Essex Field Club on Facebook

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.

Video about the Club Essex Field Club video

About the Essex Field Club
Essex Field Club
registered charity
no 1113963
HLF Logo A-Z Page Index

Geology Site Account

A-Z Geological Site Index

Fields east of Stifford Bridge, NORTH STIFFORD, Thurrock District, TQ598805, General information

show OS map    

Site category: Thanet, Woolwich or Reading Beds

Temporary exposures of fossiliferous deposits.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Site description

The geological map shows that the Woolwich Formation (formerly called the Woolwich Beds) outcrops on the north side of the Mar Dyke valley east of Stifford Bridge. The 1925 Geological Survey memoir states that here in the fields the light loamy soil is full of fragments of fossil shells from the shelly clay of the Woolwich Beds and 'in a ditch running down the slopes of the valley, at a quarter of a mile south-east of Ford Place, dark grey clay with abundant shells, resting upon brown sand with shells, followed by a bed of pebbles was seen'.

A Reverend Mr.W.Dereham in 1712 recorded: "A bed of shells, if not a kind of marble too, lying across the highway on the descent near Stifford Bridge, going from South Ockendon".

The site is now part of the Mardyke Valley Golf Course.

 

if you have an image please upload it


Reference: George & Vincent 1978 (p.6), Dines & Edmunds 1925 (p.7).

Geology Site Map
A-Z Geological Site Index