Ashdown Brickworks Site: Jurassic Park?

Bexhill is famous for its Dinosaur remains, most of which are housed in the Bexhill Museum which has recently announced that it is planning a new special "Dinosaur Gallery" to display its large and important collection of these treasures to the public.

The main source of these remains, apart from the beach; is not well-known: it is the Ashdown Brickworks in Turkey Road, which is currently proposed for a waste landfill.

Geologists and archaeologists have been making ‘digs’ or fossil hunting in the Ashdown Quarries for over 30 years; employees at the site also often spot dinosaur bones as they go about their tasks. What is found is invariably handed over to Bexhill Museum, though sometimes casts are first made by the collectors

The quarry pits, of which there are two, are part of the Wadhurst Clay Formation, interlaced with the Tunbridge Wells Sands, which date from the Lower Cretaceous period when Ashdown was part of a prehistoric lagoon, about 135 million years ago. Such geological strata are distinguished for their remains of dinosaurs and reptiles.

Bones of many different reptiles and types of dinosaur have been found at Ashdown, mostly in 3 ‘beds’ around the Northiam Sandstone in the Pevensey Pit. Museum employees and volunteers have accompanied members of Hastings and Wealden Geological groups on many ‘digs’ at the site, but these have, until now, been shrouded in secrecy, the site-owners, Ibstock Brick, requiring the participants not to reveal the source of their discoveries.

BALI, the group opposing the landfill at Ashdown Brickwork, has known about these finds for many years but have co-operated in keeping their source secret. However, they have now been publicly revealed by a lengthy, recent (February 2010) article in Wealden News, the newsletter of Wealden Geology, entitled “Vertebrae found from Ashdown Brickworks, Bexhill” (download is a pdf file). The article contains detailed information and beautiful illustrations of many of the prehistoric finds made at Ashdown.


The article states that over the past 20 years “Ashdown Brickworks has yielded an impressive array of vertebrae material” and that Bexhill Museum’s collection (from Ashdown) is an “important collection” containing a number of “new species”.

The lowest bed (Turtle Bed) has yielded mainly the remains of turtles and crocodiles. The next bed ( Conglomerate Bed ) has mainly produced not only the vertebrae of prehistoric fishes, salamanders, aigialosaurs and again turtles and crocodiles, but also dinosaurs such as Iguanodon, Polacanthus and Hylaeosarous.The first teeth ever to be found in the UK of the armoured dinosaur Polecanthus were also discovered in this bed. The highest bed (Polacanthus bed) has produced substantial remains of a single large Polacanthus and an Iguanodon.

The full list of species from the recent finds is contained in the Wealden News article. But there have been previous finds, particularly in 1999 and 2000, not only of an Iguanodon but also Baryonyx, Ornithodesmus, a Megalosaur and a Dromaeosaur.

So far only a small section of the Ashdown site has been investigated and there are strong grounds to believe there are many more important finds to be made at the site. It is understood that attempts have been made for the site to be “set aside” as nationally important and these may be renewed in the light of recent discoveries. Recently a working quarry in Bicester (Oxfordshire) was granted SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) status as a result of its distinctive dinosaur tracks and foot prints. Dr Helen Phillips, chief executive of Natural England said at the time: “Geological sites of this quality are few and far between and we are delighted to give this important window on our past the protection it deserves”.

Whether Ashdown could be given SSSI status for similar reasons is for now purely speculative. The adjacent Highwoods already are an SSSI and perhaps its designation might be extended to include the Ashdown site which contains ancient woodland and similar flora and fauna to the Highwoods. BALI has already proposed to the RDC Local Development Framework that the whole Ashdown/Highwoods area including the surrounding woodland and picturesque meadows and farmland be made into a West Bexhill Countryside Park analogous to the Pebsham Countryside Park being formed in East Bexhill. They wait to hear the Council’s response in their Core Strategy due later this year. Most Bexhill residents also feel strongly that the Ashdown site should not be submerged in waste but alternatively used for research and community educational and leisure pursuits.

This is why BALI, faced with the threat of an imminent planning application for landfill by Ibstock and Cory, has decided that the archaeological importance of the Ashdown site should be urgently made known to the wider public and, of course, East Sussex County Council. Nick Hollington, Chairman of BALI, states: “We have kept quiet for many years about the dinosaur remains for fear of upsetting the archaeological work taking place in a situation where the landfill was not yet confirmed in the new ESCC Waste and Minerals Core Strategy and there was no planning application on the horizon. That situation has now entirely changed with Ibstock proposing to start a planning application later this year. It is time now that the archaeological and geological value of the Ashdown Brickworks was brought firmly out into the open – before it is too late - to add to the many reasons why the site should not be used for waste landfill.”

He continues: “‘Not upsetting the fossil-hunters’ is an argument that only goes so far. If the site is used for landfill then access to the site is likely to be disrupted or prohibited and important dinosaur remains covered with waste for all time. The Wealden News article reveals that access to the important Polacanthus bed has already been lost following the construction of an internal roadway. With the arrival of a landfill, how much more of Bexhill’s rich ‘dinosaur heritage’ will be forever lost? We feel that the local archaeological/geological societies and Bexhill Museum should now speak out and take action to protect this rich source of dinosaur remains not only in their own interests and of the people of Bexhill, but of the nation as a whole, so important are these discoveries.”


Nick Hollington, BALI 19.03.2010