The Wren's Nest is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, north west of the town centre of

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

, in the West Midlands of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is one of the most important geological locations in Britain. It is also a Local Nature Reserve, a national nature reserve (NNR) and

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage and d ...

. The site is home to a number of species of birds and locally rare

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' ...

, such as '' Scabiosa columbaria'' (small scabious), milkwort and quaking grass. The caverns are also a nationally important hibernation site for seven different species of

bat Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most ...

The Wren's Nest National Nature Reserve

Ancient history

The Wren's Nest National Nature Reserve is world-famous geologically for its well-preserved Silurian

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s. Considered the most diverse and abundant fossil site in the British Isles, more than 700 types of fossil have been found at the site, 86 of which are unique to the location, including '' Calymene blumenbachii'', a

trilobite Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the ...

nicknamed the ''Dudley Bug'' or ''Dudley Locust'' by 18th century quarrymen. An image of this trilobite featured on the town's coat of arms until 1974. The

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

outcrops belong to the Wenlock Group, which was formed some 420 to 425 million years ago from the material remnants of an ancient tropical sea bed, and contain ripple marks made from the sea's action on the sand. Wren's Nest Hill was extensively quarried during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

for building stone and

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

production. The site was originally studied by the Scottish

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

Sir Roderick Murchison, whose work in defining the Silurian System was mainly based on fossils and rock formations found at the site.

Industrial Revolution

Abraham Darby I Abraham Darby, in his later life called Abraham Darby the Elder, now sometimes known for convenience as Abraham Darby I (14 April 1677 – 5 May 1717, the first and best known of several men of that name), was an English ironmaster and foundr ...

, who was one of the fathers of the Industrial Revolution, was born on Wren's Nest Hill in 1678. The caves were mined for hundreds of years for the valuable limestone, used firstly for mortar and agriculture, and then principally iron production during the Industrial Revolution. The Victorians installed the world's first industrial steam engine next to the Wren's Nest, which pumped water from mines and access tunnels. During the height of the Industrial Revolution, up to 20,000 tons of limestone was quarried annually. Local industrialisation was considerable at this time, as the district had become highly industrialised in the heyday of the Black Country's industrial past. When quarrying officially finished in 1925, the site was abandoned.

Recent history

Wren's Nest was declared a national nature reserve in 1956, the UK's first national nature reserve for geology. In 2004, Wren's Nest and the nearby Castle Hill were declared Scheduled Ancient Monuments, as they represented the best surviving remains of the limestone industry in

. The most impressive part of this is the last remaining surface opening limestone cavern in the world – formerly reaching more than 100 metres underground – which is known as the Seven Sisters. The workings were originally connected by underground canal to the

Dudley Tunnel Dudley Tunnel is a canal tunnel on the Dudley Canal Line No 1, England. At about long, it is now the second longest canal tunnel on the UK canal network today. ( Standedge Tunnel is the longest, at , and the Higham and Strood tunnel is now ...

complex, which has now been blocked off for safety reasons. The Wren's Nest's geological value was first recognised by Sir Roderick Murchison in 1839, and now both the ex-quarry and the tunnels are visited by scientists from all over the world to study its valuable content.

The Seven Sisters tunnel complex

Considered one of the best surviving examples of limestone quarrying, the Seven Sisters caverns had to be filled in after a major roof collapse and mine cave-in occurred in 2001, to prevent further collapse. More recent work had also began on infilling the huge Cathedral Gallery with loose sand. The former limestone mine and adjacent vast underground canal basin, which leads to a now blocked off passage to

, contain some of what local historians claimed to be some of the world's most important

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

heritage. In 2007, Dudley Council lost out on a £50,000,000 national lottery grant to redevelop and re-open the cavern complex, but did later secure an £800,000 grant from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

for lesser improvements to the site.

External links

Photos of some of the geological sites around the Wren's Nest locality

References

{{Reflist National nature reserves in England Local Nature Reserves in the West Midlands (county) Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the West Midlands (county) Scheduled monuments in the West Midlands (county) Dudley Geology of the West Midlands (county)