Leckhampton Hill’s old quarries expose a classic Middle Jurassic limestone succession, with shell-rich beds, pale building stone and the striking Devil’s Chimney. The hill offers rewarding fossil observation and a varied geology walk above Cheltenham. Use the signed paths and check the council’s current collecting terms before removing any material.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦ – Brachiopods, bivalves and shell moulds occur in several beds; other limestone is comparatively fossil-poor. The rating reflects the geological interest, not a promise of take-home specimens.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦ – Suitable routes on the wider hill can make an enjoyable family walk. The quarry edges, unstable faces and scree need close supervision and are unsuitable play areas.
ACCESS: ♦♦ – Several named car parks serve the hill. Quarry visits involve slopes and uneven paths; the council’s accessible loops do not guarantee access to individual faces.
TYPE – Disused limestone quarries, natural outcrops and a hilly geology walk within a protected landscape.
DIRECTIONS
♦ From Leckhampton, take Daisybank Road off the B4070. Daisy Bank and Bridge car parks provide approaches from this side of the hill; follow the current parking signs.
♦ Alternatively, Salterley and Brownstones car parks are reached from the eastern end of Hartley Lane. Choose the approach that matches the quarry stops you plan to view; Hartley Lane has no pavement.
♦ Use the council and Friends of Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common maps to follow signed paths to the old quarry belt. Limekiln remains and the Devil’s Chimney are useful landmarks, but stay on the paths and back from quarry edges.
♦ The council publishes shorter and longer accessible loops of about 2.6 km and 5.7 km. Surfaces include rolled stone, loose material and grass, with gradients reaching about 12%; check their route descriptions against your party’s needs.
♦ Allow time for the climbs and for returning to your chosen car park. Do not use a cliff edge, scree slope or an unmarked scramble as a shortcut.
♦ Guide locality reference: 51.85820°N, 2.07955°W. This locates the quarry area, rather than a parking space or a safe standing point.
FOSSIL HUNTING
Leckhampton is most useful when you compare the rocks as well as their fossils. The quarries cut through different levels of the Inferior Oolite, so a shell-rich rubbly limestone and a pale, apparently barren freestone may be only a short walk apart. Observe naturally weathered surfaces from safe paths. The council’s management documents have contemplated appropriate scree collecting, but current quarry-specific conditions should be checked before anything is taken; digging or hammering a face is not part of this visit.
The lower succession around the Limekilns includes sandy, iron-stained limestone and the coarser rocks of the Crickley Member. Brachiopods have two valves and often a strongly symmetrical outline when viewed from above; bivalves include more varied, commonly unequal or elongated shells. In the Pea Grit, rounded coated grains can resemble little fossils at first glance. A hand lens helps distinguish their layered carbonate coating from genuine shell ribs and growth lines. Historical collections include the brachiopod Capillirhynchia wrightii from this interval.
The Oolite Marl facies of the Scottsquar Member is another important shelly horizon. Plectothyris fimbria is a characteristic brachiopod, while bivalves, high-spired nerineid gastropods and corals are also documented. The more granular Upper Freestone contains shell debris and locally similar fossils, but the two facies vary laterally. A specimen from loose debris cannot be assigned to one of them merely because it was photographed near a particular face.
Higher in the succession, the Lower Trigonia Grit contains burrowing bivalves, corals and colonial worm tubes recorded as Sarcinella. The Gryphite Grit has a useful internal contrast: the lower sandy Buckmani beds contain Lobothyris buckmani, whereas thick, curved Gryphaea bilobata oyster shells are conspicuous in the upper beds. Brownstone Quarry shows higher parts of this shelly succession together with the Notgrove and Upper Trigonia Grit members.
The Upper Trigonia Grit commonly preserves empty moulds where shells have dissolved. Ribbed bivalve impressions, including those historically identified as Trigonia costata, may therefore be clearer than actual shell material. The documented fauna also includes Globirhynchia subobsoleta and the echinoid Nucleolites sinuatus. These are published locality records, not a guarantee of finding a complete example on a visit. Ammonites occur in the scientific record but are sporadic or poorly preserved in several beds.
Photograph a fossil with a scale, then take a wider view showing its rock texture and setting. Note the quarry name and whether it is attached or in displaced material. Leave an unusual or scientifically significant specimen in place and send its position and photographs to the site manager. The detailed account below separates nineteenth-century identifications, modern revisions and precisely located research samples.
Significant discoveries
1834 – Early published geological description
Murchison’s account belongs to the long series of studies that made the hill a classic Cotswold section. Later authors repeatedly remeasured and reinterpreted the quarry succession.
1852 – Brachiopods named from the hill
Davidson described the brachiopods now called Curtirhynchia oolitica and Capillirhynchia wrightii. The former’s figured type came from freestone above the Pea Grit; the latter’s type provenance is the Pea Grit at Leckhampton.
1854 – Early echinoid records
Wright recorded Cidaris bouchardii and Pedina etheridgii from the Pea Grit at Leckhampton, as well as fragments of the rare echinoid he named Pedina bakeri from a Crickley specimen. These are historical names and records, rather than predictions of present-day finds.
1856–1857 – A separate early quarry section recorded
The report of the 1856 Leckhampton visit, presented in January 1857, described four basal quarry divisions and an approximate 43 ft aggregate. Its account of the Lias contact and comparison with Strickland preserve an early interpretation distinct from later logs.
1860 – A measured succession and bed-by-bed fossil lists
Wright published a measured Leckhampton section and separated the richly fossiliferous Oolite Marl from the building-stone succession. His paper also described the sandy and clay-rich rocks below the Inferior Oolite; subsequent work revised both the unit boundaries and ammonite zonation.
1895 – The upper marl lens reinterpreted
Buckman’s interpretation of the thin marl above the Upper Freestone underlies its later assignment to the Harford Member. The surviving lens helps demonstrate how erosion progressively removed beds towards the west.
1906 – A reference section for later comparisons
Richardson’s description became a major foundation for later composite logs of Leckhampton. It also recorded ammonites in the Gryphite Grit and rare casts in the Notgrove limestone.
1910 – Wells and trenches reveal concealed strata
Richardson described the Hartley Cottages and Hartley Bottom wells and their associated pipe trenches. His fossil-bearing Upper Lias samples and proposed break beneath the Inferior Oolite added a subsurface record distinct from the exposed quarry succession.
1927 – The industrial landscape changes
The unsuccessful limeworks redevelopment had closed by 1927 and its plant was sold and removed. The quarry faces, incline routes and limekiln remains survived as evidence of the stone industry that exposed the geological succession.
1954 – First SSSI notification
Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common received its first SSSI notification. Its quarry sections and limestone habitats have complementary scientific importance.
1978 – Sedimentological and stratigraphical reassessment
Mudge’s work distinguished the strongly bioturbated and cross-bedded limestone facies and supplied detailed measured sections used by later authors. It helped replace an overly simple freestone-and-marl succession with a record of changing shallow-sea environments.
1982 – A new calcareous alga
Graham Elliott described Leckhamptonella llewellyae from thin sections of the Upper Freestone facies. The tiny segmented green alga was represented by a holotype, five figured paratypes and additional fragments, providing an unusually detailed view of the Aalenian marine flora.
1986–1991 – SSSI protection updated
The site was renotified under the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 1986. An extension was notified on 18 December 1991, encompassing the important quarry exposures and surrounding habitats.
1997 – Modern formation and member framework
Barron, Sumbler and Morigi’s revised classification placed the local succession within the Birdlip, Aston and Salperton limestone formations. The linked Leckhampton exposures serve as type sections for the Birdlip Limestone Formation and the Leckhampton and Cleeve Cloud members.
2002 – National geological synthesis
The Geological Conservation Review set out the locality’s composite succession, its type-section importance and the evidence for shallow-water sedimentation, hardgrounds and erosional gaps. It also made clear that some historical thicknesses differ because authors used different boundaries.
2008 – A figured bryozoan colony
Taylor and Ernst illustrated a tree-like Collapora straminea colony from Leckhampton’s Middle Inferior Oolite, accession NHM 56829. Their caption records a Bajocian horizon without identifying a particular quarry.
2014 – Burrowing bivalves studied across separate horizons
Angseesing’s pallial-sinus study included Leckhampton Hill specimens in its locality-by-horizon tables. The study linked the internal shell feature to the preservation of burrowing bivalves while retaining the source’s individual rock-unit records.
2015 – Oyster articulation compared
Separate Leckhampton Hill oyster samples contributed to Angseesing’s study of shell burial and preservation. The published counts distinguish articulated shells from single valves and retain their historical horizon labels.
2020 – Limid preservation studied across separate horizons
Leckhampton samples of Pseudolimea and Limatula contributed to a study of valve preservation. The source retains separate Buckmani Grit, Pea Grit and Upper Trigonia Grit occurrences, rather than combining them into one bed record.
2021–2022 – Brachiopod burial and epibionts examined
A historical Upper Trigonia Grit assemblage of Stiphrothyris cheltensis was examined for shell crushing, infill and attached organisms. Its low epibiont diversity limited later comparisons, and differences among published numerical tables require caution.
2022 – Two brachiopod species reassessed
A quantitative comparison using Leckhampton material supported distinguishing Curtirhynchia oolitica from C. extensa. The recorded samples also reinforce the value of keeping the Pea Grit, Lower Limestone and Oolite Marl collection horizons separate.
2026 – National Nature Reserve declaration
The Cheltenham Escarpment National Nature Reserve was formally declared on 4 March 2026. Natural England’s public notice, published on 4 June, records 60.02 hectares held by Cheltenham Borough Council. The declaration is a conservation milestone, rather than a grant of fossil-collecting permission.
GEOLOGY
Leckhampton Hill is a reference locality for the Inferior Oolite Group, a succession deposited in shallow Middle Jurassic seas during the Aalenian and Bajocian. Its importance comes from the range of rocks exposed across several adjoining quarries. They form a composite section through the Birdlip, Aston and Salperton limestone formations, rather than a single uninterrupted face. Dark, disturbed Lias clay beneath the limestones belongs to an older part of the Jurassic succession.
The lower Birdlip Limestone records a change from sandy, iron-rich seabed sediment to increasingly carbonate-rich deposits. The Leckhampton Member contains shell debris, burrows and material reworked from the Lias below. The Crickley Member includes the traditional Lower Limestone and Pea Grit: its conspicuous coated grains are oncoids, quite different from the smaller, more evenly rounded ooids that dominate much of the overlying building stone.
The Cleeve Cloud Member has a lower interval strongly disturbed by burrowing animals and an upper, cross-bedded interval deposited by moving carbonate sand. Those inclined layers record currents, not a tilted shoreline. The Scottsquar Member above includes the muddier Oolite Marl and more granular Upper Freestone. Their changing proportions between exposures explain why older accounts give different thicknesses. A thin Harford marl lens was recorded at Hilltop Quarry, but it is overstepped westwards and should not be imagined as a continuous thick layer everywhere.
The Aston Limestone introduces more iron-speckled, sandy and shell-rich deposits. Within the Gryphite Grit, the sandy Buckmani interval and the oyster-rich upper beds record different parts of that history. The cleaner Notgrove limestone above ends at an intensely bored and oyster-encrusted surface. Such hardgrounds formed when sediment accumulation paused and organisms colonised the seabed. The Upper Trigonia Grit of the Salperton Limestone rests above an important erosional break, with shell moulds common in its irregular beds.
Quarrying exposed these relationships and supplied freestone and lime. It also left steep faces, spoil and the isolated Devil’s Chimney. Later slope movement has disturbed the weaker Lias beneath the limestone, while cambering, fissures and landslips complicate some exposures. Reading the hill therefore means separating the original marine layers from the effects of quarrying and ground movement. The youngest unit in the published composite is Upper Trigonia Grit; no separate local Clypeus Grit Member is added to that section.
Detailed geology / stratigraphy
The modern account follows the Geological Conservation Review composite across Limekiln, Devil’s Chimney, Hilltop and Hartley Hill quarries. It runs from younger to older rocks. Thicknesses belong to the published section and are not a promise of continuous exposure today. Separate nineteenth-century logs and later fossil studies follow under their own source headings.
INFERIOR OOLITE GROUP
Salperton Limestone Formation
Upper Trigonia Grit Member
Shelly ferruginous limestone (1.6 m)
Brown, irregularly bedded ferruginous bioclastic limestone; many shells survive as empty moulds. Recorded fossils and biological features include Trigonia costata; Liostrea; Trichites; Globirhynchia subobsoleta; Nucleolites sinuatus; serpulids. The shells commonly survive as empty moulds. This is the highest unit in the GCR composite; a separate Clypeus Grit Member is not demonstrated by that section.
Aston Limestone Formation
Notgrove Member
Ooidal limestone and terminal hardground (0.6 m)
Pale-grey, bedded ooid grainstone. Recorded fossils and biological features include disarticulated bivalves; rare poorly preserved sonniniid ammonite casts (Richardson 1906); oysters and deeply penetrating worm borings at top. The deeply bored and oyster-encrusted top marks a major erosional hiatus, historically discussed as Bajocian denudation and related to the Vesulian Unconformity. No Rolling Bank Member is demonstrated here.
Gryphite Grit Member
Basal calcilutite, lower Buckmani Grit and upper oyster-rich limestone (5.6 m)
Hard grey-brown shell-fragment limestone with marl partings; sandy below, basal lime mudstone. Recorded fossils and biological features include Gryphaea bilobata in upper bedding planes; Lobothyris buckmani in lower sandy beds; burrowing bivalves; serpulids; oysters; ammonites of Sonninia fissilobata type (Richardson 1906). The 5.6 m composite figure is uncertain; the BGS Cirencester memoir gives 5.1–6.4 m for the local type exposure.
Internal Gryphite Grit horizons
At the base, a lime-mud-rich calcilutite differs from the sandy lower beds traditionally termed Buckmani Grit. The latter contain Lobothyris buckmani. Higher bedding planes are rich in Gryphaea bilobata, with burrowing bivalves, serpulids and other oysters. Richardson’s ammonites of Sonninia fissilobata type belong to the Gryphite Grit account. These are internal distinctions within the shared thickness above.
Lower Trigonia Grit Member
Conglomeratic lower and shelly upper limestone (1.8 m)
Iron-speckled, rubbly, bioturbated bioclastic limestone; lower part conglomeratic. Recorded fossils and biological features include burrowing bivalves; Sarcinella (colonial serpulid); corals; Aulacothyris meriani. The lower conglomeratic and upper shell-rich parts are recorded within one 1.8 m package; separate thicknesses were not given.
Birdlip Limestone Formation
Harford Member
Hilltop marl lens (0–0.46 m)
Yellow-brown marl. This Hilltop lens is assigned to Harford following Buckman (1895), rather than Murray’s (1968) Lower Trigonia Grit interpretation. It represents the westernmost occurrence and is overstepped immediately westwards.
Scottsquar Member
Upper Freestone (c. 7.5 m)
Pale, thick-bedded, relatively poorly sorted peloidal and ooidal packstone/grainstone. Recorded fossils and biological features include shell debris; Plectothyris fimbria; bivalves; corals. The Oolite Marl and Upper Freestone intergrade; Baker (1981) included the Hilltop packstones in Oolite Marl. A bored, oyster-encrusted hardground caps the interval. Murray (1968) interpreted solution cavities with ferroan calcite as possible evidence of subaerial exposure.
Oolite Marl (3.2 m)
Cream-white marl and lime mudstone containing scattered ooids and peloids. Recorded fossils and biological features include burrowing bivalves; Plectothyris fimbria; nerineid gastropods; corals. Reported thicknesses of 1.8–5.2 m reflect variable definitions and lateral facies change.
Cleeve Cloud Member
Upper cross-bedded division (10.4 m)
Pale-grey, sorted ooid grainstone with large-scale cross-bedding. Recorded fossils and biological features include sparse shelly fossils. Historically termed Devil’s Chimney Oolite. Foresets indicate predominantly southward currents. A planar hardground occurs about halfway up this division, and another bored and encrusted surface marks its top.
Lower bioturbated division (13.3 m)
Buff, slightly sandy limestone in massive beds; primary bedding largely obliterated by burrowing. Recorded fossils and biological features include abundant trace fossils; sporadic shells; cf. Skolithos; cf. Lennea. Historically termed Cleeve Hill Oolite. Structures once interpreted as rootlets were subsequently interpreted as burrows, with the assignments to Skolithos and Lennea remaining qualified.
Crickley Member
Pea Grit (3.7 m)
Buff rubbly oncoidal/pisoidal packstone. Recorded fossils and biological features include bivalves; brachiopods. This is the upper traditional division, termed Crickley Oncolite by Mudge. Historical measurements of about 2.2–6.4 m used differing boundaries; they are alternatives, not additional beds.
Lower Limestone (3.3 m)
Cream-yellow shell-fragment and peloid packstone, strongly churned by burrowers; occasional oncoids near the top. Recorded fossils and biological features include shell debris; burrows. This is the lower traditional division of the Crickley Member, termed Crickley Limestone by Mudge.
Leckhampton Member
Sandy ferruginous limestone (5.3 m)
Orange-brown, sandy, ferruginous bioclastic limestone with marl seams and a conglomeratic base. Recorded fossils and biological features include bivalves; brachiopods; belemnites; Leioceras (sporadic ammonites). The basal phosphatised material was historically termed “coprolites”, although it includes reworked Lias material. Sporadic Leioceras supports an early Aalenian Opalinum Zone age. This is the interval formerly called Scissum Beds.
LIAS GROUP
Underlying disturbed clay (thickness not established)
The GCR table records dark-grey, silty and finely sandy micaceous clay, highly disturbed by landslipping. This row is not assigned here to a particular Lias formation. The accompanying account also discusses underlying Toarcian Bridport sands and silts, historically termed Cotteswold Sand. These older rocks must be distinguished from the overlying Inferior Oolite.
Hartley Hill borehole: separate subsurface Lias record
The BGS Cirencester memoir describes a borehole at SO 952 179 which proved about 7.8 m of sandy micaceous clay beneath the Inferior Oolite. A fossiliferous sandstone band lay 3.7 m below the top. Its ammonites include Haugia grandis, Haugia sp., Dactylioceras cf. holandrei, D. cf. mucronatum, and the historically recorded “Thysanoceras” [Lytoceras] sublineatum. The Haugia indicates the Variabilis Zone; the Dactylioceras only suggests that Bifrons Zone strata may also occur. BGS questions Richardson’s record of a further 7.1 m of very fine blue sand below the clay. This borehole account is separate from the unmeasured disturbed clay exposed in the GCR table.
Daisybank Road sandy-clay pit
Richardson also recorded similar sandy clays at SO 9531 1890 near Daisybank Road, as summarised by the BGS memoir. No separate thickness or local fossil list is supplied for that pit here. It is not an added interval in either the quarry composite or the Hartley borehole.
Quarry distribution and lateral change
Lower Limekilns exposes approximately the lowest 12 m of the modern quarry succession. Middle and Upper Limekilns cover the Cleeve Cloud and Scottsquar intervals and lower Aston beds. Dead Man’s spans mid-Cleeve Cloud to Lower Trigonia Grit; Brownstone shows Gryphite Grit, Notgrove and Upper Trigonia Grit. These modern locality descriptions complement the differently named GCR composite rather than identify a continuously exposed walk-up section.
Other exposures around the hill
Salterley or Wagon Quarry has been described as exposing about 18 m of Cleeve Cloud limestone with Crickley beds at its base. Firsbrake and Ferncliff expose Cleeve Cloud, Trye’s exposes Scottsquar, and Charlton Kings Quarry contains Cleeve Cloud and Scottsquar with lateral differences. Charlton Kings Crags show Buckmani and Gryphite beds. Cambering, faults, landslip and superficial head affect Daisybank and Incline quarries. These observations describe separate parts of the wider hill, not extra beds added to the composite.
Brachiopod type provenance and later samples
Davidson’s figured shell of Curtirhynchia oolitica, treated as the holotype by monotypy in the modern revision, came from freestone above the Pea Grit. Capillirhynchia wrightii has type provenance in Leckhampton Pea Grit. Angseesing’s 2022 samples record C. oolitica from Pea Grit and Lower Limestone, whereas Curtirhynchia extensa is recorded from Oolite Marl. The original broader freestone wording does not define an exact numbered modern bed. The 2013 revision’s studied material separately includes the shell figured on plate 6, figure 4 and four further Leckhampton specimens under FSL708044. These five specimens have locality provenance without an exact bed assignment; they are distinct from the 1852 holotype and the 2022 samples.
Upper Freestone alga: Elliott’s 1982 record
Leckhamptonella llewellyae is a segmented calcareous green alga described from Upper Freestone facies of the Scottsquar Member, termed “Scotsquar Hill Limestone” in the paper. Its holotype is V.60703, with five paratypes V.60704–60708 and about 35 additional fragments in thin sections. Elliott assigned the material to the Aalenian bradfordensis subzone. That source-specific age and thin-section occurrence apply to the studied material, not every quarry bed or a likely hand specimen.
Wright’s 1860 historical section
Wright described a separate, broad fifteen-interval succession at Leckhampton, preserving original feet-and-inches measurements. Unit 5 includes a lower marl and an overlying marly limestone; their order below is stratigraphic, with the upper division first. These old boundaries and ammonite zonation are not equated numerically with the modern GCR packages.
Unit 1: Upper Trigonia-grit (7 ft)
Historical fossil-rich ragstone
Unit 2: Gryphaea-grit (8 ft)
Historical oyster-bank
Unit 3: Lower Trigonia-grit (not stated here)
Light-coloured thin beds, bivalves, echinoderms and corals
Unit 4: Upper flaggy bastard-freestone (26 ft)
Nearly unfossiliferous; old ammonite zonation not adopted
Unit 5, upper marly limestone: Overlying marly limestone becoming oolitic upwards (about 10 ft)
Wright describes this separately within his Fimbria-bed account
Unit 5, lower marl: Oolite Marl lower marl (about 7 ft)
Lower part slightly brecciated above a worn limestone surface
Unit 6: Freestone (about 110 ft)
Best building stone above, ferruginous poorer middle, coarse roestone below
Unit A: Pea-grit: brown rubbly flattened-concretion oolite (12 ft)
Fossils commonly well preserved
Unit B: Pea-grit: hard cream pisolite (10 ft)
Flattened concretions
Unit C: Pea-grit: brown ferruginous coarse oolitic rock (about 20 ft)
Frost disintegration
Unit D: Cephalopoda/Jurensis-bed: brown marly iron-ooid limestone (about 2 ft)
Historical Upper Lias attribution
Unit D’: Yellow sand seam (1.5 inches)
A thin yellow sand seam, recorded as 0 ft 1½ in.
Unit E: Very hard dark-grey crystalline limestone (9 inches)
Fistulana borings retaining shells
Unit F: Micaceous clayey sand grading down into fine sand (unknown)
Historical basal section
Unit G: Dark-blue Upper Lias clay (probably 160 ft)
Historical estimate, not visible thickness
Historical fossil identifications
The following records retain their authors’ names and horizon descriptions. They document the history of the locality and are not all verified modern combinations. Differing old unit names and later revisions are kept separate.
Wright 1854, reprinted CNFC vol.2 pp.20–21: Pea Grit
Cidaris bouchardii. Crickley, Leckhampton and Birdlip explicitly named; current combination unverified.
Wright 1854, reprinted CNFC vol.2 p.32: Pea Grit
Pedina bakeri. Fragments at Leckhampton; figured complete specimen from Crickley.
Wright 1854, reprinted CNFC vol.2 p.33: Pea Grit
Pedina etheridgii. Historic Leckhampton and Crickley records; broad range and later reassignment are retained here as historical records.
Wright 1860 p.7: Upper Trigonia-grit
Trigonia costata; Trigonia striata; Terebratula spinosa; Ammonites parkinsoni; Clypeus plotii; Echinobrissus clunicularis; Holectypus depressus. A Clypeus occurrence in this old unit does not establish a separate Clypeus Grit Member.
Wright 1860 p.7: Gryphaea-grit
Gryphaea sublobata; Pholadomya heraulti; Terebratula meriani. This historical association is kept separate from the GCR Gryphaea bilobata and Aulacothyris meriani records.
Wright 1860 p.7: Oolite Marl / Fimbria-bed
Terebratula fimbria; Lucina wrighti; Lima cardiiformis; Lima pontonis; Natica leckhamptonensis; Natica adducta; Mytilus pectinatus; Astarte elegans; Nerinea; Chemnitzia; Thamnastrea mettensis. The modern GCR records Plectothyris fimbria; the other names retain their historical usage.
Wright 1860 p.8: Historical Upper Lias crystalline limestone E
Fistulana borings with shells remaining. Underlying section historically exposed; exact present exposure unknown.
Figured bryozoan colony, 2008
Taylor and Ernst’s Figure 5G illustrates a tree-like colony of Collapora straminea from Leckhampton Hill, identified in the caption as Bajocian Middle Inferior Oolite. Its accession is NHM 56829. No particular quarry or numbered bed is given.
Burrowing bivalves examined in 2014
Angseesing’s study of pallial-sinus preservation tabulated fossils by locality and historical rock-unit name. The counts below describe that studied material, not abundance in a present-day exposure. A pallial sinus is the indentation in the internal muscle-attachment line associated with retractable siphons. The source distinguishes visibility on different valves; the totals given here do not allocate those incompletely resolved table columns. No particular quarry or numbered bed is assigned where the paper names only the hill.
Gresslya abducta, 2014 Table 1
The recorded Leckhampton Hill material comprises 60 from Middle Inferior Oolite; 1 from Oolite Marl; 2 from Pea Grit; 16 from Scissums Beds; 6 from Upper Trigonia Grit.
Pholadomya lirata, 2014 Table 2
The recorded Leckhampton Hill material comprises 1 from Lower Limestone; 37 from Middle Inferior Oolite; 9 from Oolite Marl; 3 from Upper Trigonia Grit.
Pleuromya calceiformis, 2014 Table 3
The recorded Leckhampton Hill material comprises 2 from Middle Inferior Oolite.
Pleuromya uniformis, 2014 Table 5
The recorded Leckhampton Hill material comprises 1 from Lower Limestone; 226 from Middle Inferior Oolite; 3 from Pea Grit; 22 from Scissums Beds; 2 from Upper Freestone; 9 from Upper Trigonia Grit.
Additional Leckhampton observations in the 2014 paper
A single Arcomya elongata from the historical “Scissums Beds” showed a pallial sinus on its right valve. Figure 1 illustrated a right-side view of Gresslya abducta from the Buckmani Grit; that figured occurrence is not added as an extra specimen to the tabulated totals. The paper also discussed ten Cercomya undulata pooled from Cleeve Hill, Leckhampton Hill and Chedworth Nature Reserve, and two Corbicella complanata pooled from Leckhampton and Chedworth, all labelled Middle Inferior Oolite. None of those pooled specimens had a visible pallial sinus, and no Leckhampton-only count was supplied.
Oyster preservation samples examined in 2015
Angseesing’s Tables 5–6 separately counted articulated shells and isolated valves. For Catinula crickleyensis from Pea Grit, the Leckhampton Hill sample had 3 articulated shells and 15 single valves, with the author’s published articulation value 16.67%. For Catinula crickleyensis from Scissums Beds, the Leckhampton Hill sample had 0 articulated shells and 3 single valves, with the author’s published articulation value 0%. For Actinostreon costata from Pea Grit, the Leckhampton Hill sample had 0 articulated shells and 4 single valves, with the author’s published articulation value 0%. For Actinostreon costata from Scissums Beds, the Leckhampton Hill sample had 0 articulated shells and 3 single valves, with the author’s published articulation value 0%. These are separate samples, with no left/right allocation made here for the single valves; adding valves and articulated shells does not give a count of original living animals. Historical unit names are retained, and the study does not identify a particular quarry face.
Brachiopod samples examined in 2022
Angseesing’s comparison of Curtirhynchia included 37 C. oolitica shells from Leckhampton Hill Pea Grit (mean width 10.2 mm; mean total rib count 8.6) and 7 C. oolitica shells from Leckhampton Hill Lower Limestone (mean width 10.7 mm; mean total rib count 8.4). Its 11-specimen C. extensa sample combined Oolite Marl material from Cleeve Hill, Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Common with museum specimens from several localities. No Leckhampton-only count was given. The study supported separating the generally larger and more strongly ribbed C. extensa from C. oolitica. These sample measurements do not define a numbered local bed.
Separate three-hill comparison in 2006
Angseesing’s study of Stroudithyris preservation included 34 articulated S. pisolithica shells from Pea Grit material pooled across Cleeve Hill, Leckhampton Hill and Crickley Hill. This is a three-locality comparison; the total and its encruster observations cannot be assigned wholly to Leckhampton Hill.
Shell-study references
Taylor, P. D. and Ernst, A. (2008), “Bryozoans in transition: The depauperate and patchy Jurassic biota”, Figure 5; author paper and figure caption.
Angseesing, J. P. A. (2006), “Preservation of Stroudithyris in the Middle Jurassic of the Cotswold Hills”, Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club 43 (III), 227–233.
Angseesing (2014), “Pallial sinus preservation in Jurassic burrowing bivalves”, ibid. 46 (II), 172–187.
Angseesing (2015), “Further evidence that brachiopod crushing is associated with rate of shell burial”, ibid. 46 (III), p. 288 onwards.
Angseesing (2022), comparison of the two species of Curtirhynchia.
Basal quarry section visited in 1856 and reported in January 1857
The Field Club account of the 15 August visit to Leckhampton recorded four divisions in the basement beds of the Inferior Oolite. The author explicitly lacked the means for accurate measurement. The quoted 43 ft aggregate is therefore a historical estimate, with the top roestone left unmeasured, rather than a modern bed-by-bed survey.
1856 Unit 1: Roestone of Buckman, or shelly oolite of Brodie (not measured)
1856 Unit 2: True pisolite or Pea-grit (about 10 ft)
1856 Unit 3: Coarse-grained oolite containing much siliceous material (13 ft)
1856 Unit 4: Foxy-coloured ferruginous, very siliceous oolite to the quarry bottom (20 ft)
Historical Lias contact and comparison
The account recalled a sharp transition from Oolite to Lias at this place and argued that the exposed section approached the Lias. It compared the estimate with Strickland’s separate 42 ft account and discussed the supposed equivalence of the lower siliceous oolite to sands farther south. These are nineteenth-century measurements and interpretations; they are not converted here into an exact modern member crosswalk.
Hartley Cottages well: Richardson’s 1910 account
Richardson described a well and deeper boring near Hartley Cottages, separately from the open quarry sections. He was uncertain whether the well started in Clypeus Grit or Upper Trigonia Grit. The surface-to-Upper-Lias depth was 212 ft 4 in, while the table separately gives 200 ft of strata between Upper Trigonia Grit and Upper Lias. It does not provide a separately measured thickness for the uncertain top interval. The seven lower numbered packages follow in their original descending order and imperial measurements.
1910 Hartley Bed 1 (3 ft 9 in)
Hard, greyish-blue, sandy micaceous clay.
1910 Hartley Bed 2 (1 ft)
Yellow, iron-rich, micaceous, indurated sandy clay, with historical records of Nautilus, Belemnites phragmacones and small Gryphaea.
1910 Hartley Bed 3 (6 ft 4 in)
Greyish-blue clay similar to Bed 1.
1910 Hartley Bed 4 (1 ft)
Clay similar to the preceding beds but more sandy.
1910 Hartley Bed 5 (1 ft 8 in)
Greyish-blue sandy rock containing ammonites identified by S. S. Buckman. The historical fauna comprised Belemnites near to “B. tubulares” (the printed spelling), Haugia grandis, Haugia sp. indet., Dactylioceras cf. holandrei, D. cf. mucronatum, a fragment of Thysanoceras sp. (? T. sublineatum), Syncyclonema demissus (Phillips), auctt., and Pleuromya sp. The paper’s footnote places marked specimens in the Cheltenham Town Museum at that time.
1910 Hartley Bed 6 (11 ft 9 in)
Sandy clay penetrated by the boring beneath the excavated well.
1910 Hartley Bed 7 (23 ft 3 in penetrated)
The boring was reported to penetrate very fine blue sand. The later BGS survey regarded this lower sand record as unreliable; the historical measurement is retained with that qualification.
Well depths and water level
The excavated Hartley Cottages well reached 226 ft 1 in. Water had stood at 210 ft 1 in and drained away at 226 ft 1 in during deepening. These are hydrological and excavation depths, not extra beds or thicknesses to add to the logged succession.
Separate Hartley Bottom well
A second well at the northern entrance to the wood near Hartley Bottom cottages began in the historical Oolite Marl and stopped in Pea Grit. Richardson gave no individually measured bed thicknesses. Some excavated Pea Grit was blue and compared with Forest Marble in colour; that comparison does not identify Forest Marble at this well.
Pipe trench from Hartley Cottages to Hartley Bottom
Richardson described a possible small fault about 60 yards from Hartley Cottages, juxtaposing Upper Trigonia Grit and Clypeus Grit. The latter, with its usual fossils, continued to within about 150 yards of the Hartley Bottom well. A foot or more of tough purplish residual Fuller’s Earth clay lay above it, particularly in the middle stretch. The final 150 yards exposed strata identified as Upper Trigonia Grit (? Gryphite Grit), Buckmani Grit, Lower Trigonia Grit and Upper Freestone, without individual measurements. This historical trench is separate from the main GCR quarry composite.
Pipe trench towards the sanatorium
The first 300 yards from Hartley Cottages lay in Upper Trigonia Grit. On the descent north of the sanatorium bungalows, Richardson recorded an oyster layer at the top of that grit, thin Notgrove Freestone with a bored, oyster-covered top, and oyster-rich Gryphite Grit below. A small fault brought down a limited mass of Fuller’s Earth against the grit; Clypeus Grit rose beneath it a few yards farther on and was exposed in the bank behind the bungalows. These historical observations describe a separate trench exposure.
The contact as interpreted in 1910
Richardson inferred that the Scissum Beds rested on Variabilis Beds, although he had not directly inspected the contact in the already completed well. He argued that the historical Opaliniforme, Aalensis, Moorei, Dumortieria, Dispansi, Struckmanni, Pedicum and Striatulum beds were absent. This was his interpretation of a stratigraphic break, not a directly observed modern bed correlation.
Historical well and trench reference
Richardson, L. (1910), “On two deep well-sinkings at Leckhampton Hill, Cheltenham”, Geological Magazine, Decade 5, 7, 101–104. The later BGS Hartley Hill summary and its qualified lower-sand record are described separately above.
Limid shell-preservation samples studied in 2020
Angseesing recorded Pseudolimea duplicata from Leckhampton’s historical Buckmani Grit as 15 isolated left valves, seven right valves and no paired specimen. The Pea Grit sample comprised nine left valves, seven right valves and one specimen with both valves present. For P. interstincta from Pea Grit, the corresponding counts were 20, 12 and one. These are collection counts, rather than estimates of living populations or total locality abundance. The 15:7 Buckmani ratio did not establish statistically significant sorting. The paper also records Limatula gibbosa from Leckhampton’s Upper Trigonia Grit, without a separate local count. Its rib-count comparisons combine localities and do not define Leckhampton-only values.
A historical Upper Trigonia Grit brachiopod sample
Angseesing’s 2021 burial study examined Stiphrothyris cheltensis from a small exposure at SO951181, just above the Aston–Salperton unconformity; the exposure was reported to have disappeared. Table 1 separates two uncrushed and four crushed shells with hollow interiors from 90 uncrushed and 28 crushed shells classed as not hollow. The hollow category includes cavities, at least 30% sparry-calcite infill, or an internal rattle; the other category does not guarantee complete sediment infill. Table 6 records no epibionts crossing the valve junction in either preservation class, with 92 entire and 32 crushed shells lacking such crossing. This does not mean that the shells lacked epibionts altogether or were all buried immediately. Too few isolated valves were available for the separate single-valve comparison.
Epibionts and differing published sample totals
The companion 2021 epibiont analysis describes the same locality and horizon. Its Table 8 lists four isolated pedical valves, 92 undistorted shells, four slightly crushed, 25 crushed and three very crushed shells. Table 12 records 43 Dorsoserpula on 17 of the 92 undistorted shells. The printed tables are inconsistent: Table 1 gives 120 undistorted shells, whereas Tables 8 and 12 give 92; Table 12’s mean of 0.34 differs from Table 7’s 0.47 and from 43 divided by 92. These published differences prevent a single reconciled total or mean. The account nevertheless establishes that small Dorsoserpula tubes dominated the Leckhampton sample.
Limits of the trace-fossil comparison
The 2021 study of Gnathichnus, grazing traces made by echinoids, found too few in the Leckhampton sample for detailed analysis. Its three quantified assemblages are from Chedworth. Its account of scarce traces and absent echinoids concerns that particular Upper Trigonia Grit sampling context; it does not demonstrate their absence from Leckhampton Hill as a whole.
The 2022 co-occurrence study
Angseesing’s later study repeated the SO951181 Upper Trigonia Grit provenance and the dominance of small Dorsoserpula tubes on Stiphrothyris cheltensis. The low variety of attached organisms prevented a useful comparison of which types occurred together, so this Leckhampton assemblage was excluded from the co-occurrence analysis. The paper’s subsequent results for negative associations concern other samples.
Shell-preservation references, 2020–2022
Angseesing, J. (2020), “Aspects of shell preservation in the British Middle Jurassic Limids Limatula and Pseudolimea”, Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club 48(II), 243–251.
Angseesing (2021), “Direct evidence of rapid and more delayed burial in five Middle Jurassic terebratulid assemblages of the Cotswold Hills”, ibid. 48(III), 328–347; “An analysis of the epibiont assemblages in five Middle Jurassic terebratulid populations of the Cotswold Hills”, ibid., p.374 onwards; and “Gnathichnus trace fossils on three Middle Jurassic terebratulid assemblages of the Cotswold Hills”, ibid., p.348 onwards.
Angseesing (2022), “Negative associations of different epibionts on some Middle Jurassic brachiopod assemblages”, ibid. 49(I), p.12 onwards.
References
Sumbler, M. G. (2002), “Leckhampton Hill”, in Cox and Sumbler, British Middle Jurassic Stratigraphy, Geological Conservation Review 26. Modern measured descriptions are adapted from this JNCC account under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Wright, T. (1860), “On the subdivision of the Inferior Oolite in the south of England, compared with the equivalent beds of that formation on the Yorkshire coast”, Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 16, 1–48, particularly pp. 7–8; paper read 6 April 1859.
Barron, A. J. M., Lott, G. K. and Riding, J. B. (2012), Stratigraphical framework for the Middle Jurassic strata of Great Britain and the adjoining continental shelf, BGS RR/11/06.
Wright’s 1854 and 1855 echinoid papers and the separate Field Club excursion reports for 1855–1856, printed in Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Field Club 2.
Alméras and colleagues (2013), modern rhynchonellid brachiopod revision; Alméras and Moulan (1988), terebratulid revision.
Angseesing (2022), comparison of the two species of Curtirhynchia.
Elliott, G. F. (1982), “A new calcareous green alga from the Middle Jurassic of England: its relationships and evolutionary position”, Palaeontology 25, 431–437.
Geological Conservation Review account and reference list
SAFETY
Keep well back from unfenced quarry edges and away from the ground beneath unstable faces. Rockfall can occur without warning. Do not climb the Devil’s Chimney, scramble up quarry faces or enter fissures; a hard hat does not make these positions safe.
Loose scree, exposed roots and steep or muddy paths make slips likely, particularly after rain. Choose a route within your party’s ability and turn back if a signed path is closed or unsafe. Keep children and dogs away from drops.
Carry a map, suitable clothing and drinking water. The open hill can be windy or misty, and Hartley Lane’s lack of pavement needs care when approaching on foot. Follow current grazing, wildlife and dog-control signs.
EQUIPMENT
Wear sturdy walking footwear and bring a map, weatherproof clothing, drinking water and a charged phone. A hand lens, camera and small photographic scale are the most useful geology equipment. Do not bring digging or rock-breaking tools on the assumption that the public paths allow collecting.
CLEANING AND TREATING
For fossils viewed on the hill, leave the rock surface and surrounding soil undisturbed. Changing the lighting angle or using a close photograph can reveal ribs, shell outlines and borings without brushing or scraping the exposure.
If a specimen has been collected under explicit permission, retain its quarry and horizon notes before preparation. Fragile shell moulds and marly matrix can lose detail when scrubbed or soaked. Keep an uncertain specimen dry and seek identification or preparation advice before using acids, abrasives or powered tools.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
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FURTHER READING
Cheltenham Borough Council: Leckhampton Hill visitor information
Friends of Leckhampton Hill: access and parking
Council accessible walking routes
Geological Conservation Review: Leckhampton Hill
Leckhampton Hill management plan, 2025
Elliott: the calcareous alga Leckhamptonella llewellyae
Natural England: Cheltenham Escarpment National Nature Reserve declaration
ACCESS RIGHTS
Cheltenham Borough Council provides public access to the hill, with Friends of Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common helping care for it. Leckhampton Hill and Charlton Kings Common SSSI protects both geological exposures and habitats. Part of the wider area was declared the Cheltenham Escarpment National Nature Reserve in 2026; the two designations have different boundaries.
The council’s 2025 management plan refers back to geological proposals in its 2003 plan. Those proposals contemplated appropriate collecting from scree, while treating face collecting and finite geological features more cautiously. This is useful management context, but it is not unrestricted permission to remove material from every quarry. Check the council’s current conditions for the particular place and activity before collecting.
Use the public routes, respect signs and temporary conservation work, and leave exposures, walls, habitats and archaeological features undamaged. Public access and SSSI or NNR designation do not themselves grant a right to remove fossils. Scientific sampling or clearance needs the relevant prior authority.
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions‘
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