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Introduction to Covehithe

Fossils and Fossil Collecting in Covehithe
Your Suffolk Geological Guide and Geology Info

Very little is known about the Covehithe Shell Beds, exposed on rare occasions. It is believed that they are a rear mollusc deposit within the Baventian stage. Other Fossils such as Echinoid's and Corals can be found in the Glacial Pebble Deposits.

Covehithe - Suffolk
Last updated: [24/10/06]  last visited 2006
Pleistocene
Written by Alister and Alison Cruickshanks

(Covehithe During December Scours) - 2003

Location Information

This site can yield the occasional re deposited fossil from the glacial beds and is rich in Mollusc shells from the Baventian Clays, Sands and Silts which are below beach level. Therefore you need a scour to find any fossils, so this location has been classified as 'Low'

(Not suitable for Children)

Because fossils are rare here, this location is not suitable for children wishing to collect fossils.

Parking is limited along a fairly narrow road, there is then a approx. 1/2 mile walk down to the beach.

Foreshore, Cliff

During scours, mollusc shells can be found exposed in the foreshore clays and silts and in a sandy deposit at the base of the cliff. Fossils can also found in flint from the glacial beds can be found on the foreshore.

ACCESS
RIGHTS
SSSI - NEW 2005
This site is now part of the Pakefield to Easton Bavents SSSI. Please obay SSSI code of conduction, for more information see English Nature.

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006


! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted.

The sea often hits the cliffs at Covehithe, so collecting should be done on the fall of the tide. It can also be easy to become cut off, especially at the North end of the cliff. The cliffs are very high and constantly crumble, the structure of the cliff means they can suddenly slump or landslide, so you should keep away from the base of the cliff.


Other locations similar to Covehithe

If you are interested in other locations where glacial deposits yield redeposted fossils such as echinoids from the Cretaceous, you could try Benacre, Thorington or Caistor St Edmund. The coast along Holderness also contains glacial formations that yield redeposited fossils.

If you are interested in other interesting locations that have excellent formations of glacial deposits, you could try Sidestrand and Overstrand in Norfolk.

If you are interested in locations where you can find Mollosc Crag Shells from the Red Crag and Norwich Crag, try Easton Bavents, Walton-on-naze, Alderton, Ramsholt, Wangford Quarryand Bawdsey.

The Red Crag can also be seen at Dunwich


Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)


Stone Tumblers are used for tumbling and polishing rough rock, stones and pebbles including those found on the beach and glass.

Whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed, you could collect rocks, stones and glass from the beach and tumble then at home.

These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. The tumblers can be used with a variety of grits, most commonly Silicon Carbide Grit and Cerium Oxide. We have a wide range of rough rocks for sale too.

Microfossils are much easier to collect because they are so small that the vast majority of collections only concentrate on large finds. These small finds can simply be found by taking small samples of sands, crags, clays and soft rocks and examining them under a microscope.

We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, both for the study of fossils, but also educational and professional for use in the laboratory. We have Stereo microscopes, Compound Microscopes, Polarising Microscopes and Monocular Microscopes.


We have thousands of Test Sieves for Particle Analysis.

Endecotts Sieves: For accurate dependable results you can't buy a better test sieve than Endecotts. At every stage of manufacture each test sieve is individually inspected.

High Precision Tecan manufactures precision apertures as small as 3 microns for a wide array of applications such as filtering, sieving and nozzles. Its high-performance, ASTM/ISO compliant test sieves satisfy the most demanding fine particle grading requirements.




Images, Graphics & Content - (C)opyright 1998-2005 Alister Cruickshanks.
UK Fossils Management - Alister Cruickshanks & Roy Bullard
UK Fossils Curator - Ian Cruickshanks
UK Fossils is a division of CWA Design and run in conjunction with UKGE. Whilst we try to ensure that all content is accurate and up to date we cannot guarantee this. UK Fossils takes no responsibility in the accuracy of this content, nor takes any liabilities for any trips, events or exchanges between visitors using either the discussion board or the UK Fossils planner. Any posted trips and events by UK Fossils are personal and not arranged by UK Fossils, therefore visitors should seek their own personal insurance cover. Please remember to always check the tide times.
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