Place:Kimmeridge, Dorset, England

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NameKimmeridge
Alt namesCamericsource: Domesday Book (1985) p 94
TypeAncient parish, Civil parish
Coordinates50.6°N 2.117°W
Located inDorset, England
See alsoHasilor Hundred, Dorset, Englandhundred in which it was located
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kimmeridge is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England. It is situated about south of Wareham and west of Swanage. In 2013 the estimated population of the civil parish was 90.

Kimmeridge is a coastal parish and its coastline forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The coast is also part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole parish is part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Kimmeridge is the type locality for Kimmeridge Clay, the geological formation that covers most of the parish. Within the clay are bands of bituminous shale, which in the history of the village have been the focus of several attempts to create an industrial centre. An oil well has operated on the shore of Kimmeridge Bay since 1959. The village is the origin of the name of the Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic.

The roughly semi-circular Kimmeridge Bay is southwest of Kimmeridge village. It is backed by low cliffs of Kimmeridge clay, and beneath the cliffs is a large wave-cut platform and a rocky shore with rock pools and attendant ecology. Kimmeridge Bay is a surfer and diver area.

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