The Maidstone Iguanadon and other fossils

What became known as the Maidstone Iguanadon quarry, less than half a mile north-east of Oakwood, was operated in the 19^th century for the extraction of Kentish ragstone.  It closed in 1872, was then built over, and is now the garden of a private residence.  The quarry is of some importance internationally in the history of geology/palaeontology.

In 1834, at a depth of 30 to 40 feet, was found the fossil carcass of the earliest known type of Iguanadon, a herbivorous dinosaur.  It was acquired by Gideon Mantell, a geologist, who had earlier discovered what were identified as Iguanadon teeth and large fossil bones in the strata of Tilgate Forest at Whitemans Green, Cuckfield.  Iguanadon will have lived at some time between 130 and 120 million years ago.  It has been estimated that they would have weighed about 3½ tons and have measured something like 10 metres in length.  They had large thumb spikes which may have been used for defence against predators as well as for foraging for vegetable matter for food.  The Maidstone skeleton, still encased in rock, is displayed at the National History Museum in London. 

In 1949 the borough of Maidstone commemorated the 19^th century find by adding the Iguanadon as a supporter to its coat of arms.

In prehistoric times the Iguanadon was far from being the only large animal which roamed in the countryside around what is now Maidstone.  In 1956 a gravel pit at New Hythe yielded up some bones from a mammoth and a rhinoceros and these are on display in Maidstone Museum.  In the later 19^th century, teeth of an elephant were found at the Aylesford Sand and Gravel Pit, together with a curved trunk which was at least 10 feet in length.  Teeth of rhinoceros were also found there.  Other fossils from the Aylesford area include those from mammoth, straight-tusked elephant, lion and red deer. 

A large group of fossils was unearthed at Boughton, near Loose.  This included the remains of ox, elephant, horse, hyaena and rhinoceros.  These are in the Geological Survey collection in London.  It seems unlikely that such assortments of large animals necessarily died where their fossils were found.  Indeed, it would be remarkable were they all to have died in one place.  Workmen at pits and quarries in the area may have thought that fossils could be sold to collectors, and thus transported them from where they were discovered to one or more central points for that purpose.  But, even if this was so, they will not have moved them over any long distance and it is reasonable to assume that the creatures, whilst alive, had as their territory the Lower Medway area including what is now Maidstone.  

Apart from fossils of larger creatures evidence exists of molluscs, hard-shelled creatures such as limpets, snails, cuttlefish, oysters, mussels, etc.  Fossilised fish remains and shells have been unearthed at Thurnham Pumping Station. The Geological Survey Museum has ammonites from Bearsted, whilst others, including several quite large specimens, from Aylesford are in Maidstone Museum. At a depth of 40 feet, at Ditton Court quarry, fossils of creatures akin to cuttlefish were found whilst nautilus and oyster fossils have been found at a number of locations in and around Maidstone.  Turtle fossils have been discovered in a quarry near Allington church as well as elsewhere. 

The National History Museum has a collection of some 5,000 molluscs, of 38 different species, which were collected between 1939 to 1955 at the gravel pit which was once at Champion Court, Newnham.  Lenham was an area replete with, principally, marine shells.  In all some 104 species have been identified from there, of which 47 species are said by the Geological Survey still to be existent.  Many are likely to have come from the Old South Pit half a mile north of Lenham.  In addition to the shells, the scales and vertebrae of fish have been found in Lenham.

In the Boxley Road area a bed of fossilised freshwater shells was found at a depth of 10 to 20 feet, whilst fossilised marine shells have been discovered below St Faiths Street, at Grafty Green and Hunton.  Throughout the whole of the Maidstone area there is plentiful evidence of prehistoric life from very large mammals, smaller creatures, and both land and marine molluscs.

Maidstone Museum has a good collection of fossils, including some mentioned in this article, as well as lobster, shark tooth, crab, nautilus and many others.  It is well worth a visit.