Charnwood Forest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charnwood Forest is an upland tract in north-western Leicestershire, England. It is undulating, rocky, picturesque, and mostly barren, though there are some extensive tracts of woodland; its elevation is generally 600 ft (180 m) and upwards, the area exceeding this height being about 6100 acres (25 km²). The highest point, Bardon Hill, is 912 ft (278 m). On its western flank lies an abandoned coalfield, with Coalville and other former mining towns, and granite and honestones are worked. The Forest is an important area for rock climbing and hillwalking.
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[edit] Geology
The area is primarily Precambrian and, fittingly, was the site of the first ever recorded discovery of Charnia masoni, the earliest known large, complex fossilised species on record. It was discovered in 1957 by a local schoolboy named Roger Mason (thus masoni) who, with friends, was exploring a quarry near the Charnwood village of Woodhouse Eaves. The area was the inspiration for "Charnwood Poems", a collection of poems by author, playwright and poet Albert Francis Cross (1863-1940).
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[edit] Reference
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
