LIVE FROM LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE - 6th to the 11th of April
Last update: 12th April 2003 - 23:29
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the fifth in the series of UK Fossils Live. This trip is important to UK Fossils since it will open up a whole series of new locations to add to the forthcoming Shropshire county. In addition we are running UK Fossil events on the first three days of this tour visiting several places. Anyone is welcome to join, please see the events page.
It is also planned to visit a few locations in Wales hopefully two or three new locations in two new county's again expanding the UK Fossils base. Join us here every evening (subject to GPRS signal quality) for the latest updates, finds and photos. We are also going to be taking advantage of the discussion board to answer your questions or comments.
Day 1: Sunday 6th April 2003
Much Wenlock Quarry
UK Fossils visited a disused quarry in Much Wenlock,a group of about 20 took part in this trip which was open to anyone to join in. Everybody came away with finds they were happy with including corals, brachiopods,one member found a trilobite tail end. Our thanks to everyone who took part, especially to Jason for his expert knowledge and Mike for his knowledge of trilobites. A very enjoyable morning for us all.
Day 2: Monday 7th April 2003
Mortimer Forest
Location 2 or 4 at Mortimer Forest
Location 2 or 4 at Mortimer Forest
Kirkidium knighti (Brachiopod)
The second day of our Shropshire trip took us to Mortimer Forest near Ludlow to examine Silurian mudstones and shales. We visited 4 locations in total. The first exposure was along part of the track. A few corals,brachiopods, and bivalves were found. The 2nd location a mile further down the track, was a few small exposures in a gorge. The finds from here were several nice corals, brachiopods, bivalves, worms, cephalopods and a tail end of a trilobite.We continued along the track to location 3. This was to be the best site of the day. Finds included many brachiopods, bivalves, worms, corals, and some possible echinoid's. Many thanks to Andrew who found a zone packed with the large brachiopod Kirkidium knighti. A vast number of these were collected and there was plenty for everyone. They were so plentiful that we left many by the track for other people to have.Our last location of the day was to look at a cutting by the main forestry track yielding many small brachiopods. Once again thanks to all who attended. This was another very enjoyable day out.
Day 3: Tuesday 8th April 2003
The Onmy Trail
Location 1 - The River bed and beach area
Ordovician Brachiopods from Location 1
Location 2 - The Old Cliff, (Lower Beds)
On our last 'Open to All' trip, we took the Onmy Trail. Everyone who joined us agreed that the trip was worth it, even if no fossils were found, as it was a spectacular and interesting walk. Five locations were visited in total, everyone was happy with the finds they made. The first location was collecting from a beach area along the river and from wading in the river itself. Some interesting fossils from the Ordovician was found and the mould of a Silurian Trilobite. Shells also collected. The second location was from a cliff face known as 'The Old Cliff', in spite of the Shropshire book suggesting to ignore the lower beds of the cliff and concentrate on upper exposures along a footpath, it was decided to take a look at the lower beds to see if any fossils could be found and to examine the geology. It was Andrew who first found a bed of Brachiopods. Other fossils collected from the lower beds included one tail end of a Trilobite, Bivalves, and the worm type fossil of Tentaculites.
Our third location from here was to an old railway embankment and riverbed further upstream. Several brachiopods were found in this location and Many thanks to Donagh who brought some PVA preserving liquid which was ideal for these fragile fossils. Moving on, our forth location looked at exposures around the old railway bridge but no finds were made. Our final location was to an SSSI site where hammering was no allowed, we did not collect from this location but examined the fascinating Pre-Cambrian beds with the missing Cambrian period resting on Ordovician beds. Many thanks to all who attended this trip.
Tail End of Trilobite from Location 2
Coral (Lithostrotion) From Location 3
Day 4: Wednesday 9th April 2003
Hillend Roadside Exposure
On the way to our main location of the day, we stopped off at a roadside exposure featured in the 'Shropshire Geology Guide' book, a number of different brachiopods were found but all were very fragile and poorly preserved. One coral also collected. Trilobites have been found at this location but we did not find any traces of them here ourselves.
Llanymynech Quarry
The Llanymynech Quarry is a large nature reserve and the very high cliff faces can be seen for miles around, it is also a beautiful place to walk and enjoy some wonderful views of the old quarry. Collecting is allowed at the scree slopes which can be found at various places on the quarry floor. We collected many corals and brachiopods in which there was a wide variety of species of both. The quarry itself is split between the border of Wales and Shropshire with the high cliff faces marking the official county border. The locations we collected from were on the Shropshire side of this border.
Coral
(Coral)
Day 5: Thursday 10th April 2003
Lavernock (South Wales)
A one day break from the inland exposures to a day of trips along the cost of South Wales to examine the Jurassic and Triassic beds similar to those of Somerset. The first location was to Lavernock, looking at the blue lias and Triassic Beds resting on top of the Jurassic beds similar to the cliffs at Aust. The bone bed is only one inch thick here and not as bone bearing as that of Aust, but a small ammonite and shells were collected from the lias.
Sully (South Wales)
This was a short location trip, just 15 minutes to examine the Red Rock Sandstone from the Triassic, these beds are unfossiliferous but a few lias rocks were scattered around the foreshore. There is no cliffs but the foreshore is very rocky.
Gileston (South Wales)
There is no actual cliff at Sully, but the beach is full of lias rocks and pebbles. A few shells where collected from splitting these rocks but we only stayed here for 15 minutes for a quick look before moving on to our next location.
Llantwit Major (South Wales)
The main location and the most fascinating of the day was to Llantwit major, which is a site of geological interest. The cliffs here are vast, containing a large sequence of Blue Lias, more than along both the Dorset and Somerset Coast. The beds here are different, much less ammonites and more shells. This site is the only location where you can find Corals, Barnacle and Echinoid's from the Lias. We did find a well preserved perfect Echinoid and some small corals along with some excellent shells which are unique to this area. One worn ammonite was collected here and the remains of a Nautilus was noted along the way, there is such a large amount of coastline, foreshore and cliffs here that it really needs two full days to examine the entire sequence.
Day 6: Friday 11th April 2003
Upper Millichope
On the last day of our UK Fossils LIVE week, we visited two more locations in Shropshire in the hunt for the trillobite!. The mornings trip looked at a stream near Upper Milichope farm. The streams banks show evidence of fossil hunters. We did not find any Trilobites or traces of them, but found some wonderful corals and shells.
Vinnals
In the afternoon Vinnals was visited (apart half a mile from Mortimer Forest), we did find many Trilobite heads and tails in a small cutting by the side of a stream, along with many Graptolites from a second track cutting not far away, about three different species counted. Vinnals is one of the best locations in Shropshire for Trilobites but is also one of the most 'over hunted' locations with the bed now so notch cut that collecting is quite hard.
This brings an end to the UK Fossils LIVE event, once again we wish to thank everyone who joined and look forward to seeing everyone who has put their names down for the Sheppey Trip in May.
