Gravel Hunters

Opened December 2021

In the summer of 2020, we set ourselves the challenge to get families back outside after being locked-down all spring. We wanted to help them find out more about the geology local to Cambridge. Flint gravel was the answer. It is often overlooked as a good fossil hunting ground. Gravel is easy to find in back gardens, car parks and driveways and doesn’t require any special tools to discover the fossils.

We made a short film that tells how gravel is formed (below), and an activity and identification resource (updated June 2025) to help identify the most common flint fossils. In the summer of 2021, we invited visitors who bought in their wonderful flint fossil finds for identification to join us in creating a community cabinet of their discoveries.