Cumnor Hurst
Encyclopedia
Cumnor Hurst, also known as Hurst Hill, is a wooded hill in the neighbourhood of the village of Cumnor
, Oxfordshire
, England
. It lies to the north of Boars Hill
. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire.
The hill is a landmark on the ridge of Corallian limestone
that is topped by Lower Greensand
and Kimmeridge Clay
. The Kimmeridge Clay provided bricks and tiles, from clay extracted at the Chawley Brick and Tile Works. It was here that fossilised remains of the dinosaur
Camptosaurus
were found, in 1879-1880. Remains of Plesiosaur
s and Ichthyosaur
s have also been found.
Cumnor Hurst is a Site of Special Scientific Interest
.
The hill is owned by All Souls College, Oxford. It is mentioned in Matthew Arnold
's poem The Scholar Gipsy
.
Cumnor
Cumnor is a village and civil parish west of the centre of Oxford, England. The parish of Cumnor includes Cumnor Hill, , Chawley , the Dean Court area on the edge of Botley and the outlying settlements of Chilswell, Farmoor and Swinford...
, Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It lies to the north of Boars Hill
Boars Hill
Boars Hill is a hill hamlet southwest of Oxford, straddling the boundariy between the civil parishes of Sunningwell and Wootton. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it to Oxfordshire.-History:...
. In 1974 it was transferred from Berkshire.
The hill is a landmark on the ridge of Corallian limestone
Corallian Limestone
Corallian Limestone is a coralliferous sedimentary rock, laid down in Jurassic times. It is a hard variety of "coral rag". Building stones from this geological structure tend to be irregular in shape. It is often found close to seams of Portland Limestone...
that is topped by Lower Greensand
Greensand
Greensand or Green sand is either a sand or sandstone, which has a greenish color. This term is specifically applied to shallow marine sediment, that contains noticeable quantities of rounded greenish grains. These grains are called glauconies and consist of a mixture of mixed-layer clay...
and Kimmeridge Clay
Kimmeridge Clay
The Kimmeridge Clay Formation is a sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Jurassic age. It occurs in Europe.Kimmeridge Clay is arguably the most economically important unit of rocks in the whole of Europe, being the major source rock for oil fields in the North Sea hydrocarbon...
. The Kimmeridge Clay provided bricks and tiles, from clay extracted at the Chawley Brick and Tile Works. It was here that fossilised remains of the dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
Camptosaurus
Camptosaurus
Camptosaurus is a genus of plant-eating, beaked ornithischian dinosaurs of the Late Jurassic period of western North America. The name means 'flexible lizard', ....
were found, in 1879-1880. Remains of Plesiosaur
Plesiosaur
Plesiosauroidea is an extinct clade of carnivorous plesiosaur marine reptiles. Plesiosauroids, are known from the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods...
s and Ichthyosaur
Ichthyosaur
Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins...
s have also been found.
Cumnor Hurst is a Site of Special Scientific Interest
Site of Special Scientific Interest
A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...
.
The hill is owned by All Souls College, Oxford. It is mentioned in Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold was a British poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator...
's poem The Scholar Gipsy
The Scholar Gipsy
"The Scholar Gipsy" is a poem by Matthew Arnold, based on a 17th century Oxford story found in Joseph Glanvill's The Vanity of Dogmatizing...
.