Geology Site Account

Site name: Epping Road Boulders

Grid reference: TL 420080

Brief description of site:

On the road between Broadley Common and Roydon, by the road at the entrance to Barnfield Transfer Station (TL 420080) are eight assorted erratics. The largest is half of a large Septarian nodule (1.6 metre diameter) with glacial striations and impressions of ammonites on its surface. Calcite crystals are visible lining the cracks in the broken surface.

Other erratics include a sarsen (100cm x 70cm x 60cm) and, on the other side of the entrance, a boulder of sandstone (?) (125cm x 80cm x 50cm).

It is not known how or when these typical glacial erratics were brought to this spot but it may have been in the last few decades by contractors working at the waste transfer station.