Notes on some fossils from Harwich beach and foreshore,
and their source
W.H. George 11 Sterry Road, Barking, Essex IG11 9SJ
Background: Several thousand sharks' teeth and other fossils have recently been
collected from the beach and foreshore near the low lighthouse at Harwich, Essex (TM
2629 3223). The vast majority of these are of Lower Tertiary age and appear to be from
a sandy deposit, about 55 million years old, which is some 6-7 metres below the Harwich
Stone Band (Jolley 1996). Some abraded Red Crag fossils, about 2 million years old
have also been collected. Three Jurassic fossils about 200 million years old have been
found. This short note lists some of the specimens collected and attempts to explain
where they come from.
Geology: The stratigraphy and palaeontology of Harwich have been studied in great
detail for more than 300 years. For example Samuel Dale gave a detailed description of
the cliff and its fossils in a letter to the Royal Society written in 1703. In 1730 he published
some beautiful copper engravings of the cliff and its fossil shells, mainly from the Red
Crag, but also from the London Clay. (Dale 1704; Dale 1730). Urban Hjarne gave a
splendid description of Harwich cliff in 1706. His account details the cliff from the
topsoil downwards, including the Red Crag with layers of shells. He describes the bottom
25 feet of the cliff as a dark brown shale and as "a streaky clay, down to the base and
water which is like a network of streaky stuff, distinguished by different colours and
streaks". He also mentions two or three horizontal bands of great flat stones sticking out
of the cliff and which extend right through the hill (Kalm 1892 pp. 74-75). Emanuel
Mendes Da Costa recorded his interesting geological field trip to Harwich in 1748 to
collect fossils (Nichols 1822 pp. 761-2).
From about 1800 the Harwich Stone Band was collected from the beach and also dredged
offshore for the manufacture of Roman Cement, patented by James Parker in 1796. This
provided the impetus for further collecting in the mid 1800s when several nautiloids,
large turtles and fossil mammals were found. Caution must be exercised with some of
the older specimens recorded as being from Harwich. This is because a huge quantity of
cement stone, dredged from the sea bed off the Essex and Suffolk coasts in the nineteenth
century, was landed at Harwich to be broken up, burned and ground into cement. Any
saleable fossils would have been retrieved and sold as Harwich fossils. Lindsey (1851
pp. 137-153) gives a fascinating account of the cliff, its history and fossils, including
sections and drawings of fossils. As early as 1859 the Dovercourt Spa House, which
opened to visitors in August 1854, contained "many cases of fossils peculiar to the
neighbourhood" (Post Office Essex Directory 1859 p. 96). Brian Daley has summarised
more recent work at Harwich (Daley & Balson 1999 pp. 61-63).
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 48, September 2005 9