Lower Dicker

This article is about the SSSI near Lower Dicker. For the settlement of Lower Dicker, see Hellingly.

Lower Dicker
Site of Special Scientific Interest
Shown within East Sussex
Area of Search	East Sussex
Grid reference	TQ557111
Coordinates	50°52′42″N 0°12′51″E / 50.878272°N 0.214157°E / 50.878272; 0.214157Coordinates: 50°52′42″N 0°12′51″E / 50.878272°N 0.214157°E / 50.878272; 0.214157
Interest	Geological
Area	0.12 hectares
Notification	1998
Location map	English Nature

Lower Dicker is a 0.12 hectare (0.23 acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in East Sussex, England. The site was notified in 1998 under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. The site is a small, overgrown quarry approximately four kilometres north-west of Hailsham.

Geology

Exposures of a sand member are present in the quarry. The sand is of the lower division of the Weald Clay. The sandstone units of the Weald Clay Group represent river deposits which periodically extended into the Wealden lake or lagoon. The sandstones are important as lithostratigraphical markers (units of rock with the same affinity) and are considered to reflect the effects of tectonic uplift in nearby areas feeding sediment into the area. The mineralogy of these sandstones reflects their provenance and they are therefore of great importance for understanding the changes which took place in the palaeogeography of the Weald.

Upper Dicker provides the most southerly exposure of any of the Weald Clay sand members in Britain. It is also important for marking the furthest known extension eastwards of Cornubian (what is today Devon and Cornwall) debris (pieces of rock incorporated into the sandstones and clays), indicating the presence of a river system extending out of south-west England at this time.

References

"SSSI Citation — Lower Dicker" (PDF). Natural England. Retrieved 2008-10-18.

Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in East Sussex, South East England

Arlington Reservoir Asham Quarry Ashburnham Park Ashdown Forest Bingletts Wood Blackhorse Quarry Bream Wood Brede Pit and Cutting Brighton to Newhaven Cliffs Burgh Hill Farm Meadow Buxted Park Castle Hill Chailey Common Clayton to Offham Escarpment Combe Haven Dallington Forest Darwell Wood Ditchling Common Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay Eridge Green Eridge Park Firle Escarpment Folkington Reservoir Fore Wood Hastingford Cutting Hastings Cliffs to Pett Beach Heathfield Park Hemingfold Meadow Herstmonceux Park High Rocks High Woods Houghton Green Cliff Kingston Escarpment and Iford Hill Leasam Heronry Wood Lewes Brooks Lewes Downs Lower Dicker Lullington Heath Maplehurst Wood Marline Valley Woods Milton Gate Marsh Northiam Offham Marshes Paines Cross Meadow Park Corner Heath Penn's Rocks Pevensey Levels Plashett Park Wood River Line Rock Wood Rye Harbour Sapperton Meadows Seaford to Beachy Head Southerham Grey Pit Southerham Machine Bottom Pit Southerham Works Pit St. Dunstan's Farm Meadows Stockland Farm Meadows Waldron Cutting Weir Wood Reservoir Willingdon Down Willingford Meadows Wilmington Downs Winchelsea Cutting

List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest by Area of Search

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