The East Midlands includes several fossil hunting locations across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire, largely underlain by Jurassic Lias deposits. These rocks are known for yielding ammonites, bivalves, and other marine fossils typical of the Lower Jurassic.
Old railway cuttings, such as the deep section at Tilton-on-the-Hill, expose a range of fossil-bearing strata and provide accessible collecting opportunities. Disused quarries across the region also offer productive sites, particularly where Jurassic formations are exposed.
In Northamptonshire, a number of former quarries yield Jurassic fossils, with publicly accessible locations such as Irchester providing opportunities to collect from these deposits.
Heath & Reach is a small village north of Leighton Buzzard in rural Bedfordshire. Munday’s Hill Quarry, an operational silica sand quarry here shows exposures of Gault Clay, Lower Greensand and bands of the very rare Shenley Limestone. The site can reveal ammonites, belemnites, bivalves, gastropods, fish teeth, corals, ichthyosaur bones and large brachiopods. Permission from the quarry owners is required. The quarry is open for group visits only.Cretaceous, Working Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Houghton Quarry is an abandoned quarry, formerly used to extract chalk for a cement works onsite (which is no longer there). Quarrying stopped about 40 years ago, but, due to its size and terracing, only parts are overgrown, leaving an enormous amount of clean chalk. A large amount of this consists of boulders of various sizes on the quarry floor, yielding many good fossils. Collecting is not allowed here. Cretaceous, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
This site is a disused railway cutting near Tilton-on-the-Hill, which is extremely rich in fossils. Now fairly overgrown, there is just one small area of collecting where the cliffs are still accessible. The site is a SSSI, for the diversity of its fossils, its geological important and for the living fauna and flora that can be seen here. It is also a nature reserve. One key feature is the presence of two thick limestone beds – crammed full of brachiopods – which can be easily collected from by looking in the loose scree. Jurassic, Disused Railway Cutting, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
This is an unusual location, where a public footpath runs right through the middle of a very large, newly re-opened quarry, which was originally a series of smaller, disused quarries. The quarry has no gates or barriers and contains a huge variety of rocks to explore, including a glacial bed, where you can find just about anything. This site also has areas of deep water, so care should be taken at all times. Jurassic, Working Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Irchester Country Park contains Jurassic limestone dating from around 165mya. It is overgrown in places and can be rocky or flooded, with a constant danger of rock falls. This means this site is unsuitable for children. Jurassic, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
To the southwest of Cogenhoe is an extremely overgrown quarry on the top of a hill. Although the quarry itself has now become too overgrown to collect from, the public footpath, which takes you to the quarry, climbs through several different geological formations and rocks are scattered across the fields next to the footpaths. Ploughing uncovers the rocks; and it is in them that you can find fossils. Jurassic, Ploughed Fields, Rating: ♦♦
The Vale of Belvoir is an area rich in fossils from the Lias. The bedrock is close to the surface and fossils can be collected from ploughed fields. This particular location should only be visited between late September and April, when the fields have been ploughed and the crops have not begun to grow. Jurassic, Ploughed Fields, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
