YOUNG people sought out relics of a former age during a special event this week.

The Cotswold Water Park Trust organised a special event at the park to enable young people to find out more about fossils.

The park is one of the most fossil rich areas of the UK due to the extraction of gravel and, therefore, the exposure of the underlying Oxford clay, which once formed the sea bed of a warm and shallow sea 150 million years ago.

Jill Bewley, from the trust, said the event was a big success.

“It was great to see so many young children getting really excited about the fossils and learning about the wildlife which lived here millions of years ago,” she said.

“We are so lucky to have this amazing landscape right on our doorstep, with so much history, geology, watersports, wildlife and leisure, all in one place.”

Creatures such as ammonites, belemnites and marine reptiles lived around the area, she said, and their fossilised remains can be found among the gravel.

“Even the pavements of Swindon are full of crushed fossil remains,” Jill added.

Children were also able to make their own fossils and make a range of crafts, all related to fossils.

For more information about events and the Cotswold Water Park Trust and events at the park, log on to www.waterpark.org.