Hastingford Cutting

Site of Special Scientific Interest · 51.0129, 0.1699

Condition (Natural England)

Unfavourable No Change (1)
UnitFeatureConditionArea (ha)Assessed
TQ523259 Unfavourable No Change 0.04 2010-10-21

Geology & landscape

Rock Type: Sandstone

Description

Description A laneside exposure of the Hastings Beds Group here shows five metres of the top Ashdown Sand Formation and 0.75 metres of the basal Wadhurst Clay Formation. The site is important for showing a different fluviatile facies in the top Ashdown beds from that at Brede 31 kilometres east south east. Coarse sandstone with siliceous pebbles and fossil charcoal fragments fill a channel, which is interpreted as part of a braided system. The whole is overstepped by the Top Ashdown Pebble Bed horizon followed by the lenticular sandstones and clays of the Wadhurst Clay Formation interpreted as a lake/lagoon shoreface like the sequence at the Brede site.