Crag Pit Farm Pit, fossils and fossil collecting
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 Crag Pit Farm is near Sudbourne in Suffolk. The pit is on a farm, and you will need permission from the farm owners to visit.
The farm can be found to the South East of Sudbourne. It is shown under 1:25,000 scale maps, and on 1:50,000 scale it is marked as 'Crag Farm'
From Sudbourne, there are three exits from the village, take the Eastern exit, when you come to a junction, turn right, at the second junction, turn left and you will find Crag Farm.
GRID REF: 52.11602°N, 1.54558°E
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Crag Pit Farm is a classic Coralline Crag site notified as an SSSI. It is rich in Bryozoans, and well documented for wave-features in the sands. There are few other fossils, and the shell beds are much deeper down, but it is certainly a location to visit for anyone who is interested in Bryozoans. |
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Medium
This site is rich in Bryozoans, you will certainly find some excellent specimens, but other fossils are not so common. Shells can occasionally be found, but the actual shell beds are much deeper and not exposed. |
Not for Children
Quarries and pits either working or disused are no places for children as they present many dangers. |
Good Access
Crag Pit Farm is easy to find, and the faces are kept clean as part of the SSSI Notification.
If you drive up to Crag Pit Farm, and see the owners, they should allow access. |
Disused Pit
Fossils are found in the cliff face which is constantly being eroded by wind and rain. The pit floor is grassed over, but kept cut to make access easy.
Please note, that digging is not permitted at this site, please only take one or two specimens. |
SSSI - Permitted
The quarry at Crag Farm is an important geological site for the study of Coralline Crag and palaeoecology. It is probably the largest and most readily accessible Coralline Crag locality. Digging is not permitted.
To visit this site, please see the farm owners on-site, they should allow access to this pit as part of the SSSI notification. |
Although there are no major safety issues at this site, but please follow the country code. Please use common sense at all locations. Some of the faces could collapse at any moment, so please take care, and do not collect from the overhanging areas. |
Last updated:
last visited:
Written by: |
31/08/08
2005
Alister and Alison Cruickshanks
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For other Coralline Crag locations, the most well known is Ramsholt, where excellent corals, scallops and bryozoans can be found. At Thorpeness, blocks of Coralline Crag, full of fossils can be found on the beach, washed from the Sizewell Reef. You can also collect from another pit, Broom Pit .
There are also a number of Red Crag locations, you can try, Neutral Farm Pit, Capel Green, Walton-on-Naze and Ramsholt as first locations of choice, with Bawdsey, Alderton and Wrabness as second choices.
If you enjoy collecting fossil shells, there are many other sites for collecting in Suffolk from other types of crag including the Norwich Crag, Coralline Crag and in Norfolk, the Wroxham Crag.
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Well-preserved, colonies of the bryozoans Eschara pertusa, are the most common find here, the site is well documented for this fossil, along with the spectacular round Bryozoans - Meandropora tubipora. When complete, these specimens are the size of tennis balls, occasionally if you find one broken, you will see all of the internal structure.
Shells and other fossils are rare at this site, as the beds are much deeper, although shells can occasionally be found such as scallops. To find fossils, search the cliff faces as these are regularly kept clean and constantly eroded by the wind and rain.
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The pit at Crag Pit Farm is of Pliocene age being the Coralline Crag. This crag is made of carbonate-rich skeletal sands. The acid-insoluble sand fraction is moderately- to poorly-sorted medium-grained sand. It has a low mud content and the basal lag gravel is rich in pebbles of phosphatic mudstone largely derived from the Thames Group.
Crag Pit Farm is notified as an SSSI due to its geological importance, Faces of the pit afford the best available exposure in the Coralline Crags and wave facies. About 5m of crag is exposed showing well-defined, large-scale cross-stratification a set thickness of up to 2g m. Conspicuous calcite 'veins' are presentwhich may be related to diagenetic removal of aragonitic material during a sub-aerial solutional phase. ....[more]
Coralline Crag at 'Crag Pit Farm'
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Stone Tumblers |
Microscopes |
Test Sieves for Microfossils |
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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Test Sieves are used when searching for microfossils. Microfossils can be found in many locations, and all you need is a small amount of sample such as clays, sands and shales, or if you have acid, limestone, oolite or chalk.
Our UKGE Store sells Endecotts Test Sieves, which are the highest in accuracy and extremely durable and long lasting. These Test Sieves are fantastic for microfossils. Endecotts Test Sieves come in a variety of sizes, frame material and types, they are certificated to EU Standards. |
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