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The Great Britain Guide

Quarries · South East England

Cold Ash Quarry

Cold Ash Quarry is a quarry in the United Kingdom.

Cold Ash Quarry, quarries in South East England

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Plan your visit

Typical visit
45 min–1.5 h
Nearest railway station
Newbury Racecourse · 4.8 km

About

Cold Ash Quarry is a quarry in the United Kingdom. Heritage designation: Site of Special Scientific Interest. Coordinates: 51.4390°, -1.2820°.

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Protected designations

  • Site of Special Scientific Interest: River Kennet SSSI
  • Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty: North Wessex Downs

Designations sourced from Natural England open data under OGL v3.

From the Wikipedia article

Cold Ash Quarry is a 0.4-hectare (0.99-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest north of Newbury in Berkshire. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. 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. The site is private land with no public access.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Coordinates
51.4390, -1.2820
Parish
Cold Ash
Postcode
RG18 9LY
Parliamentary constituency
Newbury
Nearest railway station
Newbury Racecourse4.8 km

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is Cold Ash Quarry?
Cold Ash Quarry is in South-East England, United Kingdom (postcode RG18 9LY), in the parish of Cold Ash.
Is Cold Ash Quarry a listed building?
Cold Ash Quarry is officially recognised as Site of Special Scientific Interest listed.
Is Cold Ash Quarry a protected site?
Yes — Cold Ash Quarry is part of the River Kennet SSSI Site of Special Scientific Interest and the North Wessex Downs National Landscape (AONB).
How do I get to Cold Ash Quarry?
The nearest railway station is Newbury Racecourse, about 4.8 km away. Drivers can navigate to postcode RG18 9LY.