Christmas in Yorkshire

[TomWhite]

Me and my family spent the Christmas week up in Yorkshire. They planned to do boring Christmas stuff and I would occupy myself by going fossil hunting or fishing. Whitby itself was gorgeous, with old buildings and plenty to do, as well as lots of fudge shops and freshly smoked kippers... The tides weren’t the best that week with high being around midday and small tides meaning fossil hunting time was limited most days. The closest beach - Sandsend was a five minute drive away. Tried here a couple of times and was rewarded with a few Dactylioceras and a nice Hildoceras which I’m hoping still has the centre.

 

I had the most luck at Port Mulgrave which is about a twenty minute drive up the coast. Now where I live in Suffolk, there aren’t really any hills leading to the beach at all, it’s very flat. However, Port Mulgrave will sort out the physically fit from those who are not so fit. First of all you go down a muddy track with no grip, then you go down maybe 200 or so steps, then a muddy slope with a rope to hold onto where you are near enough abseiling and finally a muddy slope with no grip and taa daa your on the beach. Going to the left I found a nice plant imprint, a bi-valve of which species I do not know, and plenty of Dacts in nodules.

 

To the right of the beach there were nodules everywhere. I must have got at least 50 nice ones as well as lots of broken ammos for the neighbours kids, a few pieces of Jet, Belemnite chunks were everywhere and I kept one nice one that was set in a bit of shale and I also found a couple of nice death blocks full of tiny ammonites. 

 

 

 

The walk back up the hill was a killer. I stopped three times and must have lost a kilogram through sweating. 
Overall I had a great week (apart from the fishing, it was rubbish) and now have a lot of ammos to prep....

 

Thanks for reading! 
 

[Bobby Rico]

Nice report Tom and lots of great finds,  Way to start the year off. 
 

All the best Bobby 

[Ludwigia]

You certainly did choose the right time of year to scavenge the coast! I think that your "Dactylioceras" from Sandsend might be a Peronoceras.

[TomWhite]

2 minutes ago, Ludwigia said:

You certainly did choose the right time of year to scavenge the coast! I think that your "Dactylioceras" from Sandsend might be a Peronoceras.

Even better then! Many thanks, my knowledge of ammonites is rubbish! 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Nice finds. 

The bivalve may be Plagiostoma, or at least that's an old name I remember! 

And i seem to recall the plants there include Zamites. 

[TomWhite]

6 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Nice finds. 

The bivalve may be Plagiostoma, or at least that's an old name I remember! 

And i seem to recall the plants there include Zamites. 

Thanks @Tidgy's Dad! I was very happy about the plant, it’s first I have found.

[Bobby Rico]

12 minutes ago, TomWhite said:

Thanks @Tidgy's Dad! I was very happy about the plant, it’s first I have found.

The plants is lovely .  

[TomWhite]

1 minute ago, Bobby Rico said:

The plants is lovely .  

I’ll get a better photo in the day light, looks a lot prettier then! 

[Fossildude19]

Great report and finds, Tom!

Glad you did so well. 

Thanks for posting!  

[Monica]

Lovely finds - congratulations on finding all of those ammonites, as well as your first plant! 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Nice haul. I can see a "couple" of good ones there. And a couple more over there. And some here. And another two or three just over a bit. WOW!