Fossil Hunting On The Jurassic Coast

When I was younger, I had several camping holidays/weekends away with my mum down on the Jurassic coast in Dorset. We spent most days on the beach searching for fossils & I have so many happy memories. So mum & I wanted to take the boys, now they are a little bit older, and can walk a bit further on their own. I cant believe Daniel is almost 4, where has that time gone??

I'm not brave enough to camp with the boys yet, maybe for a night when daddy is with us... So we opted to stay in a static caravan, with all the things we would need to make things easier. There are several holiday parks in the area, but we decided to opt for West Bay. As a child we stayed in either the Lyme or Charmouth areas, but decided on West Bay after seeing it on the popular Broadchurch drama.

The holiday park there is run by Parkdean, however we booked ours through West Bay Caravan Hire who hire out several privately owned caravans. Booking through them worked out cheaper & even more so as we didn't have to purchase entertainment passes. They offered a great service answering my questions very promptly, & our deposit was returned within the week. Its great to know exactly which caravan you are booking & see pictures of that exact van, we could also enter form 2pm which is earlier than any other holiday I've been on.

The famous east cliff at West Bay in the background

In the end we didn't end up spending that much time in West Bay! We went exploring on the first day and the working harbour is picture perfect. To the west there are a couple of pebbly coves however we couldn't walk along any further presumably due to cliff falls. The beach to the east has lots of fine shingle with sand at the waters edge.

We spent our 1st full day at Charmouth, we headed down the east beach (stonebarrow) as this was always the beast for finding fossils in the past. Go on a falling tide as that way you are among the first to see what fossils have uncovered. It is also important to know the tides as the beach is often cut off at high tide. Neither mum or I ever had any success splitting rocks with a hammer & chisel, as even when we found fossils they would be broken or the flattened variety's. Its worth noting that hammering at the cliffs is not permitted & is also dangerous. The best fossils are found lying on the beach.

The view to the east at Charmouth

Along this beach amongst the sand (the black sand is a good place to look) shiny fools gold (pyrite) ammonites can be found. Trace ammonites can also be spotted on the pebbles. We were lucky enough to find one near perfect ammonite & one tiny one that was a little squashed. We also found several belemnite fragments. Other fossils can be found on this beach but these two are the most popular. When I was a child I was lucky enough to find a fossil sharks tooth & my mum found an Ichthyosaur vertebrae. Like these I often find the best fossils are the ones you find when your not really looking!

Pyrite Ammonites

After our day on the beach, we took time to visit the Charmouth Heritage Centre. Its a fantastic free visitor centre with lots of fossils & information. The boys really enjoyed brushing sand away to find fossils & the 2 fish tanks set up to show the sea life found in the rock pools. If you haven't been fossil hunting before take a visit first so you know what to look for, they also offer guided walks (for a fee).

On the second day we enjoyed the playground on the holiday park & then had an early lunch in the caravan. In the afternoon we decided to visit Seatown, just to the east of Charmouth. Its down a small country lane & has a car park (£2 a day) & a popular pub The Anchor. When we visited they were in the process of renovating the pub, but we were still able to enjoy a lovely ice cream as they are still running a small kiosk.

We headed to the west beach & were lucky straight away finding a rock with traces of ammonites in it. We found several others as we walked further up the beach, we also found several belamite fragments when looking through the shingle. We had a lovely afternoon and found the small pebbles easy to walk on and so much cleaner than sand. Please tell me I'm not the only one who's not keen on sand?? At low tide there are some areas of fine shingle & sand.

In fact we enjoyed our afternoon on Seatown beach so much we went again the next day! Again on the west beach we walked further up the beach,carrying Daniel some of the way, before we made 'camp'. One of the things the boys love to do is make a marker so they can tell how much the tide has changed. We used a big stick & held it upright with a few stones. It's a great way of showing the boys how much the sea moves when the tide goes out. We found lots more fossils that day, Trace ammonites, ammonite fragments, belemnite fragments, crinoid fragments & fossil shells

After a picnic lunch Joseph & I walked further up the beach to see what we could find at low tide. Even though we found lots of pyrite we were unlucky in finding a pyrite ammonite at Seatown. We did however find the belemnite bed which had been exposed. It was great to show Joseph how the sea washes the rock away & the belemnites end up on the beach. Its amazing how many there are in each rock.

Belemite bed at Seatown

On the last day of our holiday, after we had packed, we headed to Lyme-Regis. There are several museums to visit there, but as we only had a couple of hours we had a look in a few of the fossil shops. We enjoyed a local pasty for lunch sat on the sea front. We were talking about how unlikely it would be to find a fossil on that part of the beach with so many people there etc, and on our way back to the car park we found one on the last metre of the beach!

Ammonite fund at Lyme Regis

It was a great holiday, with some lovely new memories created for us all!

x Jo x

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Seaside Messy Play

I have finally got around to writing up the last of our summer messy play sessions. The theme was the seaside, to cover the beach & the sea - as I couldn't choose! We had lots of fun making our CD fish click here for full details.

On another table I set up all our scissors (straight & curvy etc.) & our punches, along with some old magazines. The kids had great fun cutting out interesting pictures & then sticking them on to some paper to make collages.

I managed to get this great roll of blue & yellow paper from our scrap store & it is just perfect for a beach painting.. I love the concentration Daniel(3) has here, he often sticks his tongue out!

In one of our pools I put a bag of play sand along with lots of sand toys. I'm not a major fan of sand & prefer it when its at the beach (& stays there) so it was a treat for the boys. I even let them keep it in the garden (covered) for a couple of weeks.

The other pool was set up as a rock pool, with lots of green & blue strips (thanks scrap store), some rocks & plastic sea life.

In a sensory box we had some water beads & sea life sand moulds for scooping. It was the first time that the other children & parents had experienced them & they kept going back to explore! 

In the second box we had our collection of boats, sea life figures, our shell collection and water with some blue food colouring. Water play is always popular I've noticed that on the weeks without water play that many kids end up playing in the hand washing bowl.

We also had out some blue play dough & our play-doh octopus & several relevant cutters.

We had so much fun all summer (& lots of hard work), its really great to let the boys explore several creative or sensory stations & move at their own pace. We often do things like this at home but only ever one at a time & we also have other distractions. I cant wait for our Halloween special messy play.

x Jo x

W.S.M Water Adventure Park & Sand Sculptures

Weston Water Adventure Park is on the Knightstone end of Weston sea front. It used to be free, then last summer it was £1 per child in the school holidays. It has now increased to £1.50 per child all summer long. To be honest I don't mind its a nice park & worth paying to get in. It has 2 areas of parks one aimed at smaller children and a castle area designed for older kids. Joseph (4.5) & Daniel (3) enjoy both areas. But they really love the splash park, we usually take the boys wet suits as it is cold & this means they can stay in a little longer! We also find that they engage more & have fun if we take a small bucket or scoop for them to collect & pour water with.

I was really disappointed that we were refused entry with our cool bag, we have always taken a picnic in previous years, it makes a nice family day out & means that we can then afford to buy the boys an ice cream after lunch. So we turned around & had our picnic on the beach, which would have been nice if it was a little less windy that day!. To be honest we were so disappointed that had we not have promised the boys that we were going we would have not bothered going in. 

After lunch we returned the outlawed picnic bag to the car & paid our money & entered the park, only to discover that about 90% of the family's in the park had managed to smuggle there picnic past the picnic police! 

While there I took a look at the councils food provider 'the kiosk' the name just about says it all,other than the usual ice creams & snacks all I could see were sausage rolls, hot dogs & one type of jacket potato & by the look of the place I'm not sure if i could have trusted that they were going to be good quality enough to be worth paying for. I feel if the council are banning picnics then they need to provide a decent cafe serving a large range of healthy foods.

I have made our complaint to Weston Town Council & I will add there response to the bottom of my post. 

After lots of fun at the park we walked along the sea front to the Weston Sand Sculpture Festival. None of us had been before so we didn't know what to expect, but we all had a nice time. At the beginning there are a series of displays showing how they make a sand sculpture, then you move on to the big sculptures made by a lots of talented artists. The sculptures are open daily until the end of September.

The theme for 2013 is Hollywood so there were lots of familiar faces from the movies. The boys favourite was Toy Story! At the end they have a small cafe so Daddy & I enjoyed a hot drink while the boys played in the sand pit. It's worth a visit but will only take an hour so combined with a trip somewhere else in Weston, like the beach, pier or water park makes a nice day out.

As you can see the reason I'm not in many pics is that Daddy isn't very good at taking them!

x Jo x

P.s. Don't forget to enter the competition to win 2 of  my bandana bibs HERE


Weston Town Councils reply:

Dear Jo,

 

Thanks for the information re the Park which I will pass on to our Head Groundsman. I also appreciate your very fair comment about the £1.50 charge, we do think it is good value for money compared to most alternative attractions and helps fund the attendants who look after the Park, pick litter etc. The Water Park was paid for and is subsidised by Weston council tax payers so we do feel users should make some contribution towards the cost of running the Water Park at peak times.

 

Car parks are run by North Somerset Council and charges are set by them.  The Town Council has lobbied North Somerset about the cost of car parking in the town which (unlike the Water park which is subsidised overall) does net North Somerset a significant profit. If you don’t mind a short walk might I suggest the Madiera Road Car Park at the North end of the sea front by Prince Consort Gardens, which is £1.50 for up to 4 hours or £3 all day.

 

As regards the picnic ban, this was brought in by a previous set of Councillors in 2010, before the 2011 elections at which the current Town Council were elected. There were two reasons for this which I will pass on. Firstly because of litter being brought in, including glass bottles which could be a danger to little bare feet. Secondly because the Council was providing a Kiosk, though a concessionaire, which does help towards funding of the Park and the Council needed this to be viable.

 

We have decided not to aggressively enforce the picnic ban but do have a word with anyone obviously bringing in a picnic. I would add as a practical solution that the Park is open all day and having paid for admission, people are free to leave and return throughout the same day without paying again. So you do have the option of leaving, sitting on the beach or sea front for your picnic, and then returning. Having said that I admit the picnic ban has been controversial. I understand that having to purchase lunch does add to the costs of a visit and remember when my Children were young we almost always packed sandwiches for a family trip. I cannot promise what they would decide but it is possible that the current Council could be persuaded to take a different view. There is a meeting of the Community Services Committee on 1^st July which might, if it had been asked to by a member of the public, review the ban. Would you like me to let councillors know about your complaint?

 

Regards,

 

Malcolm

 

Malcolm L Nicholson LLB DMS AILCM

Our Family Holiday - At Butlins

 

The day after Daniels birthday party, we all packed up & headed off to Butlins - Minehead. Crazy going the day after the party, but it meant that Nanny was already up from Devon to look after the cats, rats & fish. She also manages to make my home look all sparkly & new, thanks Mum!

The first 2 days we had glorious sunshine, however the English weather returned to the status quo of could & (some) rain! It didn't spoil the holiday though as there is so much to do inside, however the early evening we spent in the pub garden whilst the boys played in the park was nice.

Whilst we were away it was Daniels actual Birthday, he had a great day swimming & enjoying the rides & shows. In the evening we ordered the party package so or dinner table was decorated, he had a card from Billy Bear & a cake. This really made the day special & was worth the £14.99.

There was so many great things on resort, that we didn't get around to going on the beach until after the weather had turned. We did however find a dry (if a little windy) morning to visit the beach. Joseph (4.5) really loves everything to do with the beach so was in his element.

The same day the 2 (much older) girls who were in the apartment opposite us had also been on the beach & had collected rocks, shells, old coins, a toy solider & they had even caught 3 crabs (2 were tiny). They invited the boys to take a look before they took them back to the sea. They were in a washing up bowl & it was like a sea sensory box. Both boys loved this & enjoyed holding & watching the crabs, it was hard to tear them away.

They also enjoyed watching the Skyline Gang shows & were really thrilled to be able to meet some of them after the show. Daniel was to shy to go up to Candy (pink one), possibly because she was a girl!

Being on the go everyday really tired he boys out & even though they were in bed by 7/8 each night & slept well, its going to take them some time to recover. It was a really great family holiday & we are already thinking about booking again.

x Jo x

P.s. If you would like a more detailed review of Minehead Butlins why not check out Mummy Mishaps recent post.

Our first small world box

Until I came accross some pins on Pintrest of small world boxes, I hadn't come across the idea. Other than the standard Fisher Price or Happyland sets, and it reminded me of the miniature gardens I made for a local flower show as a child.

I was inspired by some posts on a couple of  my favourite blogs:
The Imagination Tree
Growing A Jeweled Rose

So i went out & bought a 32L under bed storage box from a local shop, it makes a great box for this project as its big enough for both boys to use & the lid means it can easily be put away for another day.

We used some shiny blue wrapping paper stuck to the base for the sea & some cloud dough for the sand, I was going to use yellow food colouring but i could only get the gel kind locally which I didn't think would work so i ended up using a teaspoon of turmeric, which worked really well & you cant smell it over the baby oil!

I love the look of concentration on Josephs face here

We then added some fish, an old plastic aquarium plant as seaweed, a couple of boats, shells, stones, windmills, cocktail umbrellas, some people (duplo) & a dog.

The boys helped me assemble the box which is why I don't have a pic of it looking tidy. They both enjoyed playing with the box, we did get the usual squabbles about who was playing with what etc. we have since had it out when the boys have been on there own & its been lovely to watch how they use there imagination with out interruption. It also highlighted to me that even though Daniel is 18 months younger he still has a much longer attention span for this type of play than his brother.

I'm not a huge fan of sand & like it to stay at the beech, I seam to find it weeks later even if it was just a visit to a park with a sand pit! Cloud dough makes a very good sand replacement, the boys did get some on the floor but was easy to sweep up, it made more of a mess on the boys clothes but brushing them down & a change of socks was all it took.

I'm currently torn between keeping the beach theme box & changing it out for something new as I have lots of other ideas pinned!

x Jo x