Southerham Grey Pit

Southerham Grey Pit

Site of Special Scientific Interest
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Location within East Sussex
Area of Search	East Sussex
Grid reference	TQ427090
Coordinates
Interest	Geological
Area	8.4 ha (21 acres)
Notification	1990 (1990)
Natural England website

Southerham Grey Pit is an 8.4 hectare (20.8 acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest, located in East Sussex, England. The site was notified in 1990 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Southerham Grey Pit exposes nearly the entire Chalk Marl and the lower half of the Grey Chalk (Cenomanian) and is the only inland section of these beds in southern England or northern France. The section includes beds which are regionally absent on a continent-wide scale and is of considerable importance to Cretaceous stratigraphy. Southerham Grey Pit yields abundant and well preserved bivalves and ammonites across the Lower-Middle Cenomanian boundary. These are absent elsewhere in Britain and are very important for regional correlation. Southerham Grey Pit is the single most important section in the Cenomanian Chalk Marl and Grey Chalk in western Europe.
The Lewes area has long been famous for the exceptional diversity of the fossil fish found in its Chalk pits. The region has provided the most representative collection of Chalk fish, and is only rivalled by Burham in Kent. Individual species from Lewes are frequently represented by large numbers of specimens, many of which comprise complete, articulated skeletons preserved without serious distortion. These have been the subject of much scientific research. Large numbers of specimens from the Lewes area have been described and figured, and it is the source of at least 27 type specimens.
This quarry is relatively recent, and it is therefore not the source quarry for the old collections on which these descriptions of chalk fish are based. However it is the last remaining source for fossil fish in this important area, yielding fish from both the Chalk Marl and Grey Chalk.