2026 Day 6 - This dig is on fire

By Finch Neville

I must admit that, after a very pleasant evening in the Rest, the café here at Court Farm, I overslept my alarm and consequently did not join the pre-breakfast dig. From what I hear, however, it was a tremendous success; multiple fish parts, an oyster, and the part and counterpart (the negative impression of a fossil) of an ammonite. All this material is greatly indicative of the richness of this site, and bodes well for the latter half of our dig in the coming week.  

Following the briefing and the daily group photo, I made my way to the site. Our excavator had returned to the original trench to uncover another layer of fossiliferous nodules, and so the team was deployed across both areas; some continued to reveal the stunning nodules in the second trench, while others - including myself - sifted through the material removed by the excavator looking for potential fossils. We also sorted through those nodules that had already been split; with a veritable profusion of exciting material discovered earlier in the dig, it was only natural that some nodules were not split down to the smallest possible fragments. Fortunately, while the trench was being cleared, there was ample time to go over the larger pieces carefully. This endeavour yielded some wonderful fish, ammonites, and belemnites, certainly proving worthwhile.  

ammonite

fish head with a black eyeball

ammonite

Our guests today were from the Etches Collection Museum of Jurassic Marine Life, located in Kimmeridge, Dorset, and included the eponymous Doctor Steve Etches, MBE. A former plumber who turned his hobby for fossil hunting into a publicly available collection of nearly 3,000 fossils, including a pilosaur skull that measures around two metres and is 95% complete, he has gained international renown and multiple awards for his work. 

Dr. Etches began by looking over the fossils already collected and stored, waiting for further preparation, before coming down to the dig site with his team. All were impressed by the site and the quality of its fossils. 

After lunch, as usual, the conditions got warmer and warmer, even in the relative shade of the second trench. By half past four, the dig site was closed and we returned to camp for a well-earned rest and a cool drink. It was not long, however, before our attention was once again drawn towards the fields surrounding the dig site. Low, wavering clouds of grey-black smoke, dancing on the heat-haze from the dry earth, could be seen drifting skyward from a field behind the trenches. It soon became apparent that a baler used by a contractor to compact the cut grass had set on fire. Accompanied occasionally by the staccato pops of the machine's tyres exploding, the blaze was fortunately soon under control, thanks to the prompt and highly professional response of the local fire brigade. I am relieved to report that no one was injured, and that, save for the baler, the only losses were a few hay bales. The dig can happily continue tomorrow as well.  

fire in the neighbouring field

After such unexpected developments, a hearty dinner of jacket potatoes was very much welcome. Some of the team went to watch the football game in a nearby pub - I'm told we won, apparently - while the rest of us enjoyed the cooler conditions in the peace of the campsite. 

Tomorrow, the Met Office hesitantly suggests, may be a few degrees cooler. I can only hope that is the case, so we can spend more time at the site. Both trenches are yielding magnificent results, and I cannot wait in particular to see all the uppermost nodules in trench two uncovered. Until then, as ever, stay tuned...

2026 Day 5 - Trench 2 and a surprise visit

by Finch Neville

The hottest day of the dig so far - peaking at 34 degrees in the shade, which is far warmer than an English summer has any right to be, especially when one is occupied in the energetic art of palaeontological digging. The usual activity of pre-breakfast excavation, commencing at half six yielded a few lovely specimens that were duly recorded and stored for future preparation and analysis. This site is, without a shadow of a doubt, entirely worth waking up at half five for, even if one does become tired rather early in the evening. 

The morning briefing revealed that the second dig site (the trench in the field behind the original excavation) was ready for operations to commence, with the plan being to locate the nodules just below the surface and reveal them in situ. Once the entire site has been prepared, photographs, plan drawings, and photogrammetry scans can be produced, allowing us to accurately map and visualise the fossil bed. 

work begins on trench 2

The update regarding the new trench was met with considerable excitement, as was to be expected; preliminary observations suggest the nodules are larger and more complete than those discovered previously. Suitably galvanised into action, the team was quickly down at the site, preparing the awnings that would protect us from the sun, and shoring up the ramp that provides entry. Being as it is a site for in situ excavation, the area has been divided into sections, with four people per segment; three diggers, who remove loose material, hack away the clay, and locate the nodules, and a supervisor who ensures the site is neat and tidy, as well as being in charge of spoil removal. 

I spent most of the morning on the original site, helping to locate the last of the nodules, but after lunch I made my presence known at the new trench, refreshed by food and cold water, as well as curious as to the progress made so far. Without wishing to be described as senationalist - I am not known for excessive exaggeration - you can earnestly trust my word when I say the area looked superb; a section was already being cleared at a sterling rate, with the nodules being revealed expertly; neat borders separated them from the surrounding clay. 

Tyler, an experienced fossil collecter from South Dorset, had discovered a large segment of excellently preserved fossil wood which extended between the nodules. Fossilised wood is extremely fragile and can crack if it dries too quickly. Fortunately, Alison - a skilled fossil preparator - was on hand to moisten the specimen with sponges, prolonging the drying process and reducing the chance of damage. Fossil wood is normally very thin in cross section due to being compressed by sediment, so a series of photographs were taken to ensure it would remain a valuable source of information even if it were unavailable for physical research. As mentioned earlier, all nodules and fossils located are being left in situ to help us better understand the environment. 

Matt, tyler and alison with the fossilised tree they’ve uncovered

sponging down the tree to prevent it drying out

Just before digging finished for the day, the site welcomed two highly distinguished visitors. Jakob Vinther, a Danish palaeontologist garnering international renown in the fields of palaeocolour and exceptional specimen preservation, came to look at the fossils already collected and was impressed by their quality. Also attending the dig was surprise visitor Alice Roberts, the anatomist, anthropologist and broadcaster, who was similarly enthused by the progress made so far.

alice roberts with nev and sally holingworth on day 5 of the dig

Thus ended another successful day of digging. The nodules in the new trench, I can happily confirm, are certainly larger than those found previously. While they won't be opened for a few days, there is a lot of other fantastically exciting work going on here at Court Farm. Stay tuned...

2026 Day 4 - Ancient trees and don't forget the spoil heap!

By Finch Neville

Another early start today; I was up at quarter to six, and by twenty past a team of us were on the site. The shade and cool conditions were excellent, and the usual combination of fish fragments, small ammonites, and flattened fish heads were soon being discovered. Manual excavations continued across the dig site, with some specimens also being found in the spoil heap - a long mound comprised of removed material and nodules that have already been split. 

After our daily briefing - little to report; keep up the good work, it would seem - we returned to the dig. By now it was already very warm, with the sun's reaches extending further and further under the gazebos that perched stiffly over the flattened bed of clay and partially revealed nodules. Despite the heat, work continued briskly, and fossils continued to be found throughout the late afternoon. I discovered a large fragment of fossilised wood - likely a cycad, a pinnate gymnosperm (similar in appearance to a palm tree) - which proved sufficiently interesting to be recorded. A lot of time was spent clearing and sorting through spoil, which is crucial as it helps ensure fossils are not left undiscovered. 

Fossilised wood, possibly from a cycad tree

 By lunchtime, the dig site was too warm to be excavated, and it was tidied up for tomorrow's activities. The afternoon was spent trying to stay cool and looking through the fossils found so far.  

Another early night tonight - in this heat, the best digging is done at dawn. As ever, who knows what we will discover tomorrow. Progress continues on the trench in the field behind the current dig site; stay tuned...

2026 Day 3 - More nodule talk and an ammonite's mouthparts

by Finch Neville

In Zoë's temporary absence, the task of writing these daily reports has fallen to me, Finch Neville. As an undergraduate palaeontologist at the University of Portsmouth, I think this site is absolutely thrilling, and it provides me with extremely useful experience as I am surrounded by experts in their fields. When not searching for fossils along the Hampshire coast (or attending lectures, naturally), I am a visitor assistant at the Museum in the Park, where some of the last dig's finds have previously been displayed.

Digging began earlier today due to predictions of even hotter weather later in the afternoon. The cooler conditions proved serendipitous, as there was an initial burst of discoveries - namely some well preserved fish skulls and ammonites.Two fish skulls were discovered in the clay by Max Dereme, a mollusc expert, to great excitement by the team.

As I got onto the site after the morning briefing, Mark Kemp was continuing his streak of excellent finds, having unearthed a Dapedium - a deep bodied fish with rhomboid scales. Unfortunately, the nodule containing the fossil had fragmented, but it was the work of half an hour to collect most of the pieces by sifting through the spoil. 

The excavator, despite disliking the heat as much as the rest of us, began to form a new trench in the field behind the existing site, which will be explored later on. With the main site not being extended for most of the day, there was ample opportunity to search deeper into the bed manually.

The process by which fresh nodules are uncovered is a complex but rewarding one, often involving several people. Using a pitchfork, or a mattock if the ground is particularly compacted, one palaeontologist probes carefully, feeling for the telltale resistance of a nodule. Once a nodule is located, a crew of two or three - suitably armed with trowels and hammers - remove the top layer of earth and excavate around the nodule. This allows its size, shape, and orientation to be determined. Following an assessment of the aforementioned characteristics, a mattock or crowbar is inserted underneath the nodule and it is carefully levered out, ready now to be split and have its prehistoric contents revealed. Smaller nodules can often be located and removed by a single person. 

Throughout the morning, nodules were found containing ammonites and the bones and scales of small fish. Many deathbeds, planes containing an eclectic mix of disarticulated fish remains, bivalves, ammonites, were also discovered.

After a long and pleasant lunch break to escape the sun at its highest, (although not its hottest, which occurs around five o'clock, when it beats down upon the dig site at a low enough angle that the gazebos can provide little shade), a smaller team returned to continue excavations. The best find was an ammonite aptychus, which in life would have been a component of the cephalopod's mouthparts and potentially aided in blocking the entrance to their shell when under attack. This fossil was exquisitely preserved and had a similarly excellent counterpart (the impression of the fossil on the opposing part of the nodule). 

ammonite aptychus discovered on day 3

Even the most ardent of palaeontologists cannot dig through dense clay in the stifling grip of the English summer sun without tiring, and by six the campsite was full once again. The Rest, a café at the farm, was opened for us in the evening and was soon busy - after that long in the field, everyone deserved a cool drink in a refreshingly air-conditioned room. 

Hoping to beat the worst of the heat - and possibly find a fish or two - I am turning in early tonight so I can be up for six. This dig site is fantastically rich in high quality specimens, and I can only guess at what will be discovered tomorrow. Stay tuned... 

2026 Day 2 - Icthyosaur vertebra and who wins the Biggest Nodule Competition?

mark kemp ‘the yorkshire fossil hunter’ with fish finds from day 2

I arrive in time for morning briefing, aware that I’m the only person who enjoyed the luxury of my own bed last night as everyone else is camping onsite for the duration of the dig. However, soon I’m not the only person who hasn’t slept under canvas as we are joined today by Dr Emily Swaby, a specialist in fossilised insects.

Emily was part of the original Court Farm dig as a PhD student. We’re excited that she’s back to help us identify any insects that may be uncovered. Even though we are working on the remains of a marine ecosystem, there is a plenty of fossilised wood around which tells us that there must have been land nearby. The team were lucky enough to find a rare example of a beetle during the 2022 dig – so there may be more to come.

Down onsite the digger is continuing to excavate the first trench, and we are able to continue our work at the other end, maintaining a safe distance from the heavy machinery. Having picked off the easy-to-spot nodules yesterday, today we are using our forks and picks to feel for hardened areas beneath the surface to dig out. Some nodules come away whole, while others have broken into pieces and seem to have channels running through them.

The team is determined to find a really good fish today. I am working on a section which seems to be yielding a lot of hard-to-split nodules with nothing much in them. There are excited cries when someone splits a nodule in half perfectly, only to find that it contains inert grey rock. We are also finding plenty of beautiful patterns of scattered fish scales and small bivalves, but by now we are used to these and we want something bigger and better.

At last it comes, the fish-hunter’s find of the morning goes to lucky Emily Swaby with this beautiful example in two halves. The fish is slightly raised from the surface of the rock, indicating that it’s not been completely flattened and there is some soft tissue preservation present.

Other impressive finds include an ichthyosaur vertebra found by Finch Neville, the first to be discovered on this site.

the first icthyosaur vertebra to be found onsite

There have been some beautiful ammonites today, such as this one with a crinoid star.

Ammonite and crinoid star

It’s very hot and even in unsealed bags in the shade, this morning’s specimens are starting to sweat, so Nigel gets them safely back to the cool finds room where they are unbagged and left to dry.

For me, I spend the afternoon slowly chipping away at one nodule which seems rather resistant to my chisel, but eventually starts opening up to reveal layer upon layer of fish scales. In the meantime, Max is working hard to uncover what he hopes is going to win the prize for biggest nodule. There’s not actually a prize for biggest nodule yet, but Nev concedes that he may come up with one if Max’s nodule is deemed worthy. Despite best efforts, it doesn’t all come out of the ground in one piece, and I am just leaving for the day as the team starts to chisel away at the pieces.

Max’s contender for the largest nodule competition

It's been another great day onsite. I’m back again on Friday, so for the next two days Finch will be taking over the blog to share finds and reports.

2026 Day 1 - We're back! And the fish greet us with a smile.

by Zoe Wilcox, Documentation and Collections Officer

Four years after the original excavation which yielded such incredible Jurassic fish finds, a larger team has assembled for a second go at hunting down palaeontological treasure. Dr Neville and Sally Hollingworth (of Cerney Wick mammoth-hunting fame) are back with Nigel Larkin and an expanded team for a 2 week dig at Court Farm, King’s Stanley. This is being made possible thanks to Adam Knight, who has let our band of sweaty, muddy experts back onto his land to see what more can be uncovered. In the fullness of time, the finds will be donated to the Museum in the Park so that they are publicly accessible and available for scientific research.

team photo day 1

The aim of this year’s dig is to go further into the Jurassic beds, while at the same time teaching novices such as myself practical field skills such as nodule splitting and fossil identification. I wasn’t at the Museum last time around, so this is my chance to learn some real-world geological skills whilst rubbing shoulders with experts who are joining us from far and wide. I’m a bit nervous about the chiselling to be honest, but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it. Together with my museum colleague Finch Neville (who, as a palaeo undergrad, has far better credentials for this than I do) we will be providing you with a daily update on the dig.

Day 1 - Monday

We start with a safety briefing and induction and the obligatory team photo with our specially-created sign.

Day 1 is to be a relatively slow day for the majority of the team as the digger moves in to open up a trench. The plan is to dig parallel to the trench from 2022, as well as excavating a section going into the hillside at 90 degrees to enable the team to properly stratify the different layers. Even before we start work formally, a few fish have been discovered in the discard pile from the 2022 dig, so excitement is mounting.

For safety reasons we can’t do a lot on the dig site while the initial excavation is being done, so we spend some time examining the finds from 2022 and showing them to those who are new to the site to help us all ‘get our eye in’. Sally is re-united with the eye-popping pachycormus fish head (the star find which started off this whole process), which she hasn’t seen since donating it to the Museum. I’m happy to see the fish too as it’s been at Bristol University for the last year being micro CT scanned, so I’m happy to have it back.

examining the 2022 finds, including the famous pachycormus (bottom left)

After a coffee break we head down to the site and start setting up a documentation, washing and drying station in the shade of the barn. It’s already extremely hot and the weather forecast tells us that the temperature is set to rise to the mid 30s by the end of the week, so keeping ourselves cool is going to be important. Meanwhile, the rest of the team brave the heat and go up the hill for a fossil walk to see some sandy beds where ammonites have been found.

temporary documentation station to record our first finds as we continue to set up

By early afternoon, the digger has stopped work for the day and we are able to get into the trench, mark up sections and start splitting nodules. Nodules are the rounded lumps of hardened mineral layers that stand out from the rock or mud around them. Standing on the Jurassic bed, it’s easy to see the yellowish nodules peeking out from the dirt.

a nodule from the jurassic bed

nodule splitting tutorial with neville

Neville gives us a tutorial on splitting the nodules and we get to work, with our gloves and safety glasses on. There is a first flurry of little finds and we rush to share out the documentation roles so that we can number it, register each one in the finds book and ensure it is photographed. I find myself responsible for the fiddly task of putting each raffle ticket used to number the finds into a tiny plastic bag and handing it to the finder with instructions not to let go lest it blow away in the breeze.

Straight away we are uncovering scatterings of fish debris, scales and fossilised wood. I manage to split a small rock and find a tiny bivalve shell.

Then, a cry goes up from Julian at the end of the trench who has found a beautiful example of a preserved fish head. He has christened it ‘Smiler’ as it does indeed seem to be smiling out at us, happy to see life again after 180 million years or so.

‘smiling fish’ found by julian moore

Not longer after that, it’s time for me to pack up and head home. It’s been a really encouraging first day. I check the finds list online when I get home and see that the first few hours of digging have yielded 28 specimens including some rather long unfamiliar Latin names that I shall have to look up! I wonder what tomorrow will bring…

fish found on day 1 (tetragonalepis semicincta)

Fossil fish on display - and a chance to see the eye-popping pachycormus!

Fossil fish from the jurassic seas: finds from court farm, king’s stanley. on display at the museum in the park until 29 september 2024.

We’re delighted to announce that a small selection of the fossil fish from King’s Stanley are now on display at the Museum in the Park until 29 September 2024. Come and see a food chain frozen in time, complete with fossilised droppings and fishy stomach contents!

Pride of place is the pachycormus fish fossil on loan from Sally and Neville Hollingworth - so don’t miss this chance to see the incredible 3D fossil which prompted the big dig at Court Farm. And if you’re not able to come along in person, check out this 3D virtual model of the pachycormus produced by Steven Dey of ThinkSee3D Ltd.

Pachycormus (Lower-res) by ThinkSee3D on Sketchfab

Postscript - Conserving the fossil fish

We have been quiet over the last 18 months since the discovery of nearly 150 Early Jurassic fossils at Court Farm, but that’s not to say that we haven’t been busy behind the scenes. We’re delighted to announce that the specimens found at this site have been conserved with thanks to generous assistance from the AIM Pilgrim Trust Remedial Conservation grant and the Curry Fund of the Geologists’ Association (www.geologistsassociation.org.uk).

Specialist conservator Nigel Larkin – a member of the original dig team - has been hard at work with expert fossil hunters Sally and Nev Hollingworth, removing mud from the specimens and painstakingly conserving and preparing them for further study and display.

Of the 147 specimens found, all required cleaning. Some specimens required conservation (not least because some of the fossils were found by splitting nodules) and many of the fossils required some mechanical preparation to remove enclosing matrix and reveal more of the specimen to aid in their identification.

Here are a few examples of the type of work undertaken – with thanks to Nigel for sharing his photographs and descriptions of the treatment.

Some specimens were broken during splitting so repairs have been undertaken with an acrylic resin called Paraloid B72 which is often used in museum conservation as any treatment is reversible.

a fossil fish skeleton that required repair

This fish skeleton had a bivalve mollusc preserved with it. This slab containing the specimens was in two pieces so was adhered together.

Some of the fossils were preserved in slabs of matrix that were much larger than necessary so some of the excess rock has been trimmed from such specimens for easier storage and handling. In some cases, the fossils themselves were partially obscured by matrix. These specimens have been mechanically prepared under magnification using pneumatic preparation pens with reciprocating needles and/or with a pneumatic airbrasive unit.

Examples of specimens being prepared (removing matrix to expose more of the fossil) – before and after

the whole surface of this large nodule was prepared away to reveal the ammonite.

at the other end of the scale this tiny fish skull (less than 20mm long) was also prepared

And here are a few more interesting examples of specimens which have been cleaned and prepared.

Prepared small fish skeleton

Some specimens which were split in the field have provided a part and counterpart. This fish below has been exquisitely preserved, even down to what appears to be its stomach contents – thereby providing further evidence of the food chain of this ecosystem.

Example of one of the fish fossils preserved as part and counterpart.

Above is a coprolite (fossilised dropping) in a nodule. It has not been glued together as that would reduce the ability to study the contents of the specimen.

Now that the specimens have been conserved, labelled, packed in archival card trays and safely returned to the Museum, our next step will be to catalogue them. Further academic study will be undertaken to identify the fossils and better understand this rare example of an Early Jurassic marine ecosystem.

We are also still awaiting the insect specimens which are being independently studied by Emily Swaby of the Open University and we’re looking forward to learning more about these – the very presence of them in a marine environment suggests that land must have been nearby.

Lastly, we are planning to put a selection of the finds on display at the Museum in the Park soon. Watch this space and we will let you know when dates are confirmed.

Blog by Zoë Wilcox, Documentation and Collections Officer

Day 4 - Saturday

A slightly different start today, as we assemble at the Boho Bakery first thing to meet with Pennie, the café owner, to discuss holding a public event to share our findings further down the line. Pennie is full of enthusiasm for the dig, and for the possibilities for events, and even perhaps school engagement in the future, and we all come away from the meeting with a spring in our step – whilst we’ve not found exactly what we might have been hoping for in the finds so far, the enthusiasm from Pennie on seeing our discoveries has given us all a boost and reminded us that we do have some really nice finds and that other people will enjoy seeing them too.

Back on site we extend the excavation to the 80m mark, uncovering more nodules and lumps of stone for splitting. Dean makes today’s star find – another exquisitely preserved fish. Later in the day we are joined by Steven Dey – an expert in imaging and 3 modelling. He photographs the Pachycormus found by Nev and Sally prior to this excavation in order to create a 3d scan of it from which models can be made, and uses a drone to record film and still photographs of the site from above – watching him work and seeing the site from the air is a good reminder of just how much we’ve accomplished in the last few days.

Fossil fish - Part & Counterpart (c) Dean Lomax

We begin packing up the finds and all the equipment from the site, and looking back through the finds catalogue I can see that I have recorded 147 items in total. Some of these will be used to make a display in the café, some will be retained for use with schools/children and some will be stabilised, prepared, researched and published before making their way into the museum’s collections. Whilst we didn’t find a whole ichthyosaur (or Adam’s T Rex!) we do have material with a lot of potential for expanding the stories the museum can tell of life in the Stroud District in the Jurassic era.

Finds catalogue

On a personal level I have also had the opportunity to learn a huge amount from real experts in their respective fields, and take part in a palaeontological excavation which is something I’ve never done before. It was a privilege to be invited to be a part of the team and whilst I’m tired enough to want to sleep for a week, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

And, this was all really only the start of the journey. Now the finds have to be cleaned, prepared, written up and then some of them will come to the museum for display. Before that though, we’re planning a fossil fishing family fun day at the farm in October – meet the experts, have fossils you’ve found identified, and maybe even have a go at fossil hunting on this very special site. Keep an eye on our What’s On calendar for more information.

With thanks to the Geologists Association Curry Fund for financing part of the excavations, to Adam for giving us access to his land and being so accommodating, and to Pennie & Dave and their team at Boho Bakery for keeping us caffeinated and hydrated, and for their enthusiasm and interest in the whole process and its outcomes.

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer

Day 3 - Friday

Today we are joined on site by Owen – a palaeontologist and primary school teacher – who is keen to help with splitting the rocks, and crucially also has the knowledge and experience to know whether the rocks he splits contain anything of interest.

We also have another Emily with us today – this Emily is still at school, but has been involved in digs with Nev for over a decade and is interested in pursuing a career in palaeontology in the future. In order to give her the broadest possible experience she is put to work on all areas of the dig – picking nodules from the mechanical excavation, field walking, scrubbing and splitting rocks, documentation and David also takes the time to explain his extraordinary sieving and washing machine to her. He believes he will have processed around 200kg of sediment by the time we leave site.

We find more bits of ammonite and several bivalves, more blocks of ‘fish debris’, and a few more small fossil fish today – interestingly we’re finding more heads than bodies which leads to speculation about whether we’re seeing the remains of a larger creature’s lunch! Then, just after our lunch break, a cheer goes up from those splitting rocks up on the bank. Nev has split a rock containing an absolutely beautiful fossilised fish. The level of preservation is astonishing – scales, bones, fins and even the eyeball is visible – and there is a suggestion that under a microscope it is possible there will even be some evidence of the creature’s stomach contents when it died. The stone splitters continue their work with a noticeable upturn in enthusiasm and energy – everyone is hoping there are more fish to come.

NEv’s Fossil fish (C) Dean Lomax

By the end of the day we’re about 65 metres along the bank, but no more star finds have been made – still, tomorrow is another day and we’re all holding out hope for more substantial remains.

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer

Day 2 - Thursday

Arriving on site and seeing the huge pile of nodules waiting to be cleaned, split and recorded is a little daunting, though this is tempered by the excitement of waiting to see what we might find. We crack on immediately (if you’ll forgive the pun) – hauling stone nodules off the site and piling them up to be cleaned and split whilst other members of the team supervise the digger and pile up yet more freshly excavated nodules and lumps of stone to be dealt with.

Rock Splitting

Fossiliferous Limestone

Emily has brought a professor from the Open University with her today – an expert in sedimentology and stratigraphy and they spend much of the day recording information about the different layers in the excavated exposure. Emily also records the first insect finds from the site – a tiny beetle, sadly it’s missing its head so we’re unable to establish if it’s John, Paul, George or Ringo!

We discover today that in addition to the nodules there are flatter lumps of laminated stone which split much more easily and seem more likely to contain what we’re now calling ‘miscellaneous fish debris’ – tiny accumulations of material which will be better understood when we can see it under a lens!

Todays finds include more ammonite impressions, some coprolites and excitingly, the first piece of something which could be ichthyosaur – Dean thinks it could be a piece of rostrum (jaw), though it’ll need closer examination to be sure. We also have the first find of a fish – a tiny little fish which for right now we’re affectionately calling a sardine!

Adam, the landowner, pops down a couple of times today to see what we’ve found and utters the quote which is sure to make the press release: ‘Sod the sardines, where’s my T-Rex!’

Sardine

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer

Day 1 - Wednesday

We meet at the Boho Bakery – a café near to our excavation site at 9am for introductions and a safety briefing.

The team consists of:

·         Sally & Nev Hollingworth who discovered the site, but are best known for discovering the mammoth site at Cerney Wick last year

·         Dean Lomax from the University of Manchester. Famed for his work on the Rutland Ichthyosaur, Dean is a renowned palaeontologist and writer, and is familiar with the Museum having looked at our collections for his book ‘Dinosaurs of the British Isles’ published in 2014

·         Nigel Larkin, geological curator, conservator, preparator and all-round expert in all things Natural Science. I have worked with Nigel before on reports concerning the Museum’s collections, so he too is a familiar face

·         David & Alison Ward – experts in fossil sharks, from the Natural History Museum

·         Emily Swaby a PhD student from the open university who is studying fossil insects from the Toarcian stage of the early Jurassic

Throughout our time on site we will be joined by other people, but this is the core team.

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer

The team

Having seen the amazing fossils Sally & Nev have already discovered at the site we’re all excited to get going so we make our way down to the site and meet Pat – the digger driver. Nev outlines his plan for the week, and we begin by field-walking the area to be excavated picking up bits of belemnite and ammonite, as well as marking the length of the bank out into 10m sections.

Pachycormus - Found by Sally and nev in advance of the dig

I set up a documentation station ready to record the finds as they’re made – we’ll be recording the location the find was made, the type of fossil and any other pertinent information we can see, as well as allocating each find a unique number.

David and Alison are assembling a very complicated system of tanks, hoses and buckets – I think the intention is to gather samples of earth or clay and then to wash and sieve it in order to search for tiny fossils and other material which could be missed by the excavation techniques employed elsewhere on site.

The digger starts scraping back the soil and almost immediately round nodules of limestone are being exposed. The first of these to be split reveals a beautiful section of fossilised wood, and anticipation is high for what we might find next.

Fossil Wood from the first nodule to be split

The nodules are placed in buckets and taken down to a base camp under the eaves of the barn for cleaning, splitting and recording. I get involved in scrubbing the clay off the nodules, but I’m not quite brave enough (and also much too clumsy) to be trusted with a lump hammer and chisel, so I don my safety glasses and watch the experts split the rocks from a safe distance.

As the only non-palaeontologist on site I am very much the novice and there’s lots to learn. However, when small fragments of pottery, glass and clay pipe are found I am suddenly the expert! Sadly none of these finds are worthy of recording in my site catalogue.

As the day progresses we find lots of nodules with the impression or mould of an ammonite on the top, but save for blocks with many tiny pieces of fish scale and bone, actual fossils are few and far between and we’ve certainly not seen anything like the finds Sally and Nev showed us earlier. We’re also finding that the stone is much harder than we expected – unlike most of the limestone around here which is soft and easy to cut, these nodules have a hard grey centre, and the splitters really have their work cut out for them. By late afternoon, the area by the barn resembles the work site of a chain-gang!

Ammonite Impression

We call it quits at around 5pm having excavated about 25 metres along the bank and created an enormous pile of stone nodules for processing. We agree arrangements to be back on site at 8.30 tomorrow with renewed vigour and excitement for what we’ll find as we continue to excavate.

Introduction

In April 2022 I received a very interesting email letting me know about a site of Palaeontological interest recently discovered in the Stroud District. The initial contact was just to let me know about the existence of the site, but things developed quickly from there and before I knew it I was informed that there was going to be an excavation, and asked firstly if the museum would be able to house any finds and secondly if I’d like to take part. Wow! I’ve never been involved in this sort of thing before, but I was sent a couple of pictures of fossils already found at the site and I was hooked (if you’ll forgive the pun!).

Jump forward to late July and I had secured for a pot of funding to support the cost of a JCB and cover the expenses for some of Britain’s foremost palaeontologists to take part, purchased a pair of safety goggles, and been very cryptic with a very small number of colleagues about what was about to take place.

This project wouldn’t have been possible without the assistance of the Geologists’ Association Curry Fund who helped to finance the excavation phase. All members of the excavation team are also indebted to Adam, the farmer, for allowing us access to his land, and to Pennie and Dave at the Boho Bakery for keeping us caffeinated and hydrated throughout the dig!

Photo shows the excavation site (c) Steven Dey

Blog by Alexia Clark, Documentation & Collections Officer