Exploring West Sussex geology
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Listed below are the museums in West Sussex and immediate surrounding area with at least some geology. Please let me know of any omissions or corrections.

 

Bognor Regis Museum. A small but well presented museum run by volunteers of the Local History Society. It includes a small display of local fossils from the London Clay Formation (Eocene) from Bognor foreshore.

 

Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton. The collection includes important specimens of insects in amber, local fossils collected by geologists Henry Willett, Charles Potter and R.M. Brydone. The Library includes over 14,000 natural history texts dating from the 17th century to the present day.

 

The Novium, Chichester. Unfortunately, very little on geology compared with the original district museum.

 

Cuckfield Museum. The displays include the Iguanodon story and Gideon Mantell.

 

Haslemere Museum. Displays include a comprehensive range of fossils, local geological specimens and a genuine meteorite. The museum also houses some personal belongings of the renowned geologist Sir Archibald Geikie, such as his tools, working notes, watercolour sketches and other personal correspondence.

 

Horsham Museum. In the 1980s, the bones of a unique dinosaur, Polacanthus rudgewickensis were discovered at Rudgwick Brickworks. The fossils of this armadillo shaped dinosaur, weighing over five tons, were found near the remains of two unique fossil dragonflies. These finds are the star exhibits in the display of Horsham District fossils.

 

Weald & Downland Open Air Museum. Located at Singleton, north of Chichester, this is principally a museum of Wealden buildings well worth visiting in its own right. There are small displays of building stones and the buildings show a range of local stones.

 

Worthing Museum. The museum has a representative collection of the fossils that are found in the chalk of the South Downs and along the beaches. These include more unusual items such as a woolly mammoth's tusk and tooth, huge ammonites and the remains of an Iguanodon that was found at Southwater.

 

Museums