Kemble Railway Cuttings ( & & ) is a

geological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, England, notified in 1996. The site is listed in the Cotswold District Local Plan 2001–2011 as a

Regionally Important Geological Site Regionally important geological and geomorphological sites (RIGS) (also known as regionally important geological sites or, especially in Wales, regionally important geodiversity sites) are locally designated sites of local, national and regional imp ...

(RIGS).Cotswold District Local Plan, Appendix 3, Regionally Important Geological Sites

Location and geology

The site is a Geological Conservation Review (GCR) site, which is of significant importance regionally (south-west of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) for research on the stratigraphy of Middle

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

(Bathonian) rocks. The rocks exhibit the type section of the Kemble Beds, and show good examples of basal Forest Marble coral patch reefs with inter-reef sediments. The site consists of three separate units.Natural England SSSI information on the citation
/ref> The exposures provide a vital reference section for correlating the successions of the

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

Minchinhampton Minchinhampton is an ancient Cotswolds market town in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, South West England. The town is located on a hilltop, south-east of Stroud. The common offers wide views over the Severn Estuary into Wales and furth ...

and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

areas of the country. In particular, the ''Bradford Fossil Bed'' at the former

Tetbury Road railway station Tetbury Road railway station was built by the Cheltenham & Great Western Union Railway to serve the Gloucestershire villages of Kemble and Coates, and the town of Tetbury. History The station was situated on the Golden Valley Line, to the ...

is of historical and biostratigraphical interest.

References

SSSI Source

Natural England SSSI information on the citation

Natural England SSSI information on the Kemble Railway Cuttings units

External links

Natural England
(SSSI information) Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1996 {{England-SSSI-stub