Fossils

[hardr004]

Does anyone know any good places to find fossils around chichester?

 

[bushwacker bob]

Go West. The Jurrassic coast is just the other side of the New Forest. Shepherds Crowns are reasonably common in the chalk, alternatively the beaches are probably your best bet.

 

[wanderingblade]

Here you go:
http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/bracklesham.htm

 

[Sniper]

Local Derby & Jones Club ?

 

[Biker]

Dang! Beat me to it, I was going to say I think John Fenna lives further north than that.

If you're ever over in North Kent along by Beltinge just East of Herne Bay there's a spit of land at low tide that is smothered in fossilised Shark's teeth.
Alison my partner introduced me to it and I told my brother and he and his kids go down there often rooting about the barnacles and mussels for the teeth. They range from 6mm to about 25mm depending on your luck and eyesight.

Further East along the cliffs at Thanet I used to dig out Sea urchins from the chalk cliffs there. They've since built something along there now and blocked the area off to the public.

 

[lucan]

There's a lot of good fossil beaches up and around Whitby on the east coast.
Fossilized Monkey Puzzle trees. Jet they call it, Big business in Whitby, You can see the seams in the cliff faces.

 

[Pandabean]

Further East along the cliffs at Thanet I used to dig out Sea urchins from the chalk cliffs there. They've since built something along there now and blocked the area off to the public.

Hope this doesn't sound harsh, but please don't dig fossils out of the cliffs as it is classed as Geo-vandalisim. That would be why the area is blocked off. Not only is it vandalisim but if you get it wrong and part of the cliff starts to break off higher up, be prepared to have a sore head.
I guess you could compare it to going out and cutting a tree down so that you can make a spoon.

Be patient and look around the shore, there will be plenty that have fallen out due to natural erosion.

Geo-vandalism is a term meaning defacing, alteration or drilling in significant rock formations either for unauthorised fossil, collection, mineral exploration or malicious destruction.

 

[Pandabean]

Hmmm won't let me edit my post for some reason but this website is pretty good for finding areas and locations for fossils...
http://www.ukfossils.co.uk/guides/where to find fossils.htm

 

[Biker]

Hope this doesn't sound harsh, but please don't dig fossils out of the cliffs as it is classed as Geo-vandalisim. That would be why the area is blocked off. Not only is it vandalisim but if you get it wrong and part of the cliff starts to break off higher up, be prepared to have a sore head.
I guess you could compare it to going out and cutting a tree down so that you can make a spoon.

Be patient and look around the shore, there will be plenty that have fallen out due to natural erosion.

Point taken, I was in my late teens back in 1979 then and we only dug what we could see poking out of the face of the chalk. Simply digging into the cliff face in the hopes of running into a fossilised urchin would have been a stab in the dark.
Thanks for the advice anyway. The area is blocked off because they built a new beachfront cafe there having dug away a lot of the cliff face to make space for it.

 

[Pandabean]

It still wouldn't let me edit the post, but I wanted to add needlessly before "dig out fossils" as I have been on a fieldtrip and seen a few classmates at the time hack away at the cliff as if they were opening a mine, obviously the lecturers weren't around at that point. Some fossils sitting in a cliff face may easily come out with a light tug or a gentle tap.

Sorry Biker, I assumed that it was blocked off as a result of that. I think in certain areas the cliffs are protected such as parts of Whitby where dinosaur bones have been found.
Did they leave a spoil heap from the building of the cafe, might have been a few fossils in there to find.

Hardr004, let us know how you get on with the fossil hunt. Would be interesting to see what you find.