West Hoathly 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 county of West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

, 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...

, near the hamlet of Sharpthorne

Sharpthorne

Sharpthorne is a hamlet in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the West Hoathly to Forest Row road 3.8 miles south of East Grinstead. There is a steam train railway track which runs through a tunnel underneath the village....

.

The site is an active brickclay pit which has exposed 9 metres (29.5 ft) of sediments which reveal a gradual change from silty deposits to non silty. Its importance lies within its position within the London-Brabant Massif, at a possible gap through which the Boreal Sea

Boreal Sea

The Boreal Sea was a Mesozoic-era seaway that lay along the northern border of Laurasia....

may have flowed.