Turner's Hill

Site of Special Scientific Interest · 51.1025, -0.0894

Also within

West Sussex County

Condition (Natural England)

Unfavourable Declining (1)
UnitFeatureConditionArea (ha)Assessed
TQ338354 Unfavourable Declining 0.16 2019-07-24

Geology & landscape

Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Rock Type: Sandstone

Landscape processes: Fluvial

Description

Description At Turner’s Hill a disused quarry exposes the Ardingly Sandstone Member of the upper Lower Tunbridge Wells Formation upper Hastings Beds Group, Wealden Series. The near vertical plane cut walls and floor of this site provide excellent three dimensional sections through the sandstone. These sections display trough cross bedding also known as festoon bedding with cross bedded units up to one metre across and 30 centimetres deep as well as large scale ripples known as mega-ripples. Although this facies is common in the proximal northern area of the Ardingly Sandstone Member it is rarely seen to such advantage. The three dimensional display of these structures has provided detailed evidence of depositional parameters including flow direction and strength. This evidence has been important in constructing the overall palaeoenvironmental picture of the complex Ardingly Sandstone Member which has been interpreted as an alluvial braid plain with distributary channels.