(Collecting Plant's from Radstock) - 2002

There are three basic types of layers at Radstock, the very hard carboniferous limestone, the coal seams and the shale. The best and most well preserved beds are the shale. At the base of the shale, plant fauna is very poorly preserved. Nearly all Radstock's quarries are now filled in, however collecting can still be done. Large lumps of carboniferous limestone and piles of spoil can be found at the disused quarries and searched through. For the best collecting, (Though it is not recommended by UK Fossils), digging is required. Under the vegetation and paths within the old quarry are the rich shale beds full of excellent specimens. Once you break the surface, large slabs can be released and then split down. What may seem like a useless overgrown quarry is still one of the best places for finding carboniferous plants.

The best way to uncover these beds is to find the steep sloping embankments where natural erosion has uncovered the plant beds. Some of the beds here are coal seams and are unfossilferious, but once you find the plant beds you will have plenty of material to look through. The beds are so compacted with plants that once you find some slabs, you can split them finely down to yield a number of good specimens.