The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site

The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site The Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site is England's natural World Heritage Site, manage

The Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site is England's natural World Heritage Site - it is known as The Jurassic Coast.

23/07/2024

HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVENTS ⛏

While we LOVE celebrating all the wonderful flora and fauna on the Pebblebed Heaths during Heath Week, the Pebblebeds are also full of rich history!

Come and explore the range of historical and archaeological events we have this year and SAVE THIS POST to have all this event information ready to access for next week! 😁

Jurassic Coast Trust - Every Rock Has A History, Every Fossil Tells A Story 🦖
📍 Four Firs
⌚️ Monday 29th July - 10:00-15:00
For more event details click the link below 👇
https://www.pebblebedheaths.org.uk/event-detail/heath-week-2024-every-rock-has-a-history-every-fossil-tells-a-story/

Jurassic Coast Trust - A Walk Across Woodbury Common Looking At Millions Of Years Of Geological Time 👣
📍 Four Firs
⌚️ Monday 29th July - 12:00-13:00
For more event details click the link below 👇
https://www.pebblebedheaths.org.uk/event-detail/16064/

Pre-Historic Pot Making 🏺
📍 Woodbury Castle
⌚️ Thursday 1st August - 10:00-15:00
For more event details click the link below 👇
https://www.pebblebedheaths.org.uk/event-detail/heath-week-2024-pre-historic-pot-making/

Archaeological Tour Of Woodbury Castle an Iron Age Hill Fort 🏰
📍 Woodbury Castle
⌚️ Thursday 1st August - 11:30-12:00
For more event details and booking information click the link below - LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE! 👇
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/heath-week-archaeological-tour-of-woodbury-castle-an-iron-age-hill-fort-tickets-936323387457

Archaeological Guided Walk Of Pebblebed Heaths Prehistory 🚶🏽‍♂️
📍 Woodbury Castle
⌚️ Thursday 1st August - 14:00-14:45
For more event details and booking information click the link below - LIMITED SPACES AVAILABLE! 👇
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/heath-week-archaeological-walk-of-pebblebed-heaths-prehistory-tickets-936339305067

📸 Steve Edwards

Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust Jurassic Coast Trust

What better way to close the posts for this year’s World Heritage Day than with a creature whose resilience has stood th...
18/04/2024

What better way to close the posts for this year’s World Heritage Day than with a creature whose resilience has stood the test of time? The humble brittlestar seems so fragile and yet has existed relatively unchanged for millions of years.

This Palaeocoma egertoni example is part of Dorset Museum & Art Gallery’s collection from the Lower Jurassic 188 million years ago and was found at Seatown.

Find out more on our website or by visiting .
https://www.jurassiccoast.org/science-and-heritage/world-heritage-and-social-history/world-heritage-day

Like so many World Heritage Sites, the Jurassic Coast is an inspiration to a great number of people for an array of reas...
18/04/2024

Like so many World Heritage Sites, the Jurassic Coast is an inspiration to a great number of people for an array of reasons. Not least because the picturesque beauty of the area often fuels a creative spark for artists, poets and many others.

Renowned sculptor, Dame Elisabeth Frink spent many years in Dorset creating some of her most famous works. In line with the theme of this year’s World Heritage Day, conflict provided context for much of Frink’s work and by coincidence, Frink died on 18th April (1993).
As stated in the ‘Elisabeth Frink: A View from Within’ book by Dorset Museum & Art Gallery, “Frink’s early work was in many ways a response to her childhood experiences during the second World War, which left her, in her own words, ‘emotionally disturbed’ with nightmares that recurred for the rest of her life…Frink was profoundly influenced by the existentialism that permeated much of the art and literature of post-war Europe.” Her work can be said to be a sort of resilient heritage in itself, a form of beauty to come from the tragedy of conflict. This is perhaps embodied by one of her earlier works, the Eagle lectern at Coventry Cathedral (Coventry cathedral is also a sort of phoenix from the flames having been bombed during WWII, the old cathedral shell remains proudly next to the beautifully reimagined ‘new’ cathedral, situated in Coventry, the ‘city of Peace and Reconciliation’).

Frink moved to Dorset as a child during the second World War when her father, an army officer, was stationed in the county and returned later on, living near Blandford Forum (at Woolland House).

Visit Dorset Museum & Art Gallery’s ‘Elisabeth Frink: A view from Within’ exhibition as well as the permanent Frink exhibition space to experience these masterpieces and learn more about Frink’s life and inspiration.


Images:
1: A self portrait of Frink at
2: Frink at work - exhibition display at Dorset Museum & Art Gallery
3: A 1956 bronze statue of Frink, by F. E. McWilliam, outside the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry
4: Frink's Eagle lectern sculpture
5: Frink's eagle lectern sculpture was created to replicate that destroyed by German bombs in WWII- shown here in a special edition newspaper on the opening of Coventry's new cathedral, celebrating heritage from the old cathedral.
6: Coventry cathedrals

Residents of the many towns and villages on the Jurassic Coast have seen numerous changes over the years. Some, due to n...
18/04/2024

Residents of the many towns and villages on the Jurassic Coast have seen numerous changes over the years. Some, due to natural processes such as landslides and other dynamic forces altering the landscape. Other changes have been purposefully implemented to meet the evolving needs of the area.

An example of this is North Quay in Weymouth. The is the site of the former offices of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, where archaeological investigations were carried out prior to redevelopments. Despite the name, it is actually on the south side of the harbour, which in the Middle Ages was the former settlement of Weymouth (at the time, Melcombe Regis was a separate settlement on the north side of the harbour).

Dorset Council employed an archaeological contracting company called Context One Heritage & Archaeology to dig some trial trenches in 2021 to get an idea of what archaeology survived on the site. Largely through Context One’s own efforts, this turned into an excellent community exercise, with local people taking part and providing lots of information on the more recent history of the site. This work showed that archaeological remains linked to the early development of Weymouth were much better preserved than many had expected.

Then in the latter part of last year Dorset Council employed Context One again, this time to undertake more detailed excavation of the archaeology on the site ahead of redevelopment.

Images by Steve Wallis, Dorset Council

Visit our webpage to find out more.

There are various places along the Jurassic Coast that have been key defence positions through the years. Located on the...
18/04/2024

There are various places along the Jurassic Coast that have been key defence positions through the years. Located on the isle of Portland, ‘High Angle Battery’ is a late Victorian gun battery built to help defend Portland Harbour against invasion.
Constructed in the 1890s, it was designed to defend against attacking ships by firing shells upwards at a high angle onto the ships below. Battleships of the time were generally heavily armoured around their sides, but the upper parts were less armoured, making them more vulnerable to shells. The battery’s high position and network of below-ground buildings, tunnels and concealed gun emplacements made it almost invisible to enemy warships.
But, despite its formidable design, advancements in ship speed meant the site quickly became obsolete. The battery went out of use after only 10 years, never firing a single shot in combat.

The site is now a Scheduled Monument and is currently undergoing improvement work. Find out more on our webpage.

Images by Steve Wallis, Dorset Council

The village of Tyneham, near Lulworth was given to the military for temporary use in World War II...but residents were n...
18/04/2024

The village of Tyneham, near Lulworth was given to the military for temporary use in World War II...but residents were never to return.
As the interpretation panel on site reads “Much has been written in which this place is cast as somehow lost, a ghost village. It is neither lost nor dead, but it has evolved in unfamiliar ways and remains one of the most beautiful places in the country. Tyneham gave its heart for its country in 1943, but with sympathetic management its soul will survive for generations to come.”

A testament to the power of resilient heritage emerging from the conflicts of war.

Many of the towns of the Jurassic Coast have been shaped by the impact of WWII. Towns such as West Bay, played their rol...
18/04/2024

Many of the towns of the Jurassic Coast have been shaped by the impact of WWII.

Towns such as West Bay, played their role with coastal defences and residents war efforts. latest pop-up exhibition’ West Bay in the War’ runs until 30th June 2024. It features both existing and new research about life in West Bay in the period leading up to D Day in June 1944. The exhibition also shares recollections of local people and GI’s based in West Bay, along with an insight of the coastal defences that were put in place to guard against any possible invasion. The Centre is also keen to capture and record people’s personal stories - do you have a story to tell?

One exciting archaeological recovery on display at highlights a time of conflict at our World Heritage Site in the past...
18/04/2024

One exciting archaeological recovery on display at highlights a time of conflict at our World Heritage Site in the past and the fascinating story preserved in time.
As a coast, we have long been vulnerable to invasion from the sea. Such seems to have been the case from a burial site on the Weymouth ridgeway, which was unearthed on the Weymouth relief road through Dorset.

The site appears to have been a burial site of around 50 viking raiders, where the skeletal remains were found of individuals having been subject to trauma. Many individuals were believed to have been decapitated or had their throat cut.

A public ex*****on by a road on a ridgeway would have sent a strong message to future invaders.

Carbon (C14) dates of the bones at AD 970-1025, coincides with the second viking raiding of the UK. Isotopic analysis of the bones show the individuals to have originated from various locations in Northern Europe. Of those that are identifiable, all were male.

This could have been a small part of an army but it is believed that this may have been a Viking raiding party that arrived on the coast, but were perhaps shipwrecked and washed ashore and so were relatively easy to attack and overpower.

Find out more on our World Heritage Day webpage or by visiting Dorset museum & Art Gallery.

Inscribed as a World Heritage Site partly for the scientifically significant fossils found here, the Jurassic Coast is i...
18/04/2024

Inscribed as a World Heritage Site partly for the scientifically significant fossils found here, the Jurassic Coast is ideally placed to learn about the impact of environmental changes in the past.

These heteromorph ammonites from collection are a prime example of organisms responding to environmental pressures and trying to adapt any which way in order to survive.

In this case, ammonites were unsuccessful in the long term as they ultimately died out along with the dinosaurs and a whopping two thirds of all life on the planet at the end of the Cretaceous period, around 65 million years ago.

Find out more on our website or visit Dorset Museum & Art Gallery’s wonderful Natural History gallery which explores the fascinating story of life on Earth during these environmental changes of the Mesozoic era.

Image 1: Turrilites costata, 96 million years ago, Upper Cretaceous, Lower Chalk, Ansty. Collector unknown. DCM.G.09704
Image 2: Scaphites equalis, 96 million years ago, Upper Cretaceous, Lower Chalk, Eggardon Hill. Collector unknown. DCM.G.09700
Image 3: Mariella (mariella) lewesiensis, 96 million years ago, Upper Cretaceous, Lower Chalk. Collector & discovery location unknown. DCM.G.09713
Image 4: Turrilites acutus, 96 million years ago, Upper Cretaceous, Lower Chalk, Woolcombe. Collector unknown. DCM.G.09703

The importance of the Jurassic Coast is underpinned by outstanding geology of International significance, spanning the 1...
18/04/2024

The importance of the Jurassic Coast is underpinned by outstanding geology of International significance, spanning the 185 million years of Mesozoic Earth History and beyond.
The almost continuous rock record sequence, active coastal erosion and textbook examples of geological structures and features such as stacks and arches remain of global importance.
The Mesozoic geology of the Dorset and East Devon coast spans 185 million years from the Triassic (252 - 200 million years ago), through the Jurassic (200-145 million years ago) and through the Cretaceous (145-65 million years ago).
The rocks here preserve a vast array of environmental conditions experienced by a range of species throughout the changes that occurred during this time period. Many of these species living in these different environments left their fossilised remains contained within the rocks, ready to reveal their life stories when they emerged from their burial places.
Yet others may be lost in time, at least for now. These variable environmental conditions were largely a result of the impact break-up of supercontinents and continental drift of the area away from the equator to eventually reside where it currently lies on what is now the South Coast of England. The appearance of the rocks and coastline as a whole are the result of considerable geological processes and continued coastal erosion.
This unique geology of the Jurassic Coast, and the fossils contained within, make it one of the most significant teaching and research sites for understanding our Earth history in the World.



Image 1: How Dorset Formed display at
Image 2: Old Harry Rocks - Eastern end of the World Heritage Site
Image 3: Kimmeridge Bay
Image 4: Cliffs at West Bay
Image 5: Durdle Door, Lulworth
Image 6: View of Chesil Beach from the Isle of Portland
Image 7: Fossiliferous rocks of Lyme Regis beach
Image 8: View of Sidmouth coastline
Image 9: Ladram Bay coast, including sea stacks

What is World Heritage?The Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, known as the ‘Jurassic Coast’ is in a global...
18/04/2024

What is World Heritage?

The Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site, known as the ‘Jurassic Coast’ is in a global family of World Heritage Sites that highlight our internationally shared heritage and the shared history, identity and relationship with nature.
World Heritage Sites belong to everyone equally, regardless of the geographic or political boundary in which they are located. In many ways, they are a symbol of peace.

World Heritage sites indicate a place where there is the potential for a deep learning experience, helping us to understand our place within the long history of our planet.

The Jurassic Coast was inscribed by UNESCO in 2001 under criteria VIII.

“The coastal exposures along the Dorset and East Devon coast provide an almost continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning the Mesozoic Era and document approximately 185 million years of Earth's history".

There are "a range of globally significant fossil localities - both, vertebrate and invertebrate, marine and terrestrial - which have produced well preserved and diverse evidence of life during Mesozoic times. It also contains textbook exemplars of coastal geomorphological features, landforms and processes.

Renowned for its contribution to Earth science investigations for over 300 years, the Dorset and East Devon coast has helped foster major contributions to many aspects of geology, palaeontology and geomorphology and has continuing significance as a high quality teaching, training and research resource for the Earth sciences” - UNESCO

Visit our webpage to find out more (link in bio)

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West Bay

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01308800700

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