Field meeting at Norwich March 1963

Two members travelled up from London for this meeting and were met by two members from Norfolk and one member of the Paramoudra club joined the party. The party proceeded to Bramerton by bus and walked down to the side of the river in miserable weather. However, the weather failed to damp the spirits of members once a shelly bed of Crag was uncovered by the spades!

The stratigraphy of the Norwich Crag of this area was demonstrated in an old excavation made by Dr. Funnel1. Next a very fossiliferous bed in an old pit a few hundred yards away was visited. Here good examples of curious¬ly distorted Littorina and Nucella, similar to those described by S. V. Wood and F. W. Harmer, were found. Some of the Littorina are so strongly ribbed and keeled as to be almost unrecognisable. The reasons for the curious burst of monstrosities at this horizon were discussed but without coming to any definite conclusion.

Other fossils are also abundant at Bramerton and the following species were obtained by members:

  • Macoma calcarea
  • Mya arenaria 
  • Hiatella arctica
  • Venus imbricata 
  • Modiolus sp. 
  • Mytilus edulis 
  • Cardium edule
  • Chlamys opercularis 
  • Arctica islandica
  • Spisula subtruncata
  • Littorina littorea " obliqua " rudis
  • Nucella lapillus
  • Neptunea antiqua (one reversed example)
  • Natica sp. juv.
  • Hydrobia cf. ventrosa
  • Potamides icenicus
  • Calyptraea chinensis
  • Fish Vertebrae
  • Borings of Polydora, Cliona, etc.

The party then split, the more energetic members walking back to Norwich via the somewhat aromatic Whitlingham marshes. Here Viviparus contectus, V. viviparus, Anodcnta cygnaea, A, anatina and A. minima were found on the banksof the ditches draining the marsh which had recently been cleared out by mechanical shovel.

A quick visit was paid to Whitlingham Quarry where good sections of Norwich Crag rest on the top of the Chalk. Here the variability of the deposit was excellently demonstrated’ clay, shelly sands and pebble beds alternating while the basal Stone Bed, composed of large fairly unworn flints can be seen at the junction with the Chalk. Some large specimens of Neptunea were seen, Mya arenaria in situ in the position of growth and one of the 'butterfly bones' of Platax came to light, as well as other species similar to those at Bramerton.

The party re-united at the Castle Museum, Norwich, where Mr. R. Markham, the Deputy Curator of Natural History, kindly displayed a series of Bramerton fossils from the Museum collections, including a number of Harmer's figured specimens.

Mr. P. G. Cambridge