Blue Ball Inn, Sidford, DevonJurassic Coast
The Jurassic Coast in East Devon and Dorset, is the UK's only natural World Heritage site and features 185 million year's of the earth's history along 95 miles of coast.
Of particular interest to guests of the Blue Ball Inn in Sidford is the nearby coastline around Sidmouth and Beer:
Sidmouth: Triassic Cliffs
The coast around Sidmouth offers beautiful coastal scenery and rich geology. The red rocks, capped by yellow Upper Greensand and white Chalk, dominate the views.
This contrast is produced because the gap between the Triassic and the Cretaceous is such a well marked ‘unconformity’ between rocks of different ages. In this part of the World Heritage Site, the Jurassic rocks have been completely eroded away.
The surrounding hills form a plateau rising inland from 200 to 350 metres. This is an ancient land surface produced by erosion over 40 million years ago in tropical climate.
Beer & Seaton: Building from Stone
The picturesque fishing village of Beer on the East Devon coast nestles in a natural bay surrounded by high cliffs of white chalk. These rocks formed in shallow sub-tropical seas that covered East Devon and Dorset in the Cretaceous Period, over 70 million years ago. Most of the chalk has since been eroded, but at Beer a quirk of geology has preserved it. This is because the chalk rocks are folded and faulted downwards, level with the older rocks and thus were protected from the erosion that was to come later. At Seaton, red Triassic rocks return and can be seen east of Seaton Hole.
Beer Quarry Caves
Just behind the village of Beer there is a layer of chalk known as Beer Stone, composed of densely packed, minute shell fragments. This is a high quality masonry stone used in important buildings. Quarried from underground since Roman times, the workings have created Beer Quarry Caves which cover an area equivalent to over 50 football pitches. Guided tours are available.
Flint
The chalk at Beer contains distinctive bands of flint. Although best known as a material for prehistoric tools, flint's durability has meant that it has been used as a local building stone in Beer and surrounding villages.