Family Fossil Hunt - August 2026

A quarry that wears its Jurassic seabed on the surface

Cross Hands Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and it earns that status honestly: the rock faces here mark the boundary between the Inferior and Great Oolite groups, laid down around 170 million years ago when a shallow, warm sea covered this part of the Cotswolds. The Clypeus Grit that runs through the quarry takes its name from Clypeus, a small irregular sea urchin that turns up here alongside brachiopods, bivalves, gastropods and the odd coral or serpulid worm.

Warwickshire Museum's Curator of Natural Sciences, Jon Radley, leads the hunt across freshly broken spoil heaps, with tools, safety goggles and specimen bags provided. The ground is uneven, with walking and climbing over the tips, so it suits ages seven and up rather than toddlers, and whatever you dig out is yours to keep.

Few places let you crack a rock open and hold something that was swimming in a warm sea 170 million years before the Cotswolds existed at all.

Thursday 27 August 2026 · Cross Hands Quarry, A44, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire GL56 0SP · Starts 11am