Visits Programme - 2017

Field Visits Secretary phone contact - David Turner on 01245-267450

Please phone David for latest news of our programme of field visits. 


* Please read the details and advice and safety notes for field visits.

Booking is essential
- contact  David Turner 01245 267450 -  Field Visits Secretary 
​
Participants are reminded that they -
·       must book a place with the Field Visits Secretary, David Turner.
·       must read and abide by the safety information issued by the group to which they belong ie Essex Rock & Mineral Society or Essex Field Club, or either group in the case of non-members (available on the ERMS websitewww.erms.org or from David Turner.
·       must sign the leader’s register sheet giving emergency contact information

A small charge will be made to non-members attending

Our 2017 Field Visits programme is -

Wednesday 15th March                 Stanway Quarry, Colchester
Glacial-edge outwash and Thames gravels at the Tarmac quarry. A new site for us.
Meeting place Post code: CO3 0NN (across the road from pin on map) 
or co-ordinates of the office car park 595416, 222648
As you head towards the zoo from the A12 the quarry is on the left as you drive south down Warren Lane.
When you drive in, please observe speed limit and use hazard warning flashers.
Share cars where possible.
Meet at 10am to give time for a brief safety induction and to get kitted up with High vis jackets, hardhats etc. 
Wear strong walking boot type shoes, hard hat & hi viz jacket. 
It will involve a walk through the processing plant to the extraction area where you can see the operation and some of the active faces which will obviously be fresh exposures. After that we can walk to the dormant faces on the south side. 
Please tell David Turner tel: 01245 267450 if you wish to come so that we can give final numbers to Emma Goode at the quarry.
Wear strong boots, 
No under-18’s.

Saturday 19th March        An Essex London Clay fossil site – Steeple Bay, Maylandsea or Althorne
(Note - this is an altered date.)  An opportunity to collect from the London Clay – fossil crabs, lobsters and shark teeth on the beach and foreshore at a low spring tide.
Meeting place to be advised
Bring waterproof clothing and wellington boots. It is very muddy!
Leader Jeff Saward.

Sunday 23th April                                 Walton on the Naze, Essex
Our annual visit to collect fossils from the fine exposures of Red Crag and London Clay. We will also visit the EWT Centre and the Naze Tower, which, together with the Maritime Museum at the Old Lifeboat House, all have geological exhibits and displays.
Meet at 11am inside the Essex Wildlife Trust Centre (sat nav. CO14 8LE or OS ref. TM 264234).
Car park charge at ticket machine, or park down the road and walk back - 10 minutes.
Leader Gerald Lucy.  Joint visit with the Essex Field Club.

Saturday 20th May                               Bull’s Lodge Quarry, Boreham, Chelmsford, Essex
Our annual visit to this working quarry. Thick Boulder Clay deposited by an ice sheet contains derived fossils and erratics. The underlying Kesgrave Thames river gravels contain boulders from as far away as North Wales and south-west England and Hertfordshire Puddingstone.
Meet 9.30am in the access road at the North Gate entrance to Police Air Support Unit by the USAF War memorial, off Cranham Road (TL 740127) or Sat Nav lat & long 51.786308, 0.522587 or postcode CM3 3BB is 400m east of gate. Turn in and park as near to the gate as possible, keeping to the left. If no room, stop in the farm entrance opposite. NOTE: this is a different meeting point from that used for all former visits.
Wear strong boots, hard hat & hi viz jacket. No under-18’s.
Leader Peter Allen.  Joint visit with the Essex Field Club.

Friday 2nd June                                      Thrislington, West Cornforth, Ferryhill, Co. Durham
A return visit to this quarry in the Permian Marl Slate where fine fish fossils have been found.
Meet 9am at Lafarge Aggregates quarry car park (NZ 307327)
Leader David Turner.

Saturday 10th June            Bulmer Brick & Tile Works & Gestingthorpe Roman Villa, near Sudbury:
A conducted tour by the owner, Peter Minter, to see how our 50th Anniversary brick was made together with other historic building bricks from a small London Clay brick pit.
At 2pm there will be a visit to Hill Farm, Gestingthorpe, where sink holes keep appearing. A small geological and archaeological museum exhibits interesting finds and fossils – glacial erratics, sarsen stones and Roman artefacts Leader: Ashley Cooper.
Meet 10.30am Bulmer Brick & Tile co., Brickfields, Hedingham Road, Bulmer, Suffolk,
CO10 7EF (TL 833381)
Joint visit with the Essex Field Club.

Saturday 22nd July                               Highwood Quarry, Easton Park Estate, Dunmow, Essex
A second visit to a recently opened sand and gravel quarry also showing Chalky Boulder Clay and London Clay. Possibly a second visit to the Flitch Way Ballast Park, now within the Dunmow railway cutting.
Meet 9am at the SMC quarry on B1256 east of the A120. Turn off between Takely and Dunmow. (TL 601218).
Wear strong boots, hard hat & hi viz jacket. No under 18’s.
Leader Peter Allen.  Joint visit with the Essex Field Club.

Sunday 6th August                                Maryon Park, Charlton
A London Geodiversity Partnership site, Gilbert’s Pit – the finest and scientifically most important pre-London Clay Palaeogene site in the London area and the only permanent exposure in the Woolwich area of the Woolwich formation.
Meet - 10.30am at Charlton Station (TQ 412 787). Train from London Bridge leaves at 9.58 to arrive at 10.23; or 
Jubilee Line to North Greenwich, then catch bus 486 at stop B to Charlton Stn. (stop J) taking 10 minutes.
Bring packed lunch and drink. Walking shoes or boots strongly advised. Finish time 1.30.
Leader Diana Clements.

Saturday 9th September                                    Hadleigh Castle and Country Park, Hadleigh, Essex
A trip to interpret the geology in the landscape demonstrating large scale rotational landslips in the London Clay and overlying Tertiary sandstone including a new section through the Bagshot Sands.
Meet 10.30am at Hadleigh Country Park car park, Chapel Lane.  (sat nav. SS7 2PP or OS ref. TQ 800869).
Leaders Ros & Ian Mercer.       
                                        
Sunday 17th September                                     Harwich, Essex
(Note - this is an altered date.) ​ Geological walk and fossil hunt. Harwich features prominently in the historic geological literature of Essex, but much has been lost to the sea or man’s activities. We will see what remains.
Meet - 1pm near Low Lighthouse (Harwich Maritime Museum), Harbour Crescent, Harwich CO12 3NL [TM 26234 32173].
Waterproof footwear essential.
Leader Bill George.
​
Sunday 22nd October                         Crag Sites of Suffolk
Another interesting visit across the border to see these fascinating Crag deposits with the resident expert.
Meet - 10.30am at Daisy Walk car park 1 mile west of Butley on B1084 Woodbridge to Orford road (TM 3535020).
Leader Bob Markham.
 
 Please remember - booking is essential
- contact  David Turner 01245 267450 -  Field Visits Secretary