with them set to return should a suitable venue be ready. [5] Discovered during coal-mining in 2003, [6] with many fossils discovered the following year, [7] it was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest by Natural Resources Wales in 2015. [1] [8] [9] Local councillors describe the site to be a potential World Heritage Site, with hopes to become the county borough's second site of such designation. [5] A tourist attraction including a museum and visitor centre, to provide a safe home for the fossils, is proposed on the site, using the old former steelwork buildings. [8] [10] [11]
Upon the forest's discovery, six tree-sized plants were found in a small area, with later work revealing more than 20 speciments, although the forest containing a "large number" of two types of tree-sized plants, the Calamites and Lepidodendron. [12]
The coal seams of the area were deposited as plant debris thick mats approximately 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous. During this time, modern-day North Wales, would have been situated around the equator, therefore any prehistoric forest would have been hot and humid, housing tropical animals. The forest at this time contained no flowering plants, with connections between prehistoric and living flora on the same site proving difficult. In between the layers of coal at the site are mudstone and sandstone layers, which represent flash flooding events which would have buried much of the river delta, located in the area, with sediment. [7]
The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period 358.9 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, 298.9 million years ago. The name Carboniferous means "coal-bearing", from the Latin carbō ("coal") and ferō, and refers to the many coal beds formed globally during that time.
Wrexham County Borough is a county borough, with city status, in the north-east of Wales. It borders the English ceremonial counties of Cheshire and Shropshire to the east and south-east respectively, Powys to the south-west, Denbighshire to the west and Flintshire to the north-west. The city of Wrexham is the administrative centre. The county borough is part of the preserved county of Clwyd.
Joggins is a rural community located in western Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, Canada. On July 7, 2008 a 15-km length of the coast constituting the Joggins Fossil Cliffs was officially inscribed on the World Heritage List.
The Brymbo Steel Works was a former large steelworks in the village of Brymbo near Wrexham, Wales. In operation between 1796 and 1990, it was significant on account of its founder, one of whose original blast furnace stacks remains on the site.
Coal forests were the vast swathes of wetlands that covered much of the Earth's tropical land areas during the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) and Permian times. As plant matter from these forests decayed, enormous deposits of peat accumulated, which later changed into coal.
The Moss Valley is an area and country park in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The area, informally known as "The Moss" and The Aggey by local people, has an extensive coal mining history.
Brymbo is a village and community in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. It lies in the hilly country to the west of Wrexham city, largely surrounded by farmland.
The Lake Macquarie Petrified Forest is a petrified pine tree forest at Fennell Bay, Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. Geologically it is located in the Permo-Carboniferous strata. The nearest town is Swansea.
Brymbo Hall, one of Britain's lost houses, was a manor house located near Brymbo outside the town of Wrexham, North Wales. The house, reputed to have been partly built to the designs of Inigo Jones, was noted as the residence of 18th-century industrialist and ironmaster John "Iron-Mad" Wilkinson.
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse (CRC) was a minor extinction event that occurred around 305 million years ago in the Carboniferous period. It altered the vast coal forests that covered the equatorial region of Euramerica. This event may have fragmented the forests into isolated refugia or ecological 'islands', which in turn encouraged dwarfism and, shortly after, extinction of many plant and animal species. Following the event, coal-forming tropical forests continued in large areas of the Earth, but their extent and composition were changed.
Wern Ddu Claypits is a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Van in Caerphilly County Borough, South Wales. The woodland is known locally as Coed y Werin, which surrounds a 19th-century clay pit, dug to supply clay to the Caerphilly Brick Company. It is designated because of the important coal measure rocks exposed there.
Bersham Colliery was a large coal mine located near Rhostyllen in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The mine accessed seams found in the Denbighshire Coalfield.
Middlewood Hospital is a former psychiatric hospital situated between the suburbs of Middlewood and Wadsley in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It was also known as the South Yorkshire Asylum (1872–1888), the West Riding Asylum, Wadsley (1889–1929) and Wadsley Mental Hospital (1930–1948). It was one of four hospitals that made up The West Riding General Asylums Committee. It closed in 1996 and is now a private housing development called Wadsley Park Village.
Dingle Wood is a 9.95-hectare (24.6-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1972. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS). The wood is located within the Forest of Dean Forest Park and the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Oakenhill Railway Cutting is a 0.81-hectare (2.0-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1985.
Brymbo (WMCQR) railway station was a station in Brymbo, Wrexham, Wales. The station was opened on 1 August 1889, closed to passengers on 1 March 1917 and closed completely in April 1956.
The Clwydian Range and Dee Valley is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and proposed national park, located in north-east Wales, covering the Clwydian Range, and the valley of the River Dee.
Bonc yr Hafod is a country park, on the former site of Hafod Colliery, near Johnstown and Pentre Bychan in Wrexham County Borough, Wales. The country park is centred on a former spoil tip hill, known locally as "Picnic Mountain", rising up 150 metres (490 ft). The country park is 90 acres (0.36 km2) in size of mainly woodlands and grasslands. The park is home to one of the largest community woodlands in North East Wales.
The North East Wales FA Challenge Cup is a football knockout tournament involving teams from in North Wales who play in leagues administered and associated with the North East Wales Football Association.
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