Down beside the stream, below the ruins of Higher House, on the steep northwest side of Winter Hill there is what I suppose to represent a Marine Fossil Band. I say suppose because the fossils that seem most abundant, especially a little way downstream are not marine life but the impressions of the stems of plants.
The plants look to be Calamite stems and other smaller stems that may be just small fragments. I suppose that this area was just beside a marine area or perhaps where a shallow area of water had retreated. Probably the area was swamp like or prone to flooding, maybe near where a river enters the sea. Way down below the equator, during the Carboniferous period.
There is an old mine trial nearby so we are in the right area for a Marine Band in the geological sequence.
The fossils are found in the dark, loose shale, very similar to that found in the proper Marine Bands - with marine fossils. You can see in the picture the impression of the flattened stem of what I assume to be a Calamite, a weird looking plant that grew straight up with a single, thick stem.
Higher House Marine Band image by munki-boy
