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YOUR experiences, reports and comments of Writhlington |
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(Scroll to bottom to post your own Reports or Comments)
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Report by 'J' - 22/11/2008 |
I remember when I visited this site for the first time when I was a child and there was an incredible wealth of fossils, plant fossils literally covered the ground. As I live close by I have been many times, sadly it is getting far more difficult to find good fossils. The spoil needs re-digging as nearly all of the surface material has been frost shattered. There are now small trees growing on the spoil, give it ten years and it will be woodland. Having said all this if you where to spend some time doing some serious digging in the spoil, you could expose some good fossils (bring a spade!) Do this on a dry day, as when the spoil is wet it is hard to see the fossiliforous material due to mud and colour of the shale. |
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Good collecting |
A fantastic site for plant fossils. An hour or so and you'll have dozens. take a little time and spilt down a few lumps and you'll soon be throwing away the first ones you found. Even looking on the path on the way up is rewarding. Few people go collecting there and you can leave partially split stones and go back days later and they'll still be there. I found some superb fern leaves and fairly large slabs covered in leaves. you can also find 3D stalks/branches. As usual once you find a block with fossils in, keep hammering at it, there will be more. The best stuff is in the dark grey shale. Avoid anything that falls apart too easilty and the stones that don't want to split at all with lots of iron in them. What you want is the blocks of nice uniform layered shale with little obvious coal or iron, find a suitable lump about the size of a shoebox and get splitting. It is in these that you find the complete leaves. Some fossils are fragile and the shale has a habit of splitting across fossils. If you want some decent plant fossils in your collection then an afternoon here should be enough to provide plenty. |
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