Essex geology report
Thorndon Country Park/Little Warley Common.
At Thorndon Country Park (North) and the adjacent common the Essex RIGS Group has excavated
a small section on the edge of an old gravel pit to create an exposure of glacial gravel for educational
purposes. With the support of Essex County Council and Brentwood Borough Council the group
intends to enlarge and improve the section later in 2001. Also of interest in Thorndon Park is the
anival of a large Jurassic fossil tree stump donated to the Country Park by the Essex Field Club.
Staff from the Essex Wildlife Trust (who run the Countryside Centre at Thorndon) expended
considerable effort in moving it.
Fingringhoe. Wick Nature Reserve
The Wildlife Trust have cleaned and enlarged a fine section through glacial gravel and old Thames
gravel at Fingringhoe Wick. An information board has been provided making this reserve an important
geological site.
Cudmore Grove, East Mersea. Erosion has improved the spectacular section of the Pleistocene
river channel exposed in the cliff and foreshore here. A shattered elephant tooth was recently found
in the cliff and has been presented to the Natural History Museum.
Publications
Recent publications include two volumes of the Geological Conservation Review series. British
Tertiary Stratigraphy by Daley and Balson (1999) has information about several important Essex
sites including Wrabness and Harwich. Areview of this book by Bill George appeared in the Club's
newsletter of May 2000. Fossil Fishes of Great Britain by Dinely and Metcalf (1999) also mentions
several Essex sites including Burnham on Crouch, Harwich, Walton and Maylandsea. This volume
covers fish from all geological eras but I am informed that the section on Caenozoic fish, which is
relevant to Essex, is rather poor.
A couple of papers about fossil birds from the London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze have recently
appeared. Gareth Dyke and Joanne Cooper have described a parrot, Pulchrapollia gracilis, in
Palaeontology Volume 43(2) pp. 271-285 (2000) and S. Olsen has described Anatalaris oxfordi in
Smithsonian Contributions to Palaeocology Volume 89 pp. 231-243 (2000).
The Red Crag beneath the Kesgrave Sands and Gravels of north-east Essex was unrecognised for
many years because of the absence of fossils. This is in contrast to some parts of the Red Crag at
Walton which are packed with molluscs. The reason for this is decalcification by percolating
groundwater. In 2000, a paper was published on this subject by Alan Kendall and Nigel Clegg.
Pleistocene decalcification of Late Pliocene Red Crag shelly sands from Walton-on-the-Naze,
England was published in Sedimentology Volume 47 (pp. 1199-1209).
I am grateful to Bill George for valuable assistance in compiling this report.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)