SMCC > Collections > Geology > Surrey Heath Museum

Surrey Heath Museum

Size: 1203 Specimens

Content:
British fossils with a much smaller number local to Surrey or Surrey Heath area.Many of the latter are probably local but not all are labelled as such.

These include chalk fossils from the Guildford area and from Frimley (derived), London Clay, fossil wood and plant material from the Bagshot Beds, sharks teeth from the (?) Bracklesham Beds, and one or two molluscs from (?)Barton Beds.

Mammoth molars and a piece of mammoth tusk were found in the local Blackwater Valley and are of Upper Pleistocene age, as is a fossil hippopotamus tooth from slightly warmer period interglacial deposits.

Apart from a general reference collection of rocks and minerals there are examples of local rocks and sediments such as the derived sarsens (ex Reading Beds) found on Surrey Heath, London Clay, Bagshot Beds (clean sands and iron rich 'boxstone' or 'carstone' concretions - St.Georges Hill), Bracklesham Beds ( brick clays, glauconitic green and variably coloured sands, and ironstone beds), and the Barton Beds (pebble beds,gravels and sands).

The overlying Pleistocene deposits include Plateau Gravels (Bagshot Heath),brickearths, boulder clay, and river terrace gravels. Local minerals include nodules of iron pyrite, siderite, limonite, and selenite from the outcropping formations.

Non-local fossils of interest here include some fine Lias (Jurassic) ammonites and chalk fossils, and a dinosaur footprint from Dorset and the vertebra from the backbone of an iguanodon (a Cretaceous dinosaur approx. 130 million years old).

Collectors:
Of historical importance: Dr.W.H.Curtis [circa. 1860-70's], Canon F.W.Galpin, Captain Dixon (a few specimens each); Cowling Collection

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