Fremington fossils and fossil collecting
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 Take the B3233 to Fremington, from here look out for a signpost pointing to 'Fremington Quay', this is a narrow and long road which tends to be quite busy. There are few passing places.
This road will take you right onto the Quay, you will pass a cafe and bike hire shop and then the road will end into a small car park.
Park here and a footpath is possible down to the beach. You can just make out the small cliffs in the distance. You can also collect fossils from the rocks along the foreshore.
GRID REF: 51.08109°N, 4.11894°W
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Low
Fossils are mostly found by walking along the shore, and examining the rocks along rhe foreshore.
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Suitable for Children
This location is suitable for family trips and children. There is also 'bicycle hire' nearby so it can also make an ideal family day out. |
Very Good Access
An excellent car park with toliets, cafe etc, and a very short walk to the shore. |
Foreshore
Fossils are found in rocks scattered along the foreshore. There are also cliffs here, but you are not likely to find any fossils in these, and the low cliffs are quite overgrown. |
No Restrictions
There are no restrictions at this location. You are free to collect and hammer the rocks. |
Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted. Fremington is Tidal and it can cut you off easily at high tide. Be careful of mud flaps beside the river, do not venture too far into these or you could get stuck. |
Fremington
Tide Times
UK Tidal data is owned by Crown Copyright, and therefore sadly we are not allowed to display tide times without paying expensive annual contracts. However we sell them via our store, including FREE POSTAGE
Click here to buy a tide table
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| Last updated: |
2008 |
| last visited: |
2002 |
| Written by: |
Alister and Alison Cruickshanks |
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There is a wide variety of rocks scattered along the foreshore at Fremington, you never know what you might come across. Devonian Shells are quite common, usually found within large lumps. There is very little evidence of life in the cliff itself, the beds either come from much deeper down or have been drifted from up/down stream.
Keep an eye open for carboniferous limestone rocks, these tend to be very hard and are usually packed with shells, many bivalves and other shells can be found and are usually in good condition. Most fossils from Fremington come from these blocks. These rocks will need to be split if you can find any. An example to these blocks can be found below.
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Devonian, 350mya |
The cliffs at Fremington are Devonian with Glacial beds on top of this, Carboniferous rocks can also be found along the foreshore, washed from further upstream. The Devonian rocks are part of the Pilton Shales, these are within the Pilton Mudstone Formation of the Famennian stage. These are grey mudstones and siltstones with thin- to thick-bedded, locally calcareous sandstones and beds and lenses of limestone. Sandstones are thickest and predominate in the lower half of the formation, whereas mudstones predominate in the upper half. Rish shelly neritic fauna occurs in the mudstones and limestones....[more]
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Fossils are very hard and either containers or bags are suitable. You will need a heavy hammer and chisel to split some of the rocks and a good eye to look for any carboniferous limestone blocks......[more] |
Other Locations similar to Fremington
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Stone Tumblers |
Microscopes |
Geology Equipment |
If you are interested in fossil collecting, then you may also be interested in a stone tumbler (Lapidary). You can polish stones and rocks from the beach which
will look fantastic polished using a stone tumbler.
You can polish rough rock and beach glass whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed.
These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. They can even be used for amber and fossils. |
At most locations, you can find microfossils. You only need a small sample of the sand. You then need to wash it in water and sieve using a test sieve. Once the sand is processed, you can then view the contents using a microscope.
We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, you will need a Stereomicroscope for viewing microfossils. The best one we sell is the IMXZ, but a basic microscope will be fine. Once you have found microfossils, you will need to store these microfossils.
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UKGE, market leaders in Geological Supplies and Geology Equipment. We supply retail, education, wholesale and trade in the UK, Europe and beyond.
With our wide range of geological hammers and geological picks as well as fossil tools, starter packs and geological chisels.
UKGE is your geological superstore, selling a wide range of field equipment, rocks, minerals, fossils, geological and even microscopy! |
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