Lofts Farm Pit

{{Short description|Geological site in Essex, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox SSSI

|image=Lofts Farm Pit 6.jpg

|image_caption=

|name= Lofts Farm Pit

|aos= Essex

|interest= Geological

|gridref={{gbmappingsmall|TL 864091}}

|area= 4.5 hectares

|notifydate=1994

|map=[http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%272000057%27 Magic Map]

}}

Lofts Farm Pit is a {{convert|4.5|hectare|acre|adj=on}} geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Heybridge, a suburb of Maldon in Essex.{{cite web|url=http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/2000057.pdf |title=Lofts Farm Pit citation|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate= 10 July 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%272000057%27 |title=Map of Lofts Farm Pit|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate= 10 July 2016}} It is a Geological Conservation Review site.{{cite web|url= http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4174&gcr=3011 |title= Great Totham (Lofts Farm Pit) (Quaternary of the Thames) |publisher=Joint Nature Conservation Committee|accessdate= 10 July 2016}}

Many fossils have been found at the former gravel pit dating to the last Ice Age, 110,000 to 12,000 years ago. Finds included reindeer, woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. They date to a period when what is now the North Sea was Doggerland, and the River Blackwater was a tributary of the Thames/Medway river.{{cite web|url=http://www.essexfieldclub.org.uk/portal/p/Geology+Site+Account/s/Lofts+Farm+Pit+SSSI/o/Lofts+Farm+Pit+SSSI|title=Lofts Farm Pit SSSI, Great Totham|publisher=The Essex Field Club|accessdate= 10 July 2016}}

The site has been converted into a lake and there is no public access.