A crinoid find and a brief history of collecting these animals – Deposits

Fiona Jennings (UK)

I’m a collector of fossil crinoids that, together with many different kinds of fossils, are widespread on the coast of North Yorkshire. The very best crinoid fossil I’ve discovered up to now is the big block of jumbled stems pictured. I discovered it at Skipsea, just a few miles from Tunstall, on the Holderness coast, one November some time in the past.

The block measures 18 inches throughout, is 6.5 inches thick and has a circumference of 23 inches. I used to be completely stunned after I noticed it resting on the mud, as I’d solely been on the seaside for about ten minutes. My good friend Harry tells me that this block is an erratic, carried to the beach from further north, by glacier ice during the last glaciation.

I always have fun on my fossil hunting trips, but the biggest laugh of this particular day came as I tried to get the fossil off the beach. After finally squeezing it into my husband’s rucksack, I then had the trouble of lifting the bag onto his back. Fortunately, he managed to lug my find back to the car, because it was definitely coming home with us whether he liked it or not!

I find crinoid fossils fascinating, but the history of their collection interests me the most. In the past, disc-shaped segments from their stems were used to make necklaces and rosaries. As a result, they were once known as ‘St Cuthbert’s Beads’. On the island of Lindisfarne, it is said that St Cuthbert himself sat on a rock threading these and making them into rosaries.

The particular crinoid segments that the saint would have used originate from the Carboniferous period and, in 1344, a limestone quarry opened on the island from which his beads may have come. However, it is also possible that they were sourced from the foreshore. Back in the fourteenth century, disarticulated stems could often be seen in the shale beds on the beach, with complete examples being far less common; as they still are today.

In some places in Britain, the fossils were also known as ‘fairy money’. However, today, their common name is ‘sea lilies’ despite the fact that they are animals and most certainly not plants!