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Visit Our Centre

EFC Centre at Wat Tyler Country ParkOur centre is available for visits on a pre-booked basis on Wednesdays between 10am - 4pm. The Club’s activities and displays are also usually open to the public on the first Saturday of the month 11am - 4pm.

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Purfleet-on-Thames

Purfleet-on-Thames. Gravel and shelly beds in the walls of these huge chalk quarries show us that a very large river once flowed here towards the west. This was the River Thames that 340,000 - 300,000 years ago flowed north of its present course. It had to loop its way round the chalk hills at Purfleet. Its left bank was at North Road and its right bank was where Ship Lane crosses the A13. During cold periods of the Ice Age, it was a wide, braided river with many channels, much bigger than the River Thames today. A modern river similar to the past River Thames. Bank of ancient River Thames cut into shattered chalk in Bluelands Quarry. People living on the banks of the river left evidence in the form of stone tools. The shapes of the tools tell us that different groups of people came and went. They lived here during a warm period between two cold glacial periods. This is called the ‘Purfleet’ Interglacial. Unio shell Corbicula shell. Beds of gravel, sand and clay with bones and flint tools. Temperatures during the latest part of the Ice Age. Purfleet Commercial Park (Bluelands). Ancient River Thames. River Thames today. The course of the River Thames 320,000 years ago. There is much more to tell about this site, find out at: geoessex.org.uk essexfieldclub.org.uk erms.org Purfleet Commercial Park (Bluelands) is part of the Purfleet Site of Special Scientific Interest. The support of Goodman is gratefully acknowledged for its improvement to and maintenance of this Site of Special Scientific Interest. Content and design: Peter Allen, Ros Mercer, Ian Mercer, Trevor Johnson; hunting scene © Oxford Archaeologynext page

Click on the image or this link to download all the Bluelands Quarry Fact Sheets.