Gedgrave, Suffolk (TM 40634995)
The Coralline Crag pit in the woods at Broom Hill is currently around 9m deep and exposes a section of which the upper 4.7m has been affected by selective aragonite dissolution and is dark orange-brown in colour. In contrast, sediments below are light grey when freshly exposed, silty and contain abundant aragonitic shell material as well as some large and complete bivalve shells. While the aragonite-leached part of the section is unequivocally attributable to the Sudbourne Member, the lower part is more problematical. The presence of indistinct cross-bedding suggests that this too may be Sudbourne Member.
Broom Pit is an historically important site in the study of the Coralline Crag mollusc fauna which has also yielded well preserved bryozoans. The extensive fauna collected in the past from Broom Pit may comprise a mixture of species from the lower part of the Sudbourne Member and the upper part of the Ramsholt Member. The Sudbourne Member contains layers of broken Metrarabdotos and occasional colonies of Meandropora.
Adapted from Daley and Balson, 1999. See also Dixon, 2005.