The Society's first field trip of 2002.

The Mineral Warehouse, Findon & Climping Beach near Littlehampton

Report by Joyce Read

The first venue was "The Mineral Warehouse" at Findon in Sussex. Eleven members gathered , enjoyed selecting specimens, and having those priced per gram weighed.

It was brave choosing a day in early February for the second venue, Climping on the Sussex coast, but by the time we arrived parking space was at a premium thanks to the dry, sunny weather. Each car was eased into its parking spot, and as we had to wait for the low tide to expose the Upper Chalk on the foreshore, lunch was a very leisurely affair. The more adventurous ventured off for a beach walk towards Middleton on Sea, as far as the large Larvikite boulders imported from Norway and deposited in clusters as a sea defence. The first specimen of the day, a fossil sea urchin, was found between the boulders.

As the tide ebbed the group assembled and began searching for the object of this trip, clusters of pyrite crystals. Some impressive specimens were found, plus more fossil sea urchins, including one particularly large one and a tiny Micraster*, a slab abundant in fossil gastropods and a fossil sponge.

We didn't leave the beach until 5pm, not bad for a winter's day. Thanks to Graham Ward for leading the trip.

The next trip is on 2nd March to Herne Bay Kent. The leader, Les Lanham, likes to get us all up early and has set the start time for 7am. An especially low tide is forecast (a minus 0.4 for those who understand these things!), and so barring a strong on shore wind an abundance of sharks' teeth that haven't been seen for millions of years should be exposed.        

  Joyce Read 11/02/2002

(* Micraster; the name of the "heart shape" echinoids (sea urchins). Which species found was not recorded. RC)

Post Script:

Firstly; a big thank you to Joyce for writing a first-hand report. I hope that I have typed it verbatim. Congratulations on spelling Larvikite right! (well it's the way I spell it). That Norwegian stuff gets around our coast a bit, don't it just!

Secondly; you may be interested on some inside gossip. During the trip to The Mineral Warehouse, the men dug deep into their pockets buying gifts for the Ladies. There was talk of Lapis Lazuli Hearts and St. Valentine's Day.

What did surprise me was that the owners of The Mineral Warehouse had at one time connections with a Chrysoprase mine in Queensland, Australia. This material polishes well and has a beautiful apple green colour that simply glows! Forget the rubbish talked about Jade. Chrysoprase is better, harder wearing and a lovely stone to work. It is a cryptocrystalline variety of quartz and looks fabulous set in Gold! One of my favorite stones.

Lastly; if you are interested in village life, please look at www.findonvillage.com website. I came across this site while trying to find out information on flint mines in and around Findon. It looks like the work of one woman who loves where she lives. Perhaps given time more communities will do something similar.

Another report on the same trip but received on the 23 February 2002

Field Visit to The Mineral Warehouse and Climping Beach, West Sussex: Sunday 10 February 2002

Eleven members met at The Mineral Warehouse, near Worthing, at 10 a.m. The proprietors Keith and Dave allowed us to browse through their large stock of geological specimens, which included amethyst geodes, rose quartz, botryoidal malachite, tiger eye and chrysoprase. The chrysoprase was mined by Keith from a deposit discovered in 1962 on top of a ridge near Marlborough, north of Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, where it was formed by silicification of a nickeliferous serpentinite. An hour and a half later we left The Mineral Warehouse and headed for Climping. The sunny, dry weather had encouraged walkers to venture out, and the end of the road at Climping Beach was congested with cars. While waiting for the tide to go out we visited The Black Horse nearby, and on our return soon after 2.30 p.m. met Tony Lee and about ten other members of the Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society. Tony showed us a magnificent "hedgehog" of bright pyrite octahedra that he had collected on a previous occasion.

As the tide went out we searched for clusters of pyrite crystals washed out of the Upper Chalk foreshore between Climping Beach car park (which is closed until April) and the breakwater at Middleton-on-Sea. Despite the widespread accumulation of sand on the foreshore, Bob Blackburn found a fine unabraded cluster of pyrite octahedra. Claire and Graham each found an Echinocorys scutata test, while Ursula found a flint internal mould of a very large Echinocorys the size of a tennis ball. During the afternoon the wind increased in strength, the temperature fell, and the daylight started to fail as the rain forecast for later in the day approached from the south-west, although fortunately it stayed dry until we got back to the cars.

G. R. Ward.

Many thanks to Graham for this report, especially the information about the chrysoprase. There is one detail that is in error. Sandra Blackburn found the pyrite, see notes and pictures of the February Meeting. Who's Claire and Graham? RC 23/02/2002