Latchmoor Brook, usually spelt Latchmore in geological literature, exposes the Bracklesham–Barton transition in the New Forest’s Studley Wood stream sections. Shells, nummulites and fish remains make it scientifically important, but this is an observation-only locality for ordinary visits. Incised banks and soft ground need care throughout the year.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦♦♦ – Fossil-rich beds are documented, including small fish remains, shark teeth, microfossils and shell nodules. This is not a collecting rating: ordinary visits are observation-only.
CHILDREN: ♦ to ♦♦♦♦ – The old seasonal rating does not establish a safe play area. Incised channels, failing banks and plunge pools require close supervision and may make the locality unsuitable.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦ – The historical approach is about 800 m from Telegraph Hill parking. Follow open paths and avoid boggy ground and the stream bed.
TYPE: Protected stream sections; no digging or removal during ordinary visits.
DIRECTIONS
♦ The Studley Wood sections lie south of Bramshaw Telegraph, east of Fordingbridge. The original road approach used the B3078/B3080 area; from the M27, Junction 1 gives access via the B3079 and Brook. Use current road signs and mapping for Telegraph Hill car park rather than the old Bradsham/Bradshaw spelling.
♦ The historical walking approach followed a track south-west from the parking area for roughly 800 m towards low ground near the brook. Follow current signed public paths; this description does not certify every old junction or path as open.
♦ View accessible exposures from a safe established route. Do not walk along the stream bed, cross soft boggy ground or approach undercut banks to find fossil pockets.
♦ Original locality reference: 50.943390, -1.677205. This is a historical guide reference, not a verified car-park entrance.
FOSSIL HUNTING
The brook is a place to observe the succession and understand its fossils, not to dig or take samples during an ordinary visit. Patchy greenish clay, cream or white shelly pockets and hard shell-bearing concretions were described in the original guide. Weathering and decalcification can leave exposed shells very friable; disturbance by grazing animals does not confer permission to remove material.
The Studley Wood Member contains abundant nummulites, including Nummulites aff. prestwichianus and rare N. variolarius. Its coral fauna includes Stylocoenia emarciata, Dendrophyllia and Turbinolia sulcata. These records belong at member scale and cannot all be assigned to a single SW subdivision.
The younger Coral Bed lies at the base of SW4 in the Elmore Member and contains Paracyathus and large calcareous annelid tubes. This is distinct from the Studley Wood Member coral assemblage below. Historical Hunting Bridge records include Dentalium grande, Turritella sulcifera, Thylacodes ornatus, Bicorbula gallica and Spondylus rarispina; the first name is retained in its historical usage.
Small fish remains, shark teeth and microfossils are documented, but they do not justify transferring a named shark list from a neighbouring locality. Photograph what can be seen safely, with a scale and location note, leaving fossils and sediment in place. Scientific sampling requires advance written authority.
Follow the discovery, stratigraphic interpretation and conservation of the Studley Wood stream sections.
1930s – Stream fossils recorded in field notes
Wrigley recorded observations of the fossiliferous stream deposits, providing an early written account of the locality.
Before August 1956 – The exposures rediscovered
Turner found the fossiliferous stream exposures before August 1956. The available account does not establish an exact rediscovery year for King’s separate work.
1970 – Three fossil-rich intervals described
The Nummulite, Hunting Bridge and Coral beds were documented as distinctive fossil-bearing parts of the stream succession.
1990 – Two members formally distinguished
Todd established the Studley Wood Member and revised the use of the older Elmore unit, reorganising the Bracklesham–Barton boundary, replacing the older boundary placed much higher in the succession.
1993 – The Coral Bed position corrected in a later synthesis
A 1993 personal communication, reported in the 1999 synthesis, reassigned the coral-rich horizon to the base of SW4, correcting its earlier placement in SW3b. This small stratigraphic correction matters when fossil records are correlated between stream exposures.
2010 – Restoration and geological recording
Partial restoration of the stream was accompanied by recording and sampling of affected geological exposures, followed by monitoring. Much of this work lay outside the principal geological interest.
2016 – Major infilling proposal refused
The larger restoration application, which would have obscured important sections, was refused. Earlier warnings of complete loss therefore did not describe the eventual outcome of that proposal.
GEOLOGY
The stream exposes late Middle Eocene marine sands, silts and clays across the Bracklesham–Barton boundary. In the scheme followed here, the Studley Wood Member belongs to the Selsey Sand Formation of the Bracklesham Group; the overlying Elmore Member belongs to the Barton Clay Formation of the Barton Group.
Todd’s six SW subdivisions, as corrected in the Geological Conservation Review, describe a composite of separate, patchy stream exposures. Faulting may place different levels opposite one another. The approximately 10.5–11.5 m composite is therefore not a single accessible bank, and the old report of exposure 2.6 m below land surface is a depth to an exposure, not its thickness.
The change from relatively shallow regressive conditions to a transgressive marine interval is recorded in glauconitic sediment, reworked shells and nummulites. The formation boundary in the revised scheme is about 16 m below that used in the older Survey account. Those schemes and their partial thickness logs cannot be combined into one apparently precise section.
Geology and stratigraphy
The stream cuts a late Middle Eocene marine succession across the Bracklesham–Barton boundary. Its approximately 10.5–11.5 m composite is assembled from separate exposures and affected by faulting. It is not a single easily accessible bank. The six SW units below follow Todd’s scheme as corrected in the Geological Conservation Review.
BARTON GROUP
Barton Clay Formation
Elmore Member
SW4 — Coral Bed at its base
The upper part of the Elmore Member includes the coral-rich horizon. The GCR corrects the original assignment: the Coral Bed lies at the base of SW4, not in SW3b. The Coral Bed contains Paracyathus and large calcareous annelid tubes. The upper Elmore succession is less fossiliferous; the published interpretation allows deeper water or oxygen-poor conditions rather than assuming a uniformly shallow sea.
SW3b — upper Hunting Bridge interval
Dark-green, glauconitic, very sandy clay succeeds the shell-rich lower interval. The Elmore Member is generally more fossiliferous below than above.
SW3a — lower Hunting Bridge interval
Shell-rich lenticles contain abundant molluscs. Abrasion, borings and reworked nummulites record sediment reworking; the shell lenticles are interpreted as storm lags. The lower Elmore transgression has been interpreted as deposition in water approximately 50 m or more deep, without assigning that depth to every SW unit.
SW2 — basal Elmore interval
The basal transgressive surface incorporates material eroded from the underlying Studley Wood Member. This revised formation boundary lies well below the boundary used in the older Survey account.
BRACKLESHAM GROUP
Selsey Sand Formation
Studley Wood Member
At member scale, the fauna includes Stylocoenia emarciata, Dendrophyllia and Turbinolia sulcata. Nummulites are abundant, with uncertain Nummulites aff. prestwichianus and rare N. variolarius. These records apply to the member; their positions within individual SW subdivisions are not established.
SW1b — Nummulite Bed
Glauconitic silty and sandy clay contains sand laminae and lenses, abundant small molluscs and nummulites. The identification Nummulites aff. prestwichianus indicates an uncertain affinity rather than a firm identification with that species.
SW1a — lower Studley Wood interval
The lowest logged mud-and-silt interval belongs to the Studley Wood Member. SW1 represents relatively shallow, regressive conditions interpreted as near a seagrass habitat. It is part of the stream-section composite rather than a separately measured complete vertical cliff exposure.
Boundaries, thickness and age
The mainly glauconitic silty and sandy clays contain sand laminae and lenses; a lenticular sand reportedly reached 1 m, without a secure individual SW assignment. Todd’s revised base-Elmore boundary is approximately 16 m below the older Survey formation boundary. The older Survey section recorded a Nummulite Bed seen to 0.45 m, Hunting Bridge Bed 2.4 m, intervening silty sandy clay 1.6 m and Coral Bed 0.45 m. These belong to a different partial log and are not exact thickness assignments to Todd’s SW units. The GCR places the sequence in nannofossil zone NP16; faulting explains an earlier misleading zonal interpretation. The local formation boundary is not established as a precisely dated Lutetian–Bartonian stage boundary. A fault can juxtapose SW1 on one bank with SW3a on the other.
References
Daley & Balson (1999), British Tertiary Stratigraphy, GCR 15, Barton Cliffs and Studley Wood
Edwards & Freshney (1987), Geology of the country around Southampton, sheet 315 memoir
West (2016), Studley Wood and Latchmore Brook
Natural England (2023), Geoconservation: Principles and practice, Part 3, case 4.15, pp171–174
Forestry England, Forestry Commission Byelaws 1982
BGS Lexicon: Selsey Sand Formation
BGS Lexicon: Barton Clay Formation
SAFETY
Avoid deeply incised channels, undercut or failing banks, plunge pools and boggy ground. The brook cannot be assumed shallow or gentle because an older guide described it that way. Wet periods increase the difficulty, but dry weather does not make unstable banks safe.
Keep to suitable open paths and turn back if the route is waterlogged. Wellington boots do not protect against deep mud or concealed water. Supervise children closely and avoid approaching exposures from within the stream.
EQUIPMENT
Bring suitable footwear, a hand lens, camera, notebook and a scale for photographs. Excavation tools, sieves and sample bags are inappropriate for ordinary observation-only visits. A permitted scientific project should follow its written sampling conditions and risk assessment.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Leave specimens in place during an ordinary visit, so no cleaning or preparation is required. If a research project has advance written authority to sample, fragile decalcified shells should remain supported in their matrix and be assessed by the project’s specialist before washing or consolidation. Avoid routine glue coatings or attempts to extract shells from hard concretions.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
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FURTHER READING
Daley & Balson (1999), British Tertiary Stratigraphy, GCR 15, Barton Cliffs and Studley Wood
Edwards & Freshney (1987), Geology of the country around Southampton, sheet 315 memoir
West (2016), Studley Wood and Latchmore Brook
Natural England (2023), Geoconservation: Principles and practice, Part 3, case 4.15, pp171–174
Forestry England, Forestry Commission Byelaws 1982
BGS Lexicon: Selsey Sand Formation
BGS Lexicon: Barton Clay Formation
ACCESS RIGHTS
Treat Latchmoor Brook as observation-only: do not dig or remove fossils, minerals, soil, sand or gravel. The Forestry Commission Byelaws restrict removal under 5.vii and damage to watercourses under 5.xxii; section 3.3 provides an advance written-authority exception. That is a route for authorised work, not assumed permission for a casual visit. The New Forest’s protected status and local signs also apply; neither SSSI designation nor a right to walk gives an unrestricted right to sample.
Archived Natural England site citation. Current access and permission requirements must be checked separately.
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