A Carboniferous Fossil Forest in North Wales: Problems and Potentials Associated with Developing and Conserving a ‘Soft-Rock’ Site

A small area of Duckmantian deposits at Brymbo, Wrexham, in North Wales contains a variety of sedimentary rocks laid down between two coal seams. The exceptionally well-preserved flora contains three dimensionally preserved Calamites, Stigmarias and lycophyte stems in their original positions of growth together with a varied flora of compression plant fossils. The site is protected as an SSSI and has been included in the Geological Conservation Review, and the ownership will be transferred together with adjacent scheduled buildings from the former iron and steel industry to a Heritage Trust. Its future seems secure but such soft-rock sites deteriorate through exposure to the weather. The plan to develop it as an educational and research site relies on its survival, and the only secure way is to enclose the site, which will then permit further excavation and exposure of the plant fossils.