Trimdon Limestone Quarry is a Site of Special Scientific Interest

Site of Special Scientific Interest

A Site of Special Scientific Interest is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom. SSSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in Great Britain are based upon...

 in the Sedgefield

Sedgefield (borough)

Sedgefield was, from 1974 to 2009, a local government district and borough in County Durham, in North East England. It had a population of about 87,000 . It was named after Sedgefield; but its largest town was Newton Aycliffe...

 district of County Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It lies about 1 km west of the village of Trimdon Grange

Trimdon Grange

Trimdon Grange is a village in County Durham, in England. It is situated ten miles to the west of Hartlepool, and a short distance to the north of Trimdon....

 and about 5 km east of the village of Coxhoe

Coxhoe

Coxhoe is a village in County Durham, England. It is situated between Bowburn and Cornforth, a few miles south of Durham.Coxhoe is also a civil parish which also includes nearby Quarrington Hill....

.

The site is an abandoned quarry

Quarry

A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...

 in which is exposed a section of the Ford Formation of Late Permian magnesian limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

. The site is nationally important for an interpretation of the geological history of the Ford Formation carbonates

Carbonate rock

Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite .Calcite can be either dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by...

.

The abandoned quarry workings include an area of floristically-rich magnesian limestone grassland, a habitat which is nationally scarce in Britain, with only an estimated 270 ha remaining.

The site is part of a larger area that is managed by the Durham Wildlife Trust

Durham Wildlife Trust

Durham Wildlife Trust, founded in 1971, is a registered charity which aims to protect wildlife and promote nature conservation in parts of County Durham and Tyne and Wear, England...

 as the Trimdon Grange Quarry nature reserve

Nature reserve

A nature reserve is a protected area of importance for wildlife, flora, fauna or features of geological or other special interest, which is reserved and managed for conservation and to provide special opportunities for study or research...

.