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Gisleham Quarry fossils and fossil collecting

From the A12, head towards Lowestoft. At Kessingland, continue along the duel carriageway, until you reach the next roundabout.
From here, take the first left towards Gisleham. Continue along this road and it will veer South. Keep going until you come to some houses, with a sharp bend. There is a trackway ahead, but the road veers round to the West
Take the trackway, you can park along the side of the road on the grass. From here its a short walk, further down the trackway. You will come to an iron gate, but a footpath to the side of the iron gate gives entrance to the quarry. Walk throught the quarry and then to the left.

GRID REF: 52.43413°N, 1.71186°E

ammonites, molluscs, belemnites
Fossil Collecting at Gisleham Quarry


The disused quarry contains good sections of the Chalky Boulder Clay, seen at Pakefield and Corton. The rain washes fossils out of the beds, and you can find ammonites, belemnites and if lucky, reptile remains on the surface of the exposures.
Where is it

Medium

You can find some nice fossils at Gisleham Quarry, but it is best to visit after heavy rain as fossils are washed out of the clay. Ammonites and belemnites are the most common finds, but most are fragments.


Not for Children

We don't recommend any quarry for children either used or disused as there are to many dangers. In addition, vehicles still use this quarry for dumping building waste.


Good Access

Gisleham Quarry is easy to find, you can park neaby and it is a short walk away. There is a footpath to the left hand side of the iron gate taking you into the quarry.


Disused Quarry

Fossils are found in the slopes of the old disused quarry. Rain washes the fossils down these slopes. Although the quarry is disused, the Northern end of the quarry is used for a dumping for building waste.


Permission Required

This quarry is currently a dumping ground for building waste, so please make sure you ask before entering. You can however access on Sundays when vehicles are not allow and a footpath runs through the site.

Gisleham Quarry although disused, is now a dumping site for building waste. Although the area with boulder clay is away from the area now being used, you have to walk through the area where large vehicles make it a possible danger.


Accommodation

Bay House

Proprietors Joan Thompson and Tom Gurteen look forward to welcoming you to their non-smoking home overlooking the sea at Pakefield. This old fishing village, still popular with sea anglers today is 1.5 miles south of Lowestoft.

Our Accommodation 2 Double rooms with en-suite facilities enjoying panoramic sea-views One Single room with private bathroom The comfortable, well appointed rooms are equipped with colour TV, tea & coffee making facilities, mini-fridge and hairdryer. Our professional catering background is reflected in the quality of our breakfasts using local produce and home-made bread and preserves.

Easy access from the A12 makes Bay House ideal for visitors to the CEFAS laboratory or the many other businesses in the area.

From £25.00 per person per night inclusive of Full English Breakfast.

Special discounts for stays of 3 nights or more.

Address: Bay House, 47 Pakefield St, Pakefield, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0JS, UK. Telephone: +44 (0)1502 568879

E-mail: info@bay-house.net

If you would like to advertise on this page, please 'contact us'.
£10/Year or 'FREE' for return links from accommodation website pages.


Last updated:
last visited:


Written by:

06/04/08
2009

Alister and Alison Cruickshanks


Other Locations similar to Gisleham


For other locations in Suffolk where the Boulder clay can yield ammonites, reptile remains, shells etc, try Pakefield neaby, or Corton

Location Photos
        
Chalky Boulder Clay at Gisleham Quarry

Fossil Collecting
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The Chalky Boulder Clay contains a wide variety of different rocks brought down during the ice age. Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks contain ammonites, belemnites, brachiopods, bivalves and sometimes reptile remains.

The most common find are belemnites and ammonites. The rain washes them out of the clay and you can find the on and at the bottom of the slopes in this disused quarry. All you need is a good eye and a little patience.

Small ammonite seen at Gisleham Quarry
Small ammonite seen at Gisleham Quarry

Giant belemnite from the chalky Boulder Clay
Giant belemnite from the chalky Boulder Clay

Fragment of large ammonite
Fragment of large ammonite


Geology Guide
Pleistocene, (Erratic's)

The quarry consists of the Chalky Boulder Clay, formed during glaciating, in which the glacial's scrapped the land and brought many rocks from the north. The boulder clay contains many Kimmeridge Clay rocks, some Oolite rocks and chalk. . ...[more]

Geological Succession of Gisleham Quarry
Chalky Boulder Clay


Stone Tumblers are used for tumbling and polishing rough rock, stones and pebbles including those found on the beach and glass.

Whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed, you could collect rocks, stones and glass from the beach and tumble then at home.

These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. The tumblers can be used with a variety of grits, most commonly Silicon Carbide Grit and Cerium Oxide. We have a wide range of rough rocks for sale too.

Microfossils are much easier to collect because they are so small that the vast majority of collections only concentrate on large finds. These small finds can simply be found by taking small samples of sands, crags, clays and soft rocks and examining them under a microscope.

We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, both for the study of fossils, but also educational and professional for use in the laboratory. We have Stereo microscopes, Compound Microscopes, Polarising Microscopes and Monocular Microscopes.

We have thousands of Test Sieves for Particle Analysis.

Endecotts Sieves: For accurate dependable results you can't buy a better test sieve than Endecotts. At every stage of manufacture each test sieve is individually inspected.

High Precision Tecan manufactures precision apertures as small as 3 microns for a wide array of applications such as filtering, sieving and nozzles. Its high-performance, ASTM/ISO compliant test sieves satisfy the most demanding fine particle grading requirements.

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