Mineralisation of the Malvern Hills – Adrian Wyatt

On walking or driving through Malvern town the visitor will find it hard not to notice the many drab, grey boundary walls and house frontages made of a jumble of angular blocks of rock, each block cemented in place with lime mortar. These rocks were sold by many local quarries and were described as ‘Malvern Stone’; the peak of popularity being during Victorian and Edwardian times. Malvern Stone, when freshly broken, was sought after for the variety of colours and patterns that it displayed. The colours are due to different minerals and they occur either as separate, easily discernible to the eye, interlocking crystals in a specific type of rock or as crystallized veins filling fissures that were created when the rock was brittle fractured. The most common rock types are Precambrian age igneous granite and diorite with metamorphic and gneissose and schistose derivatives. The granite is composed of the minerals quartz, feldspar and usually a little mica or amphibole; but what of the other rocks and were any other minerals found during the quarrying heyday that are visible to the naked eye?

There have been at least three determined attempts to establish the prospects for metalliferous mining in the Malvern Hills. One involved the sinking of a shaft and driving an adit and the other two used chemical laboratory analysis of samples of rock or soil. They all concluded that there are no minerals of economic value here.

However, the talk will share the results of research using archives including library books, museum and private collections, geological society papers and field club reports that show that a surprisingly wide variety of minerals were discovered during the period of quarrying and tunnelling that ended in 1976; and it will show that the Malvern Hills are not just made of granite and diorite!

Adrian Wyatt
Born in Malvern I have always been in awe of the Malvern Hills. I was introduced to geology in 1970 and took an interest in the subject as a hobby. After gaining a degree in Metallurgy in Sheffield I spent most of my working life in the aircraft component manufacturing industry in Worcestershire. As a Chartered Engineer and member of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing I was responsible for the NDT (Non-Destructive Testing) departments. During this time I was commissioned to create a display of local rocks for the opening of the Malvern Museum at its present location in the Priory Gatehouse. I am a long time member of several geological and mineral groups and societies and support the U3a geology group, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust, Malvern Hills Trust and Malvern Museum Association in their activities. Since 2014 I have organised occasional geological walks and talks; the most recent being a field trip for WGCG to the Malvern Hills in August last year.

This lecture will be offered in a hybrid format. Please join us in person if you can, or register to attend virtually via zoom using the link below.

Register in advance to attend virtually:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/CLx_apThR3WIXNH2UaFrVA

Venue:
St Francis Of Assisi RC Church, 110 Warwick Rd, Kenilworth CV8 1HL
https://maps.app.goo.gl/9CGWRNdgFfttDKtd