| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 View towards Cold Ash Quarry | |
Location within Berkshire | |
 Location of Cold Ash Quarry. | |
| Location | Berkshire |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | SU 500 7141 |
| Coordinates | 51°26′20″N 1°16′55″W / 51.439°N 1.282°W / 51.439; -1.282 |
| Interest | Geological |
| Area | 0.4 hectares (0.99 acres)1 |
| Notification | 19841 |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Cold Ash Quarry is a 0.4-hectare (0.99-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Newbury in Berkshire.12 It is a Geological Conservation Review site.34
The quarry is unique in Britain for the collection of fossil plants and insects which occur in a layer of silt and clay within the Reading Beds. The fossils date to about 60 million years ago. The fossil flora consists of well-preserved angiosperm leaves, in some of these fossils there is evidence of the activity of contemporary leaf-miner insects. This is the only location in Britain at which fossil leaf-miner activity have been discovered.5
The site is private land with no public access.
References
References
- "Designated Sites View: Cold Ash Quarry". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- "Map of Cold Ash Quarry". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
- "Cold Ash (Palaeoentomology)". Geological Conservation Review. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- "Cold Ash (Tertiary Palaeobotany)". Geological Conservation Review. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
- "SITE NAME: COLD ASH QUARRY" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2017.