The Bradgate Formation is a geologic formation in Leicestershire, and lies within the wider Bradgate Park area. It also preserves fossils dating back to the late Ediacaran period.
The formation is composed of various volcaniclastic rocks, like tuff, and is broken up into two members. It is overlain by the Hanging Rocks Formation, whilst it is underlain by the Beacon Hill Formation.
The Bradgate Formation is formally split up into two members, which are as follows, in ascending age:
At the base of the Bradgate Formation, zircon samples were collected to take U-Pb dating on them and determine the overall age of the formation and fossils. The zircon sample JNC 912, from the base of the formation, returned a date of . Meanwhile a zircon sample, JNC 846, collected from near the base of the overlying Hanging Rocks Formation returned an age of , which would constrain the Bradgate Formation entirely within the Avalon assemblage, and correlating it roughly with the Trepassey Formation.
The Bradgate Formation contains the richest fossil beds within the Charnian Supergroup, from frondose organisms like Bradgatia and Charnia, which when the latter was discovered, showed definitive proof that macroscopic life did indeed exist before the Cambrian, to discoid forms like Aspidella.