Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
Location | Worcestershire |
---|---|
Grid reference | SO996443 |
Interest | Geological |
Area | 0.12 hectares |
Notification | 1991 |
Location map | Magic Map |
Cropthorne New Inn Section is a 0.12-hectare (0.30-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cropthorne in Worcestershire.[1][2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.[3]
The site dates to the Ipswichian interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e) between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago. This was one of the warmest periods of the last half a million years, but there were no humans in Britain. The site has a rich array of mollusc and mammal fossils, including hippopotamus. There are a number of terraces of the River Avon laid down at different periods, and New Inn is a key site for determining their sequence, and for the Pleistocene stratigraphy of the Midlands generally.[1][4][5]
There is no public access to the site, which is a triangular area of scrub north of Main Road near the New Inn.