Chalk Places to Visit in Norfolk

 

Brief notes about publicly-accessible Chalk-related sites and features of interest, including museums.
Information correct at time of publication, but you are advised to check public accessibility and safety details before visiting these places.

 

 

Beeston Cliffs

Sea cliff exposure of Campanian Chalk (B.mucronata Zone) including the type-site of the Beeston Chalk horizon; important Pleistocene exposures; a geological SSSI.

OS grid reference: TG167434 to TG171433

Burnham Overy Parish Pit

Exposure of Cretaceous Coniacian or Santonian Chalk (M.coranguinum Zone); part of Norfolk Coast AONB; disused quarry.

OS grid reference: TF843432

Cley Next The Sea Car Park

Exposure of the Campanian Chalk of the Pre-Weybourne Chalk sub-division (B.mucronata Zone); Norfolk Coast AONB; disused quarry.

OS grid reference: TG0540 4400

Cockthorpe Chalk Pit, Stiffkey

Exposure of Campanian Chalk (Quadrata Zone); a chalk grassland SSSI; access via footpath; disused quarry.

OS grid reference: TF985427

Colman’s Pit, Whitlingham, near Norwich

Disused quarry exposes Campanian Chalk, Paramoudra Chalk sub-division (B.mucronata Zone) with overlying Pliocene Norwich Crag basement bed; part of Whitlingham Country Park with Visitor Centre; nearby ruins of Mediaeval manor house built of flint.

OS grid reference: TG268077

Devil’s Punchbowl, Croxton

Fluctuating Breckland mere in doline-type karstic depression, with nearby fluctuating Fowlmere on separate hydrological regime; a Geological Conservation Review site.

OS grid reference: TL878892

Diss Mere

Chalk springs feeding natural lake formed on margins of the Waveney valley; important late Devensian and Holocene palaeo-environmental archive.

OS grid reference: TM115798

East Wretham Heath, near Thetford

Fluctuating Breckland meres of Langmere, Ringmere and Fenmere, part of a Brecks chalk heathland SSSI.

OS grid reference: Langmere TL905882

Grimes Graves, near Brandon

Chalky and sandy drift generating periglacial patterned ground;  a Geological Conservation Review site; Brandon Flint series mined in Neolithic/Bronze Age; a Brecks heathland SSSI.

OS grid reference: TL810902

Hunstanton Cliffs

Spectacular cliffs developed in Cenomanian Chalk (A.rhotomagense, M.dixoni and M.mantelli Zones), displaying Paradoxica Bed and local equivalent of the Totternhoe Stone of the Chilterns; outcrop of earlier Cretaceous strata (Albian Red Chalk and Carstone); a geological SSSI.

OS grid reference: TF672413 to 769424

Narborough Railway Embankment

Disused railway embankment built of chalk rubble; a chalk grassland SSSI with high biodiversity value; adjacent car park.

OS grid reference: TF750118 to TF763101

Ringstead Downs, near Hunstanton

A chalk grassland SSSI; valley incised by Pleistocene glacial meltwaters; Norfolk Wildlife Trust reserve.

OS grid reference: circa TF695400

Sidestrand And Trimingham Cliffs

Sea cliff exposure 6.5km long of the Chalk of the Maastrichtian Stage (best outcrop in UK); also important early Pleistocene exposures; a geological SSSI with biodiversity importance for its soft-rock invertebrate fauna; part of Norfolk Coast AONB;

OS grid reference: TG252408 to TG305375

Skelding Hill Cliffs to Sheringham Cliffs

Sea cliff exposure of Chalk of the Campanian Stage (B.mucronata Zone), showing topmost Weybourne Chalk and the Beeston Chalk horizons.

OS grid reference: TG143435 to TG167434

St James' Pit, Norwich

Exposure of Chalk of the Campanian Stage of the Beeston Chalk sub-division (B.mucronata/langei Zone), yielding mososaur fossils; disused quarry; a geological SSSI.

OS grid reference: TG242094

Tumbley Hill, West Acre

Chalk hill landscape with dry valleys and periglacial patterned ground visible from the air; access via footpath.

OS grid reference: TF777165

West Runton Cliffs

Sea cliff exposure of glacially-rafted Chalk in Pleistocene glacial sediments; foreshore exposures of ‘Beeston Chalk’ and ‘Paramoudra Chalk’ horizons of the Campanian Chalk (B.mucronata Zone), with flint paramoudras well displayed.

OS grid reference: TG180432 to TG192430

Weybourne Hope to Old Butts Gap

Sea cliff exposure of Chalk of the Campanian Stage, Weybourne Chalk sub-division (B.mucronata Zone), including a hardground rich in fossil oysters, with several prominent flint bands; type section of the Weybourne Chalk; part of the Norfolk Coast AONB.

OS grid reference: TG1115 4369 to TG1236 4362

Weybourne Hope East

Sea cliff exposure of Chalk of the Campanian Stage, Weybourne Chalk sub-division (B.mucronata Zone); soft white chalk (rarely nodular) with several strong black flint bands; part of the Norfolk Coast AONB.

OS grid reference: TG1290 4360 to TG1390 4350


 

Museums in the project area with geological displays and specimens including Chalk fossils: