The Vale of Belvoir offers a different kind of fossil hunt: searching weathered Lias limestone and field brash among a landscape of low clay hills. The Long Lane routes towards Barkestone-le-Vale and Belvoir introduce the area, but searching fields and taking fossils require the landowner’s permission and suitable ground conditions.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦♦ – Fossiliferous brash can be productive where the landowner permits searching and bare soil is exposed. Crops, grass and weathering strongly affect visibility.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦ – Better suited to older children able to manage a country walk. The Long Lane approach includes a road without a pavement.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦♦ – Use a current map for the Long Lane footpaths; the original guide describes walks of roughly 2–8 km, depending on the route.
TYPE: – Field brash over Lower Jurassic Lias rocks. Public footpath access does not give permission to search adjoining fields or remove fossils.
DIRECTIONS
♦ From Grantham, take the A1 south and the A607 towards Melton Mowbray, turning towards Denton and Woolsthorpe-by-Belvoir. Continue towards Belvoir, then take Belvoir Road north-west and turn right into Long Lane, continuing to its crossroads with Wood Lane.
♦ Alternatively, from Bingham take the A52 east and turn towards Granby. Continue through Granby to Plungar, then north-east to Barkestone-le-Vale. Wood Lane runs south-east from the village to the Long Lane crossroads.
♦ The original approach uses parking on Wood Lane near the crossroads. Check the signs and available space before leaving a vehicle; park only where lawful and safe, without blocking gates, passing places or farm access.
♦ Walk north-east along Long Lane to the public footpaths, about 1.2 km from the original parking point. This road approach has no pavement, so assess the traffic and visibility before setting off. Use a current map and the waymarks rather than relying on a gap in a hedge.
♦ The north-western route leads towards Barkestone-le-Vale; take the left-hand path where it divides. The longer south-eastern route continues towards Belvoir. Remain on the public paths unless the landowner has agreed to access to a particular field and permission to collect.
♦ Ref: SK 79389 34464
FOSSIL HUNTING
This is a surface-searching area rather than a quarry section. Where you have permission, look at loose fragments on bare ground rather than digging into banks or standing crops. Weathered limestone can carry shells on its broad faces and broken edges, while smaller fossils may be lying free in the soil. The original guide favoured late September to April, but the useful window depends on the actual cropping and cultivation of each field; there is no guaranteed ploughing season.
The easiest starting point in the regional Lias fauna is the oyster Gryphaea, with its thick, curved valve. Look also for the flatter, ribbed valves of scallop-like bivalves such as Pseudopecten. A hand lens helps distinguish shell layers and ribs from the irregular surfaces of a nodule. The nearby published limestone horizons contain both intact valves and concentrations of broken shells; a fragment can still show useful features.
Compare the rock as carefully as the fossil. Around the old Plungar Ironstone workings near Barkestone, the recorded brash is rusty orange-brown, shelly and locally ooidal, with worn or bored Gryphaea. Higher Foston limestones may be greyer and sandier; Highfield Farm material can have a blue-grey centre and small ochreous pits where pyrite has weathered. These are clues for comparison with mapped horizons, not reliable bed identifications from colour alone.
Ammonites may be complete coils, ribbed fragments or mineralised casts. Arnioceras is a characteristic recorded ammonite of the regional Foston limestones, while phosphatised ammonites occur in the associated mudstones. Phosphate can preserve a crisp fossil even after it has been washed out and redeposited, so good preservation does not prove that it is the same age as its surrounding rock. Do not break every nodule in the hope of finding an ammonite; inspect naturally weathered surfaces first.
Smaller fossils add variety to a search. Crinoid stem pieces, including five-sided pentacrinoid columnals, occur in the regional limestone fauna, especially the Blackmires and Fen Farm horizons. Belemnite guards are another possibility in the wider succession; the Littlegate Limestones contain the earliest recorded examples in the local sequence. Solitary corals recorded as Montlivaltia are a regional Blackmires association and are rarer in the Fen Farm beds, rather than an expected find in every field.
Trace fossils can be as informative as shells. Rounded internal casts of Kulindrichnus burrows, traditionally called “turnip stones”, are recorded in Granby limestone brash; they are animal-made sedimentary structures, not fossil turnips. Fine branching Chondrites burrows are documented at some sandy Foston levels. Keep a small amount of surrounding rock with an authorised find so that these relationships remain visible.
Keep finds from different fields separate and note the grid reference, date, rock type and whether each piece was loose. Field brash, material moved down a slope and ditch spoil can mix horizons, so a single oyster or ammonite name is not enough to assign a bed. The scientific accounts below distinguish the walking route from nearby mapped occurrences and wider regional comparisons. Photograph an unusual specimen where it lies, record its setting and seek specialist advice before trying to remove or prepare it.
Fossil photographs: Jamie Dunning. Editing: Jon Trevelyan.
Geological research and stratigraphic milestones that explain the Vale of Belvoir’s fossil-bearing rocks.
1909 – The district’s fossil-bearing rocks documented
G. W. Lamplugh and colleagues published a Geological Survey memoir covering Melton Mowbray and south-east Nottinghamshire. Its descriptions of limestone workings, fossiliferous beds and the Plungar Ironstone preserved evidence from exposures that later became obscured or were filled, providing a foundation for later mapping in the Vale.
1990 – A new framework for the Vale’s Lias
A. Brandon, M. G. Sumbler and H. C. Ivimey-Cook revised the Lower and Middle Lias stratigraphy east of Nottingham. Their borehole and mapping framework formalised the member divisions and named limestone markers used to correlate the Vale’s scattered outcrops, replacing less precise older descriptions such as the Ferruginous Limestone Series.
1999 – Regional marker beds brought together
The Grantham Geological Survey memoir set out detailed borehole and outcrop accounts of the Scunthorpe Mudstone and overlying Lias. It documented the limestone and nodule markers used to interpret the adjoining Vale, including their fossil assemblages, lateral changes and uncertain correlations. These reference sections underpin the regional framework rather than forming a measured Long Lane route log.
2004 – The Vale’s geology and landscape synthesised
The Melton Mowbray district description linked the named Lias beds with the Vale’s field brash, small scarps, borehole records and landslipped escarpment. It documented nearby Barkestone and Plungar occurrences, used Charmouth Mudstone in place of Brant Mudstone, and distinguished the Dyrham Sandrock from the overlying Marlstone.
2009 – Western Vale outcrops placed in context
The Nottingham district memoir added a detailed account of the western and northern Lias outcrop, its limestone markers and field-brash evidence. It explained how resistant shell-rich fragments can dominate the surface and cautioned that ditch material and ploughed-up fossils do not always retain a secure bed-by-bed provenance.
GEOLOGY
The low hills and clay fields of the Vale reflect a gently tilted marine succession. The Lias rocks dip broadly south-east, at about one degree in the Melton district. Soft mudstones form lower ground, while thin, harder limestones create small scarps and longer gentle slopes. The prominent escarpment towards Belvoir is capped by the resistant Marlstone Rock Formation. A walk across the Vale therefore crosses a pattern of outcrops rather than a single rock face.
These sediments accumulated on the East Midlands Shelf as a sea spread over the area around the end of the Triassic. Early laminated mud and limestone formed under poorly oxygenated bottom water. Later, changing oxygen levels, currents and sediment supply produced repeated alternations of mudstone and fossil-rich limestone. Shell-fragment limestones record episodes when currents or waves concentrated material, whereas some dense, fine-grained limestone beds and nodules owe much of their character to cementation within the sediment.
The lower succession is the Scunthorpe Mudstone Formation, divided here into the Barnstone, Barnby, Granby, Beckingham and Foston members. Its limestone markers provide a much finer framework than the old description of the Vale as simply “clay and limestone”. Above it, the Charmouth Mudstone Formation contains fewer persistent limestone beds but several useful nodule, sandstone and oyster-rich markers. “Brant Mudstone” is an older name for this formation, not a separate unit to add beneath it.
Higher on the scarp, silty and sandy sediment becomes important in the Dyrham Formation, including the locally developed upper “Sandrock”. The overlying Marlstone Rock is a shelly, iron-rich limestone or ironstone whose weathering produces rusty brown rock and soil. Its regional age extends from the latest Pliensbachian into the earliest Toarcian. The Whitby Mudstone records renewed quieter-water deposition above the ironstone. These upper formations help explain the hills, but are not present beneath every lowland collecting field.
The fossils on the surface have a second history. Cultivation brings bedrock fragments into the soil, weathering picks out harder shells, and slope deposits can move older material away from its original outcrop. Some fossils were already worn, bored or phosphatised before their final burial in Jurassic sediment. Recording the matrix and exact find position is consequently more useful than assuming that every loose fossil represents the bed immediately below your feet.
Explore the Lias formations, named fossil horizons and landscape of the Vale, with nearby records separated from the regional succession.
How to use this succession
The guide follows footpaths from Long Lane towards Barkestone-le-Vale and Belvoir. Published sections and mapped brash elsewhere in the Vale help explain the rocks, but do not form one continuously exposed route log. In the account below, “nearby” means a specified published occurrence around Plungar, Barkestone or Belvoir; “regional” means the wider Melton–Grantham framework. Borehole measurements remain borehole measurements, and every historical ditch or quarry record is evidence of geology rather than an invitation to enter it.
Reading the regional diagrams
The Melton succession diagram is correlated mainly with the Grantham district and includes uncertain or unproved zonal intervals. Its ammonite zone names are dating and correlation labels, not a list of species found on this walk. The separate geophysical comparison uses the Hatton Lodge, Melton Spinney and Belvoir 1 boreholes. Differences between these records should not be smoothed into an invented complete sequence at the guide reference.
LIAS GROUP
Basal age and regional setting
The Lias Group here is predominantly Early Jurassic, but the lowest Barnstone beds include latest Triassic strata. Lithological formation boundaries and boundaries between geological periods are not necessarily the same surface. The succession continues upwards through the Hettangian, Sinemurian and Pliensbachian into the Toarcian. A district-wide aggregate thickness of about 330 m in the Melton account describes the regional succession, not a section exposed by the footpaths.
Scunthorpe Mudstone Formation
Mudstones, limestones and five members
About 128 m is reported for the formation in the Vale of Belvoir. Grey calcareous mudstone encloses thin limestones and calcareous siltstones; limestone-rich members contrast with limestone-poor ones. Two useful rock types recur: shelly or shell-fragment limestone associated with more energetic sediment movement, and dense argillaceous calcite-mudstone or “cementstone”. The latter also occurs as nodules. Neither a resistant brash fragment nor a nodule is necessarily representative of the surrounding soft mudstone.
Barnstone Member
Laminated limestone and the basal transition
Formerly the Hydraulic Limestone Series, this member contains grey, fine-grained limestone alternating with papery, finely laminated calcareous mudstone. The Melton district account gives about 8–12 m, with the larger value around Barrow upon Soar; these are regional figures. Individual limestone beds are generally 0.1–0.2 m and rarely about 0.3 m. The lower 2–3 m include shell-rich beds, while some higher beds are laminated and bituminous. The member lies above the Penarth Group and ends at its highest limestone bed.
Pre-Planorbis beds and locality limits
The informal “Pre-Planorbis Beds” name refers to the ammonite-poor basal interval, for which conodont evidence supports a latest Triassic age. The famous marine reptiles of Barrow upon Soar and sections at Langar, Owthorpe and the River Smite are separate localities. Their complete logs and fossil assemblages have not been transferred to the Long Lane fields.
Barnby Member
The mudstone-rich interval
Regional thickness is 22–28 m in the Melton district. Grey calcareous mudstone contains only rare thin argillaceous limestones, reported as about 2% of that district succession. The member extends from the highest Barnstone limestone to the lowest Granby limestone. Much of its Vale outcrop is poorly exposed and covered by younger slope material, so an absence of conspicuous limestone brash does not mean that bedrock is absent.
Barnby fossils in the regional record
The published member fauna includes Liostrea, Cardinia listeri and Lucina, with ammonites recorded as Alsatites cf. laqueolus, Caloceras, Saxoceras and Waehneroceras. The well-dated Shire Dyke material cited in that account came from west of Barnby in the Willows, outside the Melton district; it is not a collecting record for the guide route.
Granby Member
A limestone-rich part of the Vale
The member averages about 40 m across the Melton district, whereas the Fulbeck type section in the Grantham district is 30.60 m. Thin limestones account for more than 10% of the regional sequence, occurring in groups separated by mudstone. Resistant shelly lenses survive weathering better than the more clay-rich rock and can dominate the field brash even though they are a minority of the original sediment. Most of the member is Hettangian, extending into the earliest Sinemurian.
Holm Farm Limestones
These are the lowest Granby limestone package, incorporating the units called “X” and “Y” in the Fulbeck terminology. As a regional comparison, Fulbeck Borehole 5 records about 4.5–5 m containing three limestone units; “Y” is about 1.5–2 m above “X”. The upper unit is a hard, shelly bioclastic limestone with coarse shell debris and Kulindrichnus. Cenoceras is especially associated with the lower two units. This borehole subdivision gives context to the named marker and is not a measured thickness beside Long Lane. At Fulbeck, the third limestone is 0.20 m thick, with a possible 0.04 m nodular limestone band just below it. These measurements belong to that comparator section, not the Long Lane fields.
Mudstones above the Holm Farm Limestones
The Grantham regional account records about 4 m of mudstone between Holm Farm and Cross Lane. Several Fulbeck boreholes contain a thin limestone, about 0.07 m thick, roughly 2.5 m above the Holm Farm package; Gryphaea occurs in the intervening mudstones. This subordinate bed has not been assigned an invented local name.
Cross Lane Limestones
A separate package above Holm Farm, this marker consists regionally of several thin, hard, shelly limestones with abundant small bivalves and shell fragments. At Fulbeck it occupies roughly 1.5–2 m, with seven limestone beds in Borehole 5, commonly about 0.1 m individually. The more firmly cemented lower beds appear to produce the mapped feature. Gryphaea is rare in the published Grantham assemblage, unlike the richer oyster horizons higher in the member.
Mudstones above Cross Lane
In the Grantham reference succession, about 6 m of mudstone separates Cross Lane from Claypole, including a thin limestone or small group approximately 4 m above the base of the interval. This is a regional interbed relationship, not another exposed section on the walk.
Claypole Limestones
This is the lowest regional limestone package in which Gryphaea is common. The Melton synthesis records Gryphaea arcuata, Mactromya and the brachiopod Calcirhynchia. Fulbeck Borehole 5 provides a useful regional comparison: two limestone beds, each about 0.25 m thick, separated by 0.98 m of mudstone, with nodular limestone in its upper part. The limestone is grey, shelly and clay-rich; ditch sections near Claypole reach about 0.4 m in an individual bed.
The Claypole–Blackmires interval
About 8–9 m of mudstone is recorded regionally between these markers, with a subordinate bioclastic limestone or limestone group about 5.5 m above Claypole. The Grantham borehole fossils locate the first evidence for the bucklandi Biozone within this interval. That correlation does not mean every fragment of ammonite from a field can identify the boundary.
Blackmires Limestone
Hard grey shelly limestone, weathering brown, is associated with abundant oysters and conspicuous pentacrinoid debris. The regional Grantham record gives one to three limestone beds, with the most persistent up to about 0.4 m thick; Fulbeck Borehole 5 has a 0.3 m bed. Solitary corals are noteworthy: the Melton memoir spells the genus Montivaltia, whereas the Grantham account uses Montlivaltia, including Montlivaltia haimei. The latter spelling is used here; the source records have not been silently changed.
The Blackmires–Fen Farm interval
The regional separation is about 4–5 m of mudstone with one or two thin limestones in several Fulbeck boreholes. At Fulbeck 5 both are shelly and the lower is rich in crinoid debris. Isocrinus psilonoti and Lingula are recorded from the corresponding interval in Fulbeck 1. These are expressly borehole comparisons, not newly reported finds along the path.
Fen Farm Limestones
The highest limestone package marks the top of the Granby Member. Its regional brash contains abundant crinoid pieces, thin-shelled bivalves, oysters and Kulindrichnus. Fulbeck Borehole 5 records three limestone beds of 0.32, 0.12 and 0.15 m in upward order within a 1.39 m interval; the middle bed is packed with Gryphaea. Corals are less frequent here than in the Blackmires Limestone in the Melton account. The regional fauna indicates the conybeari Subbiozone of the bucklandi Biozone.
Granby fauna and trace fossils
Across the member, Liostrea is common in the lower limestones and Gryphaea arcuata becomes common from Claypole upwards. Other reported bivalves include Camptonectes, Cardinia, Plagiostoma, Pseudolimea and Pseudopecten; Mactromya is associated particularly with Claypole. Schlotheimia angulata occurs locally, and the gastropods Ptychomphalus and Pleurotomaria are sporadic. The bioclastic internal casts of Kulindrichnus, or “turnip stones”, can be common in dip-slope brash. This is a regional member assemblage, not one field’s fauna.
Beckingham Member
Mudstones above Fen Farm
Bluish-grey fissile mudstone, with few thin limestones, forms a regional interval averaging about 21 m in the Melton district. It extends from the highest Granby limestone to the base of the Stubton Limestones. The old name “Bucklandi Clays” is misleading as an age label because the member also contains younger semicostatum-zone beds. Its regional fauna includes Gryphaea arcuata, Pseudopecten, ammonites and scattered pentacrinoid fragments.
Dry Doddington Nodule Bed
The Melton account describes about 2 m of mudstone containing calcite-mudstone nodules between two thin bioclastic limestones. The nearby mapped belt is traced north of Plungar from SK 767 343 to SK 776 350 and also east of Stathern Lodge. It can produce a small scarp and scattered rounded nodules in the soil. In the Grantham reference area, many nodules are unfossiliferous, although some contain small Modiolus. A mapped feature and its brash are not a continuous exposed trench. The Grantham account describes typical nodule diameters of 0.05–0.20 m; these are regional nodule sizes, not a new bed thickness or a measurement along the walking route.
Lincoln Hill Limestone
The named marker lies immediately above the Dry Doddington interval in the regional succession. The Grantham memoir records 0.12 m at Fulbeck Borehole 5 and 0.30 m at Fulbeck Borehole 1, rather than a single universal thickness. Grey silty, shelly limestone with iron staining produces brash associated with abundant Gryphaea. It belongs to the early semicostatum Biozone. The Melton diagram includes this marker, but supplies no new measured thickness for the guide’s fields.
Phosphatic mudstones beneath Stubton
At the top of the member, immediately below the Stubton Limestones, mudstone contains numerous phosphate nodules and phosphatised ammonites. This association is unlike the lower Beckingham beds and becomes common in the overlying Foston Member. In the Grantham reference area, the uppermost metre has small, hard, elongated phosphatic nodules. Such concentrations are important evidence of slow accumulation and reworking, rather than a simple undisturbed living community.
Foston Member
The ferruginous limestone succession
The member averages about 35 m across the Melton district, with named limestone bands making up roughly a tenth of its thickness. It corresponds broadly to the former Ferruginous Limestone Series. The base is the Stubton Limestones; the top is the eroded contact below the Glebe Farm Bed of the Charmouth Mudstone. Published surface sections in the district commonly reveal no more than about 1 m, so the full regional thickness cannot be seen in a single field exposure.
Foston fauna and preservation
Recorded bivalves include Camptonectes, Cardinia, Gryphaea arcuata, Gryphaea maccullochii, Lucina, Oxytoma (recorded also as Pteria) inequivalvis, Protocardia, Pseudolimea and Pseudopecten. Arnioceras ammonites are generally common in the regional limestones. The beds become sandier upwards. Phosphate nodules pierced by minute borings, phosphatised ammonites, worn shells and iron-rich coatings record periods of condensation or reworking. The broad age is mainly Early Sinemurian; the possible highest obtusum-zone interval remains uncertain because of erosion above.
Stubton Limestones and Plungar Ironstone
About 1 m is described in the Melton account. These basal Foston beds were worked near Barkestone-le-Vale at SK 7785 3484 and SK 7833 3492 under the name Plungar Ironstone. They produce rusty, silty soil and orange-brown ferruginous limestone brash rich in Gryphaea, often abraded and bored. Some pieces contain goethitic ooids and irregular iron-hydroxide veins. The fossil assemblage suggests an early semicostatum Biozone, probably lyra Subbiozone, age. These are nearby historical workings, not verified collecting access points.
Lodge Farm Limestones
The Melton district development is about 3.5 m thick and makes a weak to moderate feature, including south of Plungar at SK 775 338. The brash is grey bioclastic limestone; published ditch material is hard, silty and pale-brown weathering, with many Gryphaea and Pseudopecten valves. Abraded and bored oysters and patches of iron hydroxide show that a shell-rich bed can have experienced reworking. Regional thickness varies: the Nottingham account cites a thinner, roughly 1.5 m package in Grantham boreholes, not a second local measurement to combine with the Melton value.
Fenton Limestone
This is generally a single bed less than 1 m thick, below the feature made by the Littlegate Limestones. It is an olive-grey, finely sandy or silty limestone, with pectinids and numerous small ammonites but relatively few Gryphaea. Its regional fauna indicates the scipionianum Subbiozone of the semicostatum Biozone. A scarcity of oysters therefore need not mean that a piece is unrelated to the fossiliferous Lias succession.
Littlegate Limestones
About 2 m thick regionally, these grey, clay-rich, shelly and iron-bearing limestones include Gryphaea maccullochii and Pseudopecten. The feature crest can lie in the underlying phosphate-rich mudstone, with limestone brash farther down its gentle slope. The beds contain the earliest belemnites recorded in this local Lias succession and have a resupinatum Subbiozone, semicostatum Biozone, age. The detailed exposed sections cited by BGS are along Dam Dyke near Hose, separate from the Long Lane route.
Nodules below the Mill Lane Limestones
A more persistent nodular mudstone lies directly below the locally disappearing Mill Lane limestone. Calcite-mudstone nodules with sparse Modiolus were recorded from ditch material at SK 7226 2818 and SK 7208 2809. Those published ditches are separate from the guide fields; the occurrence does not establish either an exposure or permission to enter them today.
Mill Lane Limestones
The limestone is impersistent, disappearing south-westwards in the Vale so that the underlying nodules may provide the more recognisable marker. BGS mapped a weak feature from SK 772 327 to SK 784 330, with finely sandy soil and little brash. Recorded fragments range from silty, finely sandy shelly limestone to very calcareous siltstone. Regional sandy levels are intensely burrowed with Chondrites and include Pholadomya. The fauna indicates a late semicostatum Biozone age.
Highfield Farm Limestones
About 1.5 m thick, these form a weak feature that may be concealed by slope deposits. Recorded slabs at SK 7722 3224, SK 7816 3325 and SK 7868 3362 are tough, platy and silty to slightly sandy, with a bluish-grey centre and yellow-brown weathering. Pyrite changes to brown ochre, leaving a pitted surface. Reworked phosphate nodules, abundant Gryphaea maccullochii, worn or bored oysters and pectinids are characteristic. The recorded fauna indicates the turneri Biozone.
Stragglethorpe Grange Limestone
The highest named Foston limestone is a single bed less than 1 m thick, producing a poorly defined gentle slope and little brash. Material from a ditch at SK 7728 3217 consists of compact, grey, silty to finely sandy shelly limestone, weathering pale brown. Gryphaea maccullochii, Pseudopecten and Hippopodium are numerous, but the published fauna is not zonally diagnostic. Its position is better established than its precise ammonite-zone age.
Other Foston horizon associations
The regional record places Calcirhynchia in the Stubton, Fenton and Mill Lane limestones, Spiriferina in the Fenton, Littlegate and Mill Lane limestones, and sporadic Pleurotomaria in the Stubton Limestones. These source identifications retain their published generic wording. They should be used with the bed’s lithology and a sound provenance, rather than treating an isolated brachiopod or gastropod as an automatic horizon marker.
Charmouth Mudstone Formation
The formation formerly called Brant Mudstone
The modern name is Charmouth Mudstone Formation. The Melton regional thickness is 110–130 m, mostly grey fissile mudstone containing calcite-mudstone, phosphate and sideritic nodules at several levels. Its erosive base is the Glebe Farm Bed; upwards it passes gradually into the more silty Dyrham Formation. The regional age extends from the Upper Sinemurian oxynotum Biozone towards the davoei–margaritatus boundary in the Pliensbachian, with some zonal intervals uncertain or unproved locally.
Glebe Farm Bed
The basal marker rests erosively on the Scunthorpe Mudstone and can produce a subdued feature, recorded near SK 781 328. It is a peloidal ironstone or pebbly ferruginous ooidal rock containing reworked phosphate and calcite-mudstone nodules. Iron-rich ooids in sideritic pieces are a useful recognition clue. Fossils or nodules reworked from underlying beds must not be used uncritically to date the enclosing Glebe Farm sediment.
Sand Beck Nodule Bed
Slightly above the Glebe Farm horizon, a historical ditch record at SK 7853 3286 yielded fragments of sideritic mudstone nodules about 5–10 cm across containing Gagaticeras. The ammonites indicate the oxynotum Biozone. The unit is hard to distinguish across the Melton district, and this one published occurrence should not be stretched into a visible continuous bed or a current access promise.
Brandon Sandstone
About 15 m above the regional base lies this fine-grained, micaceous, calcareous sandstone, estimated at up to 3 m thick. It is pale grey with buff weathering and abundant burrows, and may form a strong gentle slope covered by sandy brown soil with little recognisable brash. Older accounts call it “Sandrock”, but it is a different horizon from the upper Dyrham Sandrock. Copper Hill borehole ammonites place most of it in the raricostatoides Subbiozone of the raricostatum Biozone. The Muxlow Hill and River Smite exposures described in the memoir are separate reference localities.
Mudstones below the Loveden horizon
Roughly 25 m of mudstone separates the Brandon Sandstone from the Loveden Gryphaea Bed in the regional account. It includes phosphatic levels and beds with large, rounded argillaceous limestone nodules. These are meaningful features of the succession, but the figure does not provide a continuously measured thickness for the Long Lane route.
Loveden Gryphaea Bed
Boreholes show a 2–7 m fossiliferous interval of bluish-grey fissile calcareous mudstone, associated with a thin platy shelly limestone and abundant large Gryphaea maccullochii. It is a useful regional marker, correlated with the Midlands “70” Marker Member. The fauna examined in the Grantham work indicates the macdonnelli Subbiozone of the raricostatum Biozone. A small River Smite exposure described by BGS reveals only part of the interval, not its complete thickness.
Jericho Gryphaea Bed
Approximately 27 m above Loveden, this regional marker consists of about 1–2 m of grey oyster-rich mudstone with a thin platy bioclastic limestone and occasional calcite-mudstone nodules. Rare ditch material in the published account contains Gryphaea cf. gigantea; the qualification is retained because it is not a definite species identification. Copper Hill Borehole establishes a valdani Subbiozone, ibex Biozone, age. Neither that borehole nor the cited ditch is the field illustrated in the original guide.
Upper mudstones and the Dyrham transition
The higher mudstones gradually become more silty and sandy. The regional diagram shows uncertainty and unproved intervals in the ammonite-zone framework, so it must not be read as proof that every standard Pliensbachian zone is present in each field. The faulted Old Dalby railway and tunnel sections are separate occurrences and have not been inserted as a local measured continuation here.
Dyrham Formation
Silty and sandy beds of the escarpment
The Melton district thickness is 15–25 m. Lower beds include grey micaceous siltstone and very fine to fine sandstone, often weakly cemented and weathering ochreous. Sideritic nodules and impersistent harder fossiliferous sandstone or ferruginous limestone occur locally. The formation underlies the middle and lower slopes of the Belvoir Castle outlier and much of the wooded, landslipped scarp below the Marlstone. These regional relationships do not demonstrate an accessible face along the footpath.
Upper Dyrham Sandrock
An impersistent sandstone at the top of the formation is commonly up to about 5 m thick in the regional account and may be absent. Calcareous or ferruginous sandstone and shell-detrital rock occur in its brash; elsewhere the level is represented by a thin sandy ironstone. Older workers sometimes included this Sandrock with the Marlstone, but the current framework places it in Dyrham. The sharp contact seen in some reference quarries is not proof of an exposed contact at the guide route.
Regional Dyrham fossils
Historical district records include Astarte striata-sulcata, Protocardia cf. truncata, Pseudomonotis cf. substriata, Lima and Pecten. These are published names and qualifiers, not a new identification of the guide’s photographs. Microfossil evidence from the separate Brown’s Hill reference section supports a margaritatus Biozone age for its upper Sandrock.
Marlstone Rock Formation
The resistant iron-rich cap
Across the Melton district this formation is about 1–5 m thick and makes the prominent scarp overlooking the Vale. Shelly ooidal limestone or ironstone weathers rusty brown, giving orange-brown soils; a basal pebble bed is widespread regionally. Shell debris and iron minerals occur in varying proportions, and the original sideritic cement contributes to the weathered iron-rich appearance. Its resistance explains the high ground and its iron content explains the historical workings.
Fossils, age and the upper contact
The regional fauna includes clustered brachiopods Lobothyris punctata and Tetrarhynchia tetrahedra, often with Pseudopecten. Grantham and Brown’s Hill evidence shows that the formation extends from latest Pliensbachian into earliest Toarcian strata; labelling the whole unit Pliensbachian would be too simple. The memoir does not list Pleuroceras spinatum from the Melton district, even though that ammonite is known in the Grantham reference succession. A sharp, locally non-sequential contact with Whitby Mudstone is a regional observation, not a logged surface on this walk.
Whitby Mudstone Formation
Younger mudstones beyond the scarp
Formerly called Upper Lias, these mainly grey mudstones contain a few nodular limestones and calcareous siltstones, especially low in the succession. The Melton district average is about 55 m. They occur on higher ground beyond the Marlstone scarp and record quieter, deeper-water deposition in the Toarcian. The detailed Dumbleton Beds and basal fossil horizons described at Holwell belong to those separate workings and are not transferred to every Vale field.
Younger cover and the modern Vale
Much of the Vale carries thin veneers of slope-terrace deposits and younger head over the Lias bedrock. Repeated cold-climate slope movement, later soil movement and cultivation help explain mixed brash and patchy exposure. The Marlstone escarpment is also locally affected by landslides, including the wooded belt through Plungar and Barkestone and ground south-west of Belvoir Castle. These superficial deposits and slope movements are separate from the Jurassic bedrock succession, and no uniform cover thickness is implied.
References
Carney, J. N., Ambrose, K., Brandon, A., Lewis, M. A., Royles, C. P. and Sheppard, T. H. (2004). Geology of the country around Melton Mowbray. British Geological Survey, Sheet Description 142. Lias chapter, Figures 19–20 and the Vale’s superficial deposits.
Berridge, N. G., Pattison, J., Samuel, M. D. A., Brandon, A., Howard, A. S., Pharaoh, T. C. and Riley, N. J. (1999). Geology of the Grantham district. British Geological Survey memoir, sheet 127. Regional comparator sections, especially the Granby and Beckingham limestone markers.
Howard, A. S., Warrington, G., Carney, J. N., Ambrose, K., Young, S. R., Pharaoh, T. C. and Cheney, C. S. (2009). Geology of the Nottingham district. British Geological Survey memoir, sheet 126. Lias outcrop, brash and regional correlations.
BGS Lexicon: Scunthorpe Mudstone Formation; Barnstone Member; Barnby Member; Granby Member; Beckingham Member; Foston Member; Charmouth Mudstone Formation; Dyrham Formation.
SAFETY
Long Lane is a working country road and the original approach has no pavement. Watch for traffic and agricultural vehicles, keep children close and do not continue along a stretch that offers no safe walking space. Plan a route and distance that everyone can manage.
Fields and paths can be muddy or uneven, with concealed ditches, slippery banks, livestock and active farm machinery. Keep away from working equipment, give animals space and leave gates as you find them. Do not enter old workings or landslipped slopes to investigate a mapped bed.
EQUIPMENT
Walking boots, a current map, a charged phone and a hand lens are the essentials. For collecting specifically authorised by the landowner, take small bags or boxes, padding, labels and a notebook; mark each field separately. A camera and a small scale help record finds before they are moved. Surface searching needs no hammer, and a mapped ditch or limestone band is not a reason to excavate.
CLEANING AND TREATING
For lawfully collected loose specimens, start with a soft dry brush and keep the label with the fossil. Hard limestone pieces may tolerate gentle local cleaning, but clay-rich fragments can soften or fall apart when wetted. Test a small inconspicuous area first, avoid prolonged soaking and let damp pieces dry slowly at room temperature. Retain some surrounding matrix rather than polishing away its geological information.
Avoid acids, bleach and routine varnish: shell material and carbonate matrix can be damaged, and coatings conceal useful surfaces. Pieces showing pyrite or active powdering need dry storage and specialist assessment rather than repeated wet cleaning. Leave unusual ammonites, associated bones or delicate trace-fossil relationships unprepared until an experienced preparator or museum has assessed them.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
BGS: Melton Mowbray geology, including the Vale’s Lias marker beds
BGS: Grantham geology and reference sections for the named limestones
BGS: Nottingham geology and the western Vale’s Lias
BGS Lexicon: Charmouth Mudstone Formation and its older names
The Countryside Code: paths, farming and considerate access
ACCESS RIGHTS
Use public rights of way for the walk. Permission to use a footpath does not authorise leaving it to search privately farmed land or taking fossils from a field. Obtain the landowner’s permission for the specific ground and the collecting you intend, respect crops and livestock, and follow any current signs or restrictions.
The Vale covers many separate fields and properties, so there is no blanket collecting permission or conservation clearance for the whole area. Check the status of the exact ground before collecting; a historic fossil record or an old quarry name does not establish present access. Follow the UK Fossils Code of Conduct and Terms and Conditions as well as the landowner’s requirements.
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions‘
LINKS
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