Ramsholt Cliff

Also within

Suffolk County Suffolk Coast & Heaths Scenic Area King Charles Way - Felixstowe Ferry to Bawdsey National Trail

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Neogene

Description

Area, 2.1 ha. 5.1 ac. Description The Coralline Crag at this locality can be seen resting unconformably on irregular, erosional surface of London Clay and to be overstepped by Red Crag where it comes to rest directly on London Clay. At the base of the Coralline Crag the phosphorite deposit a 'coprolite bed' or 'Suffolk bone bed' can be seen. This is the only locality where the Coralline Crag phosphorite deposit can be examined and is also probably the only existing locality where the 'boxstones', phosphatic remnants of a Miocene formation can be seen in situ. The section at Ramsholt represents the most southerlyand, paleaoecologically, probably the most near shore Coralline Crag deposited in East Anglia. The fauna is rich and well preserved and contains a number of uncommon species. Amongst these the most notable are the Large Barnacle Balanus concavus, the Coral Cryptangia woodii and large colonies of the Bryozoan Turbicelle pora which forms the substrate for C. woodii. Many species of aragonitic mollusc are also found. This locality described by Charlesworth was the basis for his sub division of the Suffolk Crag deposits and for the distinction of the 'Coralline' Crag as a new and distinct stratigraphical division. This site is therefore of extreme importance historically and for the number of sedimentological and palaeontological features and exhibits.