Miller's Hill, Milborne Wick

Also within

Somerset County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Jurassic

Description

Area, 0.56 ha. 1.38 ac. Description Miller's Hill is located 650 metres west of the hamlet of Milborne Wick, approximately 5 kilometres north east of Sherborne. The site comprises rock exposures in the lane sides, the adjacent field north of the lane and land around a covered reservoir to the south of the lane. Miller's Hill is an important and historically famous locality for studies of Middle Jurassic Bajocian stratigraphy and palaeontology. In ascending order, the section exposes the Corton Denham Beds, the Miller's Hill Beds and the Sherborne Building Stone of the Inferior Oolite; this site is also the type locality for the Miller's Hill Beds. The complete section is over six metres thick and ranges from the Laeviuscula to Subfurcatum zones, but particular interest rests on the so called 'Astarte spissa' Bed. This level yields abundant well preserved fossil brachiopods and molluscs including a rich ammonite fauna of Humphresianum Zone, Cycloides Subzone age. This fauna includes macro and microconchs of Sphaeroceras, Poecilomorphus, Oppelia, Dorsetensia, Teloceras and Stephanoceras. No other site in Britain yields as rich a fauna of this age. Miller's Hill is a famous site of national significance, well known for its exposures of Inferior Oolite sediments and their associated fossils. The ammonite fossils from the Cycloides Subzone are of international significance for correlation and represent the most diverse faunas of this age known in Britain.