Virtual Field Trips
Dell Quay to Chichester Marina
4. Copperas Point
Copperas Point sticks out into the channel. It is
made of rocks that are different to those
nearby.
They are harder so they have not been eroded
away as quickly as those that surround them.
They are made of London Clay.
Copperas Point
Copperas Point
There is evidence that the Romans used Copperas Point. It is possible that Stane Street, the Roman road between Chichester and London, started at Copperas Point.
Recently archaeologists have found evidence that the Romans may have had a harbour here. During the Second World War, there was an airfield in the fields between here and Dell Quay.
Iron pyrites in clay
Iron pyrites in clay
The clay also contains lumps of iron pyrites that are harder and darker in colour. Please do not pick up these and take them home as they may leak sulphuric acid that can damage furniture and burn skin.
Sheeps Wool
Sheeps Wool
However iron pyrites was useful. Long ago people were not able to go to the shops to buy their clothes. People kept sheep that were sheared at the end of the summer. The wool was washed, combed, spun and then woven into cloth.
Teasels
Teasels
Before manufactured combs were available, people used the flower of the teasel plant to comb the wool because it has sharp spikes on it. Teasels still grow near Copperas Point.
Oak leaves and acorns
Oak leaves and acorns
In order to make coloured cloth it had to be dyed. The dyes were mainly obtained from plants by boiling the wool with either the bark, leaves or the flowers. Different plants gave different colours. Acorn cups gave a brown dye.
When pieces of iron pyrites were added to the acorns as well, it gave a black dye. They could get the acorns from the oak trees in Salterns Copse and the iron pyrites from the rocks at Copperas Point. Copperas is another name for iron pyrites.
| « BACK | BASE MAP | CONTINUE » |