Hurst Hill
Site of Special Scientific Interest
LocationOxfordshire
Grid referenceSP 476 041[1]
InterestBiological
Geological
Area20.6 hectares (51 acres)[1]
Notification1986[1]
Location mapMagic Map

Hurst Hill or Cumnor Hurst is a 20.6-hectare (51-acre) biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest west of Oxford in Oxfordshire.[1][2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.[3]

The site is owned by All Souls College, Oxford,[4] and its mosses and liverworts have been monitored for more than fifty years. The hill is also important geologically. In 1879 a fossil of a Camptosaurus prestwichii, a large herbivorous dinosaur dating to the Upper Jurassic 153 million years ago, was found on the site.[5] The fossil belongs to a typically North African genus, and provides evidence of a land bridge across the proto-Atlantic in the Late Jurassic.[6]

The hill is mentioned in Matthew Arnold's poem The Scholar Gipsy.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Designated Sites View: Hurst Hill". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  2. ^ "Map of Hurst Hill". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  3. ^ "Chawley Brickpits, Cumnor Hurst (Jurassic - Cretaceous Reptilia)". Geological Conservation Review. Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Archived from the original on 8 August 2019. Retrieved 26 February 2020.
  4. ^ a b Hopkins, Gerard Manley (2015). The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Oxford University Press. p. 371, n. 625.
  5. ^ "Dinosaurs in the Museum" (PDF). Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  6. ^ "Hurst Hill citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 6 April 2020.

External links

51°44′00″N 1°18′40″W / 51.73333°N 1.31111°W / 51.73333; -1.31111

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hurst Hill.
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Oxfordshire
Categories