Hornchurch Cutting

Hornchurch Cutting is a nature reserve in Hornchurch, Essex, that follows a former railway cutting from the 1890s. The site exposes different layers of clay, sand, and gravel that tell the story of how the land formed over millions of years.

The railway construction from Romford to Upminster in 1892 exposed this geological formation and caught the attention of geologists. The layers visible here date from different periods of Earth's history, including a time around 450,000 years ago when ice sheets covered the region.

The site marks the southern limit of glaciation in Britain, containing valuable evidence of ice sheet movements from 450,000 years ago.

The site is accessible via pathways and offers views of the exposed layers from various heights. The best time to visit is during drier months when the paths and viewpoints are easy to navigate.

Excavations in the 1980s uncovered fossils from the Jurassic period that glaciers had carried here from the Midlands region. These findings reveal how far ice movements reached and what materials they transported across vast distances.