Budleigh Salterton fossils and fossil collecting
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Low
Fossils are found within the pebbles, these can be found all over the beach and come from the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Bed.
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Foreshore, Stream
Fossils are found in pebbles around the beach but also in the river. However, taking pebbles from the beach is not permitted here.
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SSSI - No Collecting
This site is an SSSI, you are not allowed to remove pebbles or fossils from this location.
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Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted. Please be aware that the mouth of the river Otter can be very deep and during winter storms can cut you off.
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Budleigh Salterton
Tide Times
UK Tidal data is owned by Crown Copyright, and therefore sadly we are not allowed to display tide times without paying expensive annual contracts. However we sell them via our store, including FREE POSTAGE
Click here to buy a tide table
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Last updated:
last visited:
Written by: |
09/06/08
1988
Alister and Alison Cruickshanks
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Geological Tools
A small hammer is all you need, simply split the pebbles near the River Otter. You need a good eye to correctly identify the reddish colour correct pebbles and look out for shells that appear to be shown on the surface of any pebbles. Fossils are quite hard and should be left inside the pebble for protection, there is no harm in wrapped for even better protection.
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Other Locations similar to Budleigh Salterton
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Budleigh Salterton is similar to Exmouth where similar fossils can be found.
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ou can find quartzite pebbles at this location, and these yield the fossils Lingula lesueuri and Orthis budleighensis.
In the Devonian rocks, fossils such as Cyrtospirifer verneuili and Homaloneotus sp. also occur.
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Triassic, 245mya |
Geology of the Exmouth area is part of the Dawlish Brecclias and Lower Sandstones. Sanidline fragments can be traced from the coast into the Credition Valley where they form the uppermost beds of a litho-facies succession. These beds form the basis of the Pebble bed. The Pebble Beds consist of a false-bedded sequence which is 70 to 80ft thick.
The Pebble Bed is made up of scattered sub-angular fragments of quartzite, grit and quartz intercalated with dark red and sometimes grey and buff sands. In Exeter and Newton Abbot districts: predominantly brown horizontally-bedded gravel with subordinate lenticular beds of trough cross-bedded pebbly sand and sand. The gravel is composed of well-rounded pebbles, cobbles and boulders in a coarse to fine gravel and silty sand matrix. The clasts are mainly (84 to 90%) metaquartzite together with porphyry, vein quartz, tourmalinite, and feldspathic conglomerate. From just south of Hillhead (ST 067 136), locally derived Devonian and Carboniferous clasts begin to appear. Near Milverton, the Formation is massive calcareous conglomerate with limestone clasts...[more]
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Stone Tumblers |
Compasses |
Test Sieves for Microfossils |
At Budleigh Salterton, there are many stones on the beach which
will look fantastic polished using a stone tumbler. You will need permission to take these stones as the site is an SSSI, however locations East and West of Budleigh Salterton you can pick up pebbles.
You can also polish rough rock and beach glass whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed.
These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples.
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When visiting locations such as Budleigh Salterton, a compass is most handy. A compass is a navigational instrument that enables you to find directions on the Earth. compasses consist of a magnetised pointer which moved to align itself accurately with the Earth's magnetic field. The cardinal compass points are north, south, east and west. Compasses are mostly enclosed with liquid compass in which a needle floats. Any instrument with a magnetised bar or a needle turning freely upon a pivot and pointing in a northerly and southerly direction can be considered a compass.
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Test Sieves are used when searching for microfossils. Microfossils can be found in many locations, and all you need is a small amount of sample such as clays, sands and shales, or if you have acid, limestone, oolite or chalk.
Our UKGE Store sells Endecotts Test Sieves, which are the highest in accuracy and extremely durable and long lasting. These Test Sieves are fantastic for microfossils. Endecotts Test Sieves come in a variety of sizes, frame material and types, they are fully certificated to EU Standards. |
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Our International Rock
and Fossil Magazine |
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From Exmouth, head towards Budleigh Salterton. Head to the East of the town, past the hospital and near the Nature Reserve. 
