NORTON COVERT

Dudley’s only permanent exposure of Drift occurs beneath the canopy of mature trees which comprise Norton Covert. This was formerly a sand and gravel quarry and is located to the west of the Norton Road, Stourbridge at NGR SO 887 822.  Exposures are limited to loose sand and gravel faces near to the tops of the remaining quarry edges. The site is excavated within the edge of a large mound of sand and gravel which extends into fields across the road (to the east and south of the road) where it was not worked.  This deposit gives rise to a unique ‘hummocky’ topography in these fields which is characteristic of many fluvioglacial sand and gravel deposits of better known glaciated areas of Britain.  These deposits are not associated with till (boulder clays) and are thought to represent the dumping of glacial outwash materials in banks by rivers flowing to the south of the limit of the glacial ice front.  They are probably of Devensian age when the climate was mainly cold with occasional temperate phases.  The woods are a haven for wildlife and spring is a very good time to visit the site for both the wildlife and prior to the onset of full summer vegetation.

Norton Covert is best approached on foot from the Norton Road which runs immediately adjacent to the site where there are a number of footpaths into the woods