Bramerton Pits

Also within

Norfolk County THE BROADS National Park

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Quaternary

Description

Area, 0.5 ha 1.2 ac Description This site which consists of two disused gravel pits is notified for its geological interest. Bramerton Common Pit has been regarded as the type section for the Norwich Crag of Lower Pleistocene age since the last century. Blake’s Pit has recently been designated the type site for the Bramertonian temperate stage. At both localities sands, silts and gravels have yielded marine Mollusca together with rare non marine species, Foraminifera and vertebrates. Studies of pollen, Foraminifera and Mollusca from Blake’s Pit have demonstrated change from temperate Bramertonian to cold Pre Pastonian climatic conditions. A key locality of national importance to Pleistocene studies. The Bramerton Pit's with their marine ‘crag’ deposits are remarkable for their rich vertebrate fossils. The main fauna includes marine fishes, extinct voles, a gomphothene mastodont and an extinct otter. This is the only fauna definitely attributable to the Bramertonian Stage making this an outstanding site in our understanding of the succession of vertebrateparticularly mammalian faunas in the Pleistocene.