Westbury Ironstone Quarry

Also within

Wiltshire County

Condition (Natural England)

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Ironstone

Description

Area, 0.56 ha. ac. Description This is a site of national importance as the type locality for the Upper Oxfordian Westbury Iron Ore, a localised ferruginous deposit whose stratigraphic relationships indicate shoaling, with marine oolites possibly lagoonal, with iron derived from rivers draining the northern and western shorelines of the London Brabant Landmass. The Upper Oxfordian Pseudocordata Zone and subzone is indicated here by several species of Ringsteadia, including the holotype of Ringsteadia pseudocordata, together with other ammonites including Perisphinctes subwartaeformis and Perisphinctes kirkdalensis. The fauna here also includes a bivalve assemblage dominated by the oyster Deltoideum delta, in association with Pleuromya, Nanogyra and Trigonia. The Westbury Ironstone is of keypalaeo environmental and palaeogeographic value, whilst its faunal assemblage demonstrates close affinities with Upper Oxfordian faunas in Dorset and northeastern France. Its ammonite fauna is of high stratigraphical importance and has implications for international correlations of the Pseudocordata Zone.