The West Midlands, including parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire, has relatively few accessible fossil hunting locations. However, it is home to one of the most important fossil sites in the UK – the Wren’s Nest.
This former limestone quarry is renowned for its Silurian deposits, which yield a rich variety of fossils, particularly trilobites, brachiopods, and corals. The thick limestone beds exposed at the site have made it historically significant for fossil collecting.
Although quarrying ceased in the early 20th century, the Wren’s Nest remains a key location for Silurian fossils, with its exposures continuing to provide important material from this period.
Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve, north-west of Dudley, exposes fossil-rich Silurian limestones formed in a warm, shallow sea. Corals, brachiopods, crinoids and trilobites reveal a varied marine community, while reef mounds and spectacular ripple-marked beds preserve the shape and activity of its ancient seabed. Quarrying revealed the folded succession that makes this an exceptional place to understand Britain’s geological past. Silurian, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
