Beeston Cliffs is a biological and geological
Site of Special Scientific Interest in
Sheringham
Sheringham (; population 7,367) is an English seaside town within the county of Norfolk, United Kingdom.Ordnance Survey (2002). ''OS Explorer Map 252 - Norfolk Coast East''. . The motto of the town, granted in 1953 to the Sheringham Urban Dist ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...
.
It is a
Geological Conservation Review
The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee and is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological ...
site.
This is the
type site
In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron ...
for the
Beestonian stage
The Beestonian Stage is an early Pleistocene stage used in the British Isles. It is named after Beeston Cliffs near West Runton in Norfolk where deposits from this stage are preserved.
The Beestonian precedes the Cromerian Stage and follows the ...
of the
Early Pleistocene, between around 1.8 and 0.8 million years ago. It has both marine and freshwater deposits. There is a nationally rare plant,
purple broomrape, in
calcareous
Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
In zoology
''Calcareous'' is used as an a ...
grassland on the clifftop.
There is public access to the site.
References
{{Authority control
,
Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Norfolk
Geological Conservation Review sites