Wenlock Edge at Presthope offers woodland walks beside limestone rich in crinoid debris, corals and brachiopods. This guide concerns the historic path-side exposure near the quarry fence, with nearby Knowle Quarry providing separate examples of reef growth and bedding. Check the current route and collecting conditions with the National Trust before disturbing material.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦♦ – Fossiliferous limestone is well documented beside the historic path exposure, especially crinoid debris, corals and brachiopods. Present exposure and authorised collecting vary.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦ – Supervised woodland walking can suit families, but steep slopes, steps, quarry edges and unstable rock need caution. Do not enter fenced workings.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦ – Free parking at Presthope; the official walks have uneven ground and some steep sections. The accessible short loop is not the same as the quarry-edge exposure route.
TYPE: – Path-side limestone and loose blocks near the old quarry landscape. Knowle’s educational faces and measured regional sections have separate geological records.
DIRECTIONS
♦ Use the National Trust Presthope car park on the B4371 towards Church Stretton, about 5 km south-west of Much Wenlock. The current official postcode is TF13 6DQ. Parking is free and listed as open 24 hours; the countryside visiting hours are dawn to dusk.
♦ The previous guide coordinate, 52.59327°N, 2.57304°W, lies near Much Wenlock and should not be used for Presthope parking or the fossil exposure. Consult the current information board and the National Trust’s official route descriptions on arrival.
♦ The current Lime Kiln Walk is the orange short route, about 0.96 km and 25–30 minutes, with steps and steep climbs. It returns through the lime kilns and Knowle Quarry. The Lea Quarry Walk is now pink, about 2.88 km and 45–60 minutes, continuing farther through the quarry-edge landscape and Blakeway Coppice.
♦ The old collecting description places the fossiliferous outcrop on the left when the fenced quarry is on the right. This matches the historical educational Site 6 on the Jack Mytton Pathway: from the north end of Knowle’s kilns, ascend to the crest, then continue about 200 m north along the western edge of Lea Quarry to the left-hand exposure. That dated account does not establish that today’s short orange loop reaches the exact same point.
♦ Use current signed paths and ask the National Trust about the exact exposure if its route is unclear. Do not substitute Knowle Quarry’s monument coordinate for the path face, cross a protective fence or enter Lea Quarry. Return by a known permitted route rather than an assumed circular connection.
FOSSIL HUNTING
The attraction of the historic path-side exposure is the abundance of skeletal material in limestone. Earlier observations record crinoid stem fragments, corals and brachiopods, with many loose blocks rich in small crinoid pieces. These group-level records are well supported; no exact species-level type or voucher has been established for this face. The old promise that every visitor would find something should not be read as a guarantee of present conditions.
Crinoid-rich limestone can be recognised by repeated disc-shaped or star-like columnal sections and occasional short stacks of stem pieces. Individual fragments may appear as pale shapes within a darker or more weathered matrix. The rock records broken skeletal debris as well as the organisms themselves, so a densely packed crinoidal block does not necessarily contain a complete sea lily waiting to be exposed.
Coral colonies can show repeated corallites and organised internal partitions. Look across more than one naturally exposed surface to distinguish a genuine colonial structure from irregular solution pits. Brachiopods may preserve ribbed valves, shell sections or moulds; small worn fragments often cannot be named confidently beyond their broad group. A hand lens and side-lit photograph can reveal more than forceful preparation.
The loose pieces beside the path may show different proportions of shells, crinoid debris, mud and crystalline calcite. Record those contrasts rather than assuming every block came from one measured bed. The formation and general marine setting are established, but a numbered bed log, local thickness and formal member assignment are not documented for this exact path face.
Knowle Quarry’s nearby educational faces are separate observation sites. The south face shows overlapping ballstone or reef masses with contrasting coarse and muddy surrounding beds. The west face shows reef limestone beneath bedded sediment, with small mounds and draping that help explain growth and compaction. Keep to the path and outside protective fences. Those faces should not be sampled merely because an older teaching sheet once permitted a handful of material at the different Site 6.
The wider Wenlock reef literature records many named corals, stromatoporoids, bryozoans and brachiopods, but those regional lists are not verified find lists for the path. In particular, do not identify a fossil as a famous Dudley species just because it occurs in the same formation. The detailed geology separates local observations, nearby Knowle features and regional biological interpretation.
Observation and photography are the appropriate starting point until current site-specific removal conditions are confirmed. Do not hammer the face, enlarge exposures, collect from a fenced area or enter the adjacent quarry. If the National Trust expressly permits a naturally loose piece to be taken, record the exact finding place, retain its matrix and protect delicate surfaces. Do not tumble or polish scientifically informative fossils: abrasive treatment removes the morphology and context needed for identification.
Significant discoveries, geological research and conservation milestones at Wenlock Edge.
1770 – Knowle Quarry on a historical map
The National Trust heritage record identifies “Presthope Knowle Quarry and Limerock” on a 1770 map of Westwood Common. This establishes documentary quarry history, not the first exposure or fossil discovery at the path-side locality.
1833–1839 – Regional descriptions by Murchison
Riding’s historical synthesis records Murchison’s descriptions of Wenlock Limestone and large ballstone masses, initially interpreted in concretionary terms. This is the history of the wider reef tract, not an exact Site 6 discovery.
1841 – Regional organic interpretation
According to Riding’s synthesis, Lyell recognised the organic significance of coral-bearing masses. The statement is attributed through the later synthesis; no type specimen or exact path-face discovery is inferred.
1846 – Knowle ownership and lease
The Earl of Bradford owned Knowle Quarry; Francis Price leased it and it was worked for Edward Hayward, according to the National Trust record. These are Knowle industrial records, separate from adjacent Lea Quarry.
1862 and later – Railway connection
KNO7 states that the railway had reached Much Wenlock by 1862 and was extended to Presthope soon afterwards. The source does not supply an exact year for that extension. The railway carried limestone away and coal towards the limeworks.
1880s – Hayward family succession
Letitia Hayward and her family succeeded Edward Hayward in the Knowle operation, as recorded by the National Trust.
Around 1900 – Mineral tramway
A mineral tramway was added to move stone to the Knowle lime kilns. This date concerns the local industrial transport system, not the age of the limestone exposure.
1911 – Hayes lease
Alfred Lucas Hayes leased the quarry and associated buildings. The recorded annual rent was £12 with a royalty of 3d per ton.
1914 – Regional growth-position evidence
GCR and Riding attribute to Crosfield and Johnston the recognition of reef organisms in growth position. Their wider reef work is not a measurement or specimen inventory from Site 6; the original paper is represented here through these later full syntheses.
1919 – Newton purchase
George Newton bought Knowle Quarry and cottage for £400 and then leased them to J. Henshaw.
Around 1920 – Surviving kiln bank
KNO7 describes the surviving bank as early twentieth century and uses about 1920 in its exercise. It separately says lime kilns had operated in the area for more than 500 years; this does not date every surviving structure.
1922 – Lime production
Bomun Fertilizers Ltd occupied Knowle Quarry and produced lime.
By 1926 – Road-chipping production
C. R. H. Kane owned Knowle Quarry and produced road chippings. The kilns also received stone from other quarries, so their activity is not a direct record of extraction from one face.
Late 1920s – Conflicting closure dates
The National Trust record’s summary says Knowle worked until 1927, while its detailed narrative places disuse in 1928. The disagreement is retained rather than selecting a false exact date. Neither date establishes the closure of Lea Quarry.
1945 – Sale of defunct limeworks
Newton’s heirs sold the defunct Presthope limeworks to Bernard Scott, according to the official heritage record.
1954; revised 1963; 1986 – Conservation designation
The official citation records Wenlock Edge SSSI notification in 1954, revision in 1963, and notification under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in 1986. These are designation milestones, not fossil discovery dates or a grant of collecting permission.
Mid-1960s – Last local kiln firing in the educational account
KNO7 states that the last kiln in the area was fired in the mid-1960s. This area-wide statement does not move the documented late-1920s closure of Old Knowle Quarry.
1968 – Presthope photographic catalogue record
Greig and colleagues’ memoir lists Geological Survey photograph A4196, a ballstone at Presthope Quarry. The publication date is not asserted as the photograph date, and the catalogue record does not identify the guide’s path face.
1970–1971 – Regional facies and reef studies
Hains’s 1970 memoir supplies separately located Presthope sections. GCR and Riding also discuss Shergold and Bassett’s facies work and Scoffin’s reef studies. Their regional results inform interpretation without creating a measured log at Site 6.
1981 – Riding’s regional synthesis
Riding reviewed the composition, structure and environmental setting of northern European Silurian reefs, including Wenlock Edge and its research history. This is a synthesis milestone, not a newly documented path-side fossil find.
2000 – GCR synthesis
The Geological Conservation Review’s Easthope–Harley Hill account assembled the wider reef-tract stratigraphy, facies and conservation significance. Its regional fauna and dimensions remain separate from the Presthope path exposure.
2007 – Original visit and dated quarry evidence
The UK Fossils guide records its original inspection in 2007. KNO7 separately reports Lea Quarry being mothballed in July 2007. Preserved photographs of quarry workings and a blasting sign are historical evidence; they do not establish present operations or a current blasting timetable.
2025 – Proposed nomenclature review
BGS Open Report OR/25/018 proposes revised Wenlock subdivisions but explicitly retains approval, installation and remapping issues. No proposed member is assigned to the exact fossil path face in this guide.
GEOLOGY
The Presthope path exposure belongs to the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation of Homerian age, within the Silurian Wenlock Series. This limestone forms the prominent Wenlock Edge escarpment, but the individual guide face is a small part of that much wider outcrop. Its formation identity does not establish a complete measured section, a named local member or every boundary known elsewhere along the Edge.
The rocks formed in a warm, shallow marine carbonate setting near the Midland Platform margin. Patch reefs and other carbonate buildups grew among muddier sediment and accumulations of broken skeletal material. Corals, stromatoporoids and bryozoans contributed to the regional reef communities, while binding organisms, early cement and trapped debris helped build and preserve the rock. This regional explanation provides context for the local fossiliferous limestone without claiming every named reef organism at the path.
Nearby Knowle Quarry illustrates how a buildup affected the surrounding seabed. At the south face, two reef masses have overlapping growth histories, while adjoining beds differ in grain size and shell content. Coarser sediment on one side and finer, muddier sediment on the other can reflect differences in currents and shelter around the reef. These are lateral relationships around local relief, not a compulsory vertical sequence for the path exposure.
The west face shows thinly bedded limestone above more massive reef limestone. Small coral mounds project above the reef surface, and draping of overlying beds is interpreted as differential compaction rather than a tectonic fold. A volcanic-ash line at reef termination is part of the historical educational interpretation there. It is not an independently correlated ash bed or a proved site-wide extinction event at the separate path face.
Quarrymen’s names such as Bluestone, Jack’s Soap, Measures and Gingerbread describe contrasting regional limestone facies. Their presence and order vary, and they are not four formal members that must be stacked at Presthope. Likewise, measurements from the Presthope tunnel, the quarry north of Presthope Farm or distant type sections cannot supply a missing thickness for Site 6. The detailed section preserves those records only under their own locations.
Historical quarrying exposed much of this geology and left the lime kilns and former transport routes visible today. The closure history of Old Knowle Quarry is distinct from later activity in Lea Quarry. Old gallery photographs of operational or blasting notices record past conditions; they do not establish present working arrangements. The geological overview below compares the actual local observation scopes without inventing a continuous log.
Detailed geology, fossils and stratigraphy of the Presthope path exposure and its separately scoped surroundings.
Much Wenlock Limestone Formation — Homerian (Wenlock, Silurian)
The path exposure. The fossiliferous limestone beside the Jack Mytton Pathway is a strong match to Site 6 in the UKRIGS Knowle Quarry field guide. Its historical approach runs uphill from the northern end of the lime kilns and then approximately 200 m north along the western edge of Lea Quarry, with the exposure on the left. This is separate from Knowle Quarry’s south and west educational faces. The present short orange walk has not been demonstrated to pass the exact same exposure.
At this path-side face, the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation is established, but a measured thickness, numbered bed succession, formal member, basal contact and upper contact are not documented. The irregular limestone and loose blocks must not be turned into a continuous measured column. Area-scale thicknesses and sections from the nearby tunnel or other quarries describe different exposures.
Fossils at the guide locality. Crinoid debris, corals and brachiopods are documented at group level. Weathering can make skeletal fragments stand out against the limestone matrix. Loose pieces are not tied to one numbered bed, and the retained specimen photographs do not have a verified species-by-species caption inventory. No exact path-face type specimen, accession or named species-level voucher is established by these sources.
The formation records warm, shallow marine carbonate deposition on the Midland Platform margin. Patch reefs grew among muddy and crinoidal sediment. Corals, stromatoporoids and bryozoans supplied skeletal frameworks, with microbial or algal binding and early cementation helping to stabilise them. Skeletal debris accumulated in cavities and around reef flanks; local relief and currents produced neighbouring coarse and muddy facies. This regional environmental interpretation supplies context for the fossiliferous path limestone.
The guide’s Homerian assignment belongs within the Wenlock Series of the Silurian. A stage assignment is not a directly measured numerical age for this face. Older educational statements of 400 or 420 million years and a general visitor-page approximation of 425 million years should not be treated as a dated local horizon. The upper formation’s regional transition into Elton siliciclastic rocks is not exposed as a proved contact in this path-side description.
Nearby Knowle Quarry, south face: Site 3. The educational section contains two unbedded reef masses, traditionally called ballstones, within bedded limestone. The larger reef is older and the smaller upper mass younger, although the younger mass coexisted with the upper part of the older reef. Their relative positions describe local reef growth rather than two formal stratigraphic members.
Beds to the left of the south-face reef are coarser and shellier; those to the right are finer grained and muddier. The field exercise interprets the contrast as stronger currents on one side and quieter, sheltered conditions on the other. It discusses muddy water as a possible influence on the reef’s dying-back lower parts. These are interpretations of that face, not a measured environmental change at Site 6.
The historical south-face exercise gives a bedding dip of 18° towards azimuth 160°, approximately south-southeast. That measurement belongs to Site 3. The broader viewpoint exercise illustrates the ridge’s scarp-and-vale landscape, with more resistant limestone standing above less resistant shaly rocks and generally eastward-dipping beds; neither observation supplies a newly measured dip for the fossil path face.
Nearby Knowle Quarry, west face: Site 4. Here unbedded reef limestone lies beneath thinly bedded limestone. Two small coral mounds project from a generally level reef top. The overlying beds drape over these mounds, an effect interpreted in the teaching guide as differential compaction during burial rather than tectonic folding. The guide instructs visitors to view from the path without crossing the protective fence.
KNO7 identifies a line at the termination of the west-face reef as volcanic ash and proposes ash smothering as an explanation for the end of growth. This is the educational interpretation of Site 4. It is not an independently dated or geochemically correlated bentonite marker at Site 6, and it does not demonstrate a single extinction event throughout Wenlock Edge.
Other Presthope exposures. Hains’s 1970 BGS memoir records approximately 27 m of historical “Reef Facies” in the Presthope area. This is an area-scale formation thickness under an older scheme, not the height or measured succession of the guide’s path face. The archival filename includes 1971, but the actual memoir is cited here as 1970.
At the western end of Presthope tunnel, SO58069743, Hains describes approximately 15 m of historical “Tickwood Beds”: nodular limestone with ballstones passes down into nodular limestone and silty mudstone. This is a separately located section. Its thickness, lower transition and historical unit name must not be assigned to Site 6.
A separate old quarry north of Presthope Farm, SO58089726, contains a crystalline-limestone pavement with large ripple marks. Hains also records a rich named fauna at Lilleshall Quarry, SO57389676. The latter is retained as a separate source locality rather than presented as a fossil checklist for the path.
The Geological Survey’s photographic catalogue, reproduced in Greig and colleagues’ 1968 memoir, lists A4196 as a ballstone in Wenlock Limestone at Presthope Quarry, Wenlock Edge. This is a historical photographic catalogue reference, not a fossil specimen accession. Its caption does not identify Site 6 or Edgefield; no photograph date or inspection of the actual catalogue image is claimed here.
Regional reef-tract facies. The GCR Easthope–Harley Hill account and Riding’s synthesis describe inter-reef bedded carbonates and unbedded biohermal mounds. Quarrymen’s names help explain their varying textures, but they are informal facies descriptions, not formal members at this path face. Their order and presence vary, so the following four names do not form a compulsory four-bed stack.
Bluestone is fossiliferous blue-grey muddy or crinoidal limestone, commonly in beds 5–25 cm thick, with dark shale intervals about 5–7 cm thick. These regional dimensions describe the facies, not a measured set of beds at Site 6.
Jack’s Soap is strongly nodular, irregular blue-grey limestone with thin shale partings, commonly no more than 5 cm. It generally contains fewer fossils than the more skeletal facies. This is an informal regional quarrying term.
Measures comprises relatively thick-bedded pale blue-grey argillaceous crinoidal limestone. Regional descriptions give beds up to about 30 cm and shale partings around 2 cm. These figures must not be added to the Bluestone dimensions to invent a local section thickness.
Gingerbread is coarse crinoidal skeletal limestone, pale when fresh but commonly brown, porous or honeycombed after decalcification. Its weathered appearance reflects removal of carbonate and does not by itself identify a unique stratigraphic horizon.
Regional reef organisms, not an exact-site checklist. The wider reef literature records tabulate corals including Heliolites, Favosites and Halysites; stromatoporoids Actinostroma, Stromatopora and Labechia; and bryozoans Hallopora, Rhombopora, Fistulipora and Fenestella. These named records explain the regional framework and are not verified finds from the guide’s path exposure.
Other regional reef components include branching rugose corals such as Entelophyllum, laminar tabulates Alveolites and Thecia, and small calcareous organisms including Girvanella, Rothpletzella and Wetheredella. GCR’s quoted counts of 32 brachiopod species, 17 corals and four stromatoporoids derive from Shergold and Bassett’s formation-wide study. They are not diversity totals for Site 6 or Knowle Quarry.
The official conservation citation notes that many species were first described from Wenlock Edge. It does not name a type species or specimen accession from this particular path or Knowle Quarry. The famous Dudley trilobite and Dudley’s member scheme therefore have no automatic place in this exact-locality fauna. Similarly, regional reef-size averages and exceptionally large Hilltop reefs are not measurements of Knowle’s masses.
Limits of member names. Historical Longville and Edgton members describe the non-reef tract southwest of Easthope, while Dudley’s Lower Quarried Limestone, Nodular Beds and Upper Quarried Limestone belong to another local scheme. Neither is imposed on Presthope’s reef facies. The 2025 BGS framework proposes revisions, including Wilderhope for the misleading Wenlock Edge use of Edgton, but explicitly says changes require approval and installation. It is a preliminary, internally reviewed framework, not an externally peer-reviewed settled replacement.
The 2025 proposal would place the Farley interval in the Coalbrookdale Formation and calls for remapping, whereas the live BGS Lexicon’s Tickwood entry retains it in the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation. This disagreement is retained as a regional nomenclature issue. It does not establish an exact member-level assignment at the guide’s path face, and the historical tunnel description is not silently renamed.
Observation and preservation. Loose fossiliferous limestone can lose its original bed context. Record whether a specimen was observed in place or loose, and photograph the face and surface before any authorised sampling. Tumbling removes diagnostic morphology, so it is unsuitable for informative fossil specimens. Gentle cleaning should preserve the skeletal surface and matrix relationships. Current official visitor access does not by itself grant removal permission; ask the National Trust about the exact location and activity.
Regional facies relationships in Riding’s synthesis. Riding describes an overall upward coarsening through facies A (Bluestone), B (Jack’s Soap), C (Measures) and D (Gingerbread), while emphasising considerable lateral and vertical variation. A dominates the inter-reef succession, grades down towards the underlying shale and encloses lenses of B; C and D occupy the upper approximately 7 m of the regional 29 m succession. Reefs are most common about 3–10 m below its top and rare low in A or within D. These are regional model dimensions, not a measured Presthope path section.
Southwest of Hilltop, Riding distinguishes off-reef facies E, fine bioclastic grainstone near the end of major reef development, and more distal facies F, thin limestone–shale alternations of argillaceous wackestone and mudstone. The earlier study subdivided F into lower tabular and upper nodular limestone. A thin basinward extension of the coarse crinoidal facies was recognised, followed regionally by the transition to Elton siltstones. This geographical framework does not place E or F at Site 6.
Regional bioherms in Riding’s synthesis average about 12 m across and 4.5 m thick; exceptional Hilltop examples reach about 100 m wide and 20 m thick. Their living surface relief was much less, from about 0.5 m on a reef 5 m across to about 3 m on the largest examples. The cited marginal growth slopes are approximately 15°. These figures describe regional reef geometry and must not be used as measurements of the Knowle masses.
Riding describes basal lenses of washed crinoid, bryozoan, brachiopod and coral debris, followed by growth upwards and outwards as overlapping lenses. Clay and micrite seams interrupted growth and offered surfaces for renewed lateral colonisation. Sharp inter-reef contacts and occasional coarse talus wedges record the margin; clay-rich layers, including bentonites in the regional studies, could indent or terminate parts of a reef. These observations explain a process, without correlating a particular clay seam to the Knowle teaching marker.
In the regional studies summarised by Riding, tabulate corals account for roughly 10–20% of reef volume. A succession from Halysites through Heliolites and Favosites to stromatoporoid-rich communities was interpreted as increasing water movement. Non-skeletal crusts range from a few millimetres to a few centimetres and line cavities or coat skeletons and sediment. Associated groups include crinoids, brachiopods, ostracods, foraminifers, gastropods and trilobites. These regional ecological records are not sample counts or a collecting checklist for the path.
Crosfield and Johnston’s regional comparison, quoted by Riding, reported more than 90% of corals and stromatoporoids in growth position within ballstone, versus 16% in adjacent stratified rocks. This historical comparison supports an organic reef interpretation; it is not a percentage measured at Site 6 or a new count of Knowle fossils.
References. UKRIGS ESO-S, Knowle Quarry, Shropshire: KS3 Field Exercises, KNO7 v0.5, pp. 2–7; Hains (1970), The geology of the Wenlock Edge area, British Geological Survey; Aldridge and colleagues (2000), British Silurian Stratigraphy, Geological Conservation Review 19, Easthope–Harley Hill account, pp. 245–249; Riding (1981), “Composition, structure and environmental setting of Silurian bioherms and biostromes in northern Europe”, SEPM Special Publication 30, pp. 41–83; Greig and colleagues (1968), Geology of the country around Church Stretton, Craven Arms, Wenlock Edge and Brown Clee, Appendix 3; BGS (2025), Open Report OR/25/018. Current access and industrial history use the National Trust visitor pages and Old Knowle Quarry heritage record; conservation history uses Natural England’s Wenlock Edge citation.
SAFETY
Stay clear of quarry edges, unstable faces and potential rockfall zones, and never cross a boundary or protective fence. Do not enter Lea Quarry or climb a bank to reach a fossiliferous block.
Expect mud, wet steps, uneven paths and steep wooded slopes. Wear footwear with good grip and supervise children closely. The signed accessible visitor loop is not a guarantee that a particular geological exposure is accessible.
Follow current National Trust and quarry signs, barriers and diversions. The old photographs include blasting information from an earlier visit; its timetable is not current operating guidance. Do not assume either active blasting or safe entry from that historic sign.
EQUIPMENT
A hand lens, camera, small scale and notebook are useful for recording fossils in naturally exposed limestone. Wear walking boots and take a current route map and clothing suited to the weather.
If specifically permitted to take a loose piece, use individual labels and soft wrapping in a rigid box. Projecting shell and coral structures can break even when the limestone feels hard. Hammers, chisels and quarry-entry equipment are unnecessary for observation from the paths.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Keep the original locality information and photograph the fossil before any cleaning. Begin with gentle dry brushing and examine the relationship between fossil and limestone under magnification. Avoid forcing a shell or coral from matrix that breaks with it.
Do not follow the old tumbling and polishing recipe for scientifically informative material: abrasion removes surface features and can erase the evidence needed for identification. Avoid acid, bleach and varnish. Leave unusual or fragile specimens unprepared for specialist advice.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
National Trust: current Wenlock Edge visitor information
National Trust: current orange Lime Kiln Walk
National Trust: current pink Lea Quarry Walk
UKRIGS: Knowle Quarry educational faces and the separate Jack Mytton Pathway site
Hains (1970): geology of the Wenlock Edge area
Geological Conservation Review: wider Wenlock reef-tract context
National Trust: Old Knowle Quarry history
Natural England: Wenlock Edge SSSI citation
ACCESS RIGHTS
The National Trust manages the Presthope visitor landscape and publishes current walking routes. Its invitation to look for fossils is not an unrestricted grant to remove them, sample bedrock or enter fenced workings. Ask about the exact path exposure and intended activity before disturbing material.
Wenlock Edge SSSI protects important geological and biological features. A general site name or heritage monument point does not settle the boundary or rights at every path and face. Keep the exact exposure, nearby Knowle educational sites and adjacent quarry separate when checking conditions.
The historical educational guide treated different stops differently: it prohibited specimen removal at one Knowle face while permitting a small amount at Site 6. That dated arrangement is not a verified current licence. Follow present signs and landowner conditions, keep dogs under close control and leave protected features intact.
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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