Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (WGCG)

June 2019 Walk: Bredon Hill (joint with BCGS)
2019-06-22 00:00 (Europe/London)
Bredon Hill

Led by Rob & Boo Vernon / Deborah Overton

Joint with BCGS

Use will be made of Apps

May 2019 Field Trip: Torquay, Devon residential field trip
2019-05-13 00:00 - 2019-05-17 00:00
Torquay, Devon residential field trip (led by Malcolm Hart) 13-17 May 2019, based in Paignton

GeoWeek: Gold in them thar Burton Dassett hills? Yes! Fool’s Gold! – Sunday 12 May 10:30 am
2019-05-12 10:30 - 12:30 | Burton Dassett Hills Country Park
Why are the Burton Dassett Hills there? What’s in them? Who dug? When? Why? Are they magnetic? What’s that tower for?
Sunday 12th May, Burton Dassett Hills, Meet 10.30 at Car Park near the Tower (approx 1-2 hours) With the WGCG – All-day parking £2.
The views are great but what’s this ‘outlier’ beneath your feet? How come those hills are still there after millions of years and English weather erosion? And what’s the truth about ‘outlier’? Fault lines? Are there any? Did they cause an earth tremor or earthquake? Do we still get earth tremors in Warwickshire? If, Yes, why? Find out more and hear from Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (www.WGCG.co.uk) geologist John Crossling assisted by volunteers.
The group will explore the various geological horizons exposed across the hills and work out past environments and relationships between the exposed features. They will also work out a structural surprise that is not immediately obvious.
John will lead the walk to see fossils and talk about the geology, industrial archaeology and changing economics which brought mineral extraction to an end. Which mineral? Which metal? How did it get there? John is always ready to chat about rocks, fossils and geology.

Puzzled by a rock or a fossil? Bring it along. Let’s see if we can define what it really is.

The walk offered free by the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group as part of GeoWeek, a nationwide initiative that seeks to introduce the public to parts of their local landscape, shaped over millions of years by geological processes.

Burton Dassett Hills tower

GeoWeek: Kenilworth Rocks! Meet ‘The Stones’ – Thursday 9 May 2pm
2019-05-09 14:00 - 16:00 | Abbey Fields Car Park
A guided walk of “The Building Stones of Old Kenilworth” (approx 1½ hours)Thursday 9th May, Meet 2 pm, Abbey Fields Car Park, Bridge Street. Kenilworth CV8 1BQ
Led by Ian Fenwick, Parking: 2 hrs free with ticket.

Kenilworth’s stone is 280 million years old.
How did it get here?
Where was Warwickshire then?
Every building has secrets to share and stories to tell.
Even the gravestones are alive with stories

We shall take a walk along the Old High Street, looking in on the church and the Abbey ruins. Hopefully, we shall find out how Warwickshire has moved around the world, how large rivers once flowed across Kenilworth and perhaps how the village once echoed to the noise of masons’ hammers.
The tour is offered free by the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (WGCG) as part of GeoWeek, a national initiative to introduce members of the public to geoscience.

Group viewing Townpool Bridge – Guided walk of “The Building Stones of Old Kenilworth”

Townpool Bridge – Guided walk of “The Building Stones of Old Kenilworth”

Bunter pebbles – Guided walk of “The Building Stones of Old Kenilworth”

Parochial Hall – Guided walk of “The Building Stones of Old Kenilworth”

GeoWeek: Rock solid evidence that Jurassic Park came to Banbury – Tuesday 7 May, 7 pm
2019-05-07 19:00 - 20:30 | Banbury Town Hall
Led by Norman Dutton, A guided geological tour of Banbury town centre (approx 1 hour) Tuesday 7th May, Evening, Banbury, Meet at Town Hall for 7 pm No need to book ahead. This tour will take you round many of the buildings in Banbury, Oxfordshire, which have used natural stone in their construction. The rocks are mostly of Jurassic age and reveal what the area was like over 170 million years ago. Their high fossil content means that you will probably see more fossils here than on a visit to the Jurassic Coast.
The tour will last around 1 hour and end at St. Mary’s Church. It is offered free by the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group as part of GeoWeek, a national initiative to introduce members of the public to geoscience.

Banbury town geological walk example facing stones

Belemnite on view in Banbury town geological walk

GeoWeek: Upton House Reveals its Secrets Hidden in the Stones – Tuesday 7 May from 11 am
2019-05-07 11:00 - 16:30 | Upton House
A geological tour of Upton House and gardens –

On this short outdoor tour of under one hour around the house and gardens, you will get a closer look at the building stones and natural landscape of the site, in particular:

The abundant fossils visible within the stoneEvidence for conditions in the local area during Jurassic timesThe geological history of the area since Jurassic times including the effects of recent ice ages.The importance of the geology to the layout of the estate.A free leaflet will be available at the end of the walk

These walks are offered free by the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (admission applies) and will commence hourly at 11.30 am, 12:30 pm, 2.00 pm, 3.00 pm, and 4.00 pm.The rendezvous point is to the left of the main door in view of the shop and toilets. Entry to Upton House and Gardens is free to members of the National Trust.

What’s this rock? What’s this fossil?There will be a small display of local geology with rocks and fossils to handle and geologists will be on hand to answer any questions and try to identify any geological specimen you may want to bring along.

Address: Upton House, Home Farm Drive, Banbury, Warwickshire, OX15 6HTUpton House and gardens are a National Trust property. Free entry to NT members.

WGCG GeoWeek – Event Details at Upton House

More info about Upton House and Gardens

Brachiopod nest in Upton House wall

Local rock exposure at Upton House

GeoWeek: Walk 600 million years in 20-minutes at the Brandon Marsh GeoWall – Sunday 5 May
2019-05-05 10:30 - 16:30 | Warwickshire Wildlife Trust Brandon March Visitor Centre
GeoWeek: Walk 600 million years in 20-minutes at the Brandon Marsh GeoWall.

In just a few paces, visitors can walk through time from local volcanic rocks of 600 million years ago to newer limestone of only 145 million years old. Warwickshire’s varied geology tells a good story. It is collected together in the Geology Wall at the Brandon Marsh wildlife visitor centre. The wall was designed and built by members of the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (www.WGCG.co.uk).

Come any time from 10:30 amto 4:00 pm on Sunday 5th May 2019 and see the rocks and hear their story told by members of the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (WGCG). They look forward to answering your questions.

• Puzzled by a rock or a fossil? Bring it along. See if we can tell you what it really is.

• Take the time to look at the two interpretation boards alongside the wall telling how the earth has changed in the last 600 million years.

Talk Times: 11.00 and 11.30 am, 12.00, 12.30, 1.30, 2.00, 2.30 and 3.00 pm. Standard entry charges to Brandon Marsh, WWT members free entry.

Discover the whole story told by the GeoWall at Brandon Marsh on 5th May

April 2019 Talk – The Geology of Norway – Senior Citizens Club
2019-04-17 19:00 - 21:00
The Geology of Norway – Chris Darmon

(Chris Darmon – editor ‘Down to Earth’ magazine & proprietor of ‘Geosupplies’)

PLEASE NOTE – as it is Easter week, the usual church hall venue is not available, so we will be meeting at Kenilworth Senior Citizens’ Club at the top end of the main road through town, …

behind the Almanac restaurant. The address is Abbey End, Kenilworth CV8 1LB. There is plenty of car parking space but it will cost 50p.

The speaker will be Chris Darmon, who has for many years led geological adult education events and field trips and produces the geological newsletter / magazine Down to Earth.

Norway – land of fjords, rocks and landscapes

Norway lies to the northeast of the UK with a flight time of less than 2 hours. Whilst many British people have visited Iceland and know its geology well, Norway is a closed book, a place that we known for its fabulous fjords and ice, but rather less so for its geology.

By the time of the WGCG talk, I will just have returned from a 9-day tour of the south of the country with some 37 people. I’ll have been immersed in the Norwegian landscape for 8 field days during which time I’ll have seen a lot of Norwegian rocks. In my talk I’ll be giving you an overview of the geology concentrating on the Geo Norvegica Geopark. Get ready for some surprises such as the ancient metamorphic basement, the sedimentary rocks of the Ordovician and Silurian with their graptolites and trilobites, the Carboniferous sandstones and the igneous rocks of the Oslo rift. All this as well as the famous Larvikite and some stunning glacial scenery.

April 2019 Walk: Warwick Town Walk and Warwick Museum
2019-04-10 18:00 - 21:00
Warwick Town & Museum (led by Jon Radley) (max.20)

November 2018 talk: The secret life of your mobile phone: metal supply and digital devices
2018-11-21 19:00 - 21:30 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
The secret life of your mobile phone: metal supply and digital devices.

Andrew Bloodworth, Science Director for Minerals and Waste, British Geological Survey

ajbl@bgs.ac.uk

Up until the mid 20th Century, very few metallic elements in the periodic table had any practical use. Since then, mankind has broadened its pallet of useful metals enormously to take in so-called ‘rare’ or ‘critical’ or ‘exotic’ or ‘technology’ materials, including rare earth elements, platinum group elements and others, from beryllium to zirconium. This expansion has been pulled along by the development of new digital technologies and their almost magical appeal to billions of consumers across the globe. This talk uses the ubiquitous mobile phone to illustrate the importance of these metals and to explore issues around supply security and ‘criticality’. This will include a look at ideas related to metal supply from geological and other sources, and may challenge some commonly-held assumptions relating to non-renewable mineral resources and physical scarcity. It will also look at the human factors that influence metal availability and the environmental limits to our conspicuous consumption of these vital raw materials.

Sept2018 talk: “Doctors in Geology” by Dr. Albert Benghiat
2018-09-19 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
“Doctors in Geology” – Dr. Albert Benghiat Gentleman medical personalities from the 19th century history of geology.

Sept 2018, Visit Residential, Lake District: Borrowdale Volcanics & Ordovician-Silurian boundary rocks, Led by Dr Simon Drake
2018-09-07 12:00 - 2018-09-09 12:00
Lake District, Coniston area

Led by Dr Simon Drake, Birkbeck College, London. We will examine the Borrowdale Volcanics and the Ordovician / Silurian boundary rocks and landscape development.

Participants will be required to arrange their own accommodation but it is hoped to arrange a group dinner on the Saturday, and possibly the Sunday, evenings. To allow time for participants to book accommodation early in this popular location, registration documents will be sent out earlier than usual – do look out for them during February.

July 2018, Visit, Ecton Copper Mine, Led by Ecton Ed. Trust staff
2018-07-21 00:00
Ecton Copper Mine, Manifold Valley between Hulme End and Wardlow

Led by Ecton Educational Trust staff. Ecton mine was formerly the largest copper mine in the world. The visit includes underground and hillside tours and “mining-related” indoor activities. Details for the day & registration form here.

June 2018: Walk: Wolstonian Clay Pit, led by Brian Ellis & Ian Fenwick
2018-06-20 00:00
Wolstonian Clay Pit, Burton Hastings

Led by Brian Ellis, Ian Fenwick. Quaternary clay deposit.

Meet in the car park for a 7.00pm start. It is a clay pit so expect it to be muddy, but there are access roads. Burton Farm lies to the north-east of Bedworth and south of the village of Burton Hastings.

The clay pit is on Burton Lane at GR 408893 (Landranger 140) or post code CV11 6RJ. Neither the farm house nor the clay pit are shown on my (now rather old) 1:50000 map. There is (or should be) a sign post at the gate indicating ‘Clay’, on the left almost immediately after turning off the B4114. The pit occupies much of the land between Burton Lane and the Ashby canal.

Although from a geological point of view the main interest is the Wolston Clay and the fossil tree remains, the discovery of the clay, the use Mr. Callington is making of and planning for the site, the conservation and planting and eventual restoration of the site are all also of interest. We will also want to discuss the possible origin of the clay and how the site relates to other Pleistocene sites in Warwickshire, including last year’s visit to Bubbenhall. Mr. Callington has agreed to show us round.

Before the visit it is worth looking again at our Autumn 2017 Newsletter for Ian Fenwick’s piece on the site – A Stunning Encounter.

Risk Assessment: This is an outdoor walk on tracks and some muddy, uneven ground. Wear comfortable flat shoes and suitable waterproof clothing if the weather forecast is poor. Any further safety information will be conveyed by the trip leader on the night.

There is no need to register for this trip – simply turn up.

May 2018: Walk: Leamington Building Stones and Geology, Leader John Crossling
2018-05-13 00:00
Sunday 13th May, Leamington Building Stones and Geology. Start 11.00am from top of The Parade, B4087 junction with Clarendon Ave. Leader John Crossling.

Royal Leamington Spa, its geology and building stones

This leaflet will guide you on a walk through the centre of Leamington to see the fascinating array of stones that have been used in buildings historic and modern.

Leamington Spa Trail

May 2018, Walk, Kenilworth Cutting & Common
2018-05-09 07:30 - 21:30
There will be a WGCG evening field outing to Kenilworth Cutting and Common on Wednesday 9th May, led by Ian Fenwick.

The trip will start with a visit to the Local Geological Site and then proceed to the Common via the Cutting.

We will rendezvous at c. 6.45pm in the Princes Drive Industrial Estate, CV8 2FD, where we can park. We will then walk (via a short cut) to the Greenway and on to the Cutting section, Thereafter, the intention is to walk on to the Common to discuss the origin, properties and extent of the sands & gravels which make up the Common. A short walk from there will enable us to return to our cars.

Risk Assessment: This is an outdoor walk on footpaths and there may be some uneven ground. Wear comfortable flat shoes and suitable waterproof clothing if the weather forecast is poor. Any further safety information will be conveyed by the trip leader on the night.

There is no need to register for this trip – simply turn up.

May 2018, Walk: Kenilworth Building Stones Trail, Ian Fenwick
2018-05-08 12:00
Tuesday 8th May. Kenilworth Building Stones Trail and Geology. Start 2.00pm Meet at St Nicholas’ Car Park, Bridge Street, Kenilworth Leader Ian Fenwick.

Old Kenilworth, its geology and building materials

Buildings tell a story about the history of towns through the style of the buildings and the materials used. This trail will help you explore some of that history.

Kenilworth Trail

April 2018: Walk: Led by Dave Kennett & Hugh Jones – To look at stones & brickwork in local building
2018-04-21 09:30 - 15:00
Led by Dave Kennett & Hugh Jones to look at both brickwork and building stones. Introductory talk from a brickwork expert followed by a town walk, possibly with lunch out.

April 2018 talk: Waking the giant – how a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes, by Prof Bill McGuire
2018-04-18 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Prof Bill McGuire

Waking the giant – how a changing climate triggers earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes

Jan 2018 talk: Holloway Bursary recipient: Pterosaurs, teeth and a fossil festival by Jordan Bestwick
2018-01-17 19:00 - 21:30 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Jordan Bestwick (Leicester – Holloway Bursary recipient)

Pterosaurs, teeth and a fossil festival

Examination of the late Caledonian Ben Loyal syenite intrusion (426Ma), one of three bodies making up the Loch Loyal Syenite intrusions.

Nov 2017 talk: Sinkholes and Subsidence by Dr. Tony Waltham
2017-11-15 19:00 - 21:30 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Sinkholes and Subsidence

A talk by Dr. Tony Waltham (formerly of Nottingham Trent University)

Ground subsidence is a frequent challenge for construction engineers, and one of the greatest geohazards is created by collpase and subsidence over cavernous groun, in limestone and other soluble rocks.

Please note that due to unforeseen circumstances our proposed speaker in November – Andrew Bloodworth, speaking on “The Secret Life of your Mobile Phone” – will be unable to deliver his talk on that date.

Instead, we are fortunate to have Dr. Tony Waltham stepping into the void. Tony is an acknowledged expert in the field of Caving and Karst / Limestone Environments, and led our group on last year’s field excursion to Malham.

Sept 2017 talk: Marie Stopes: Sex, Lies and Fossil Plants, Professor Howard Falcon-Lang
2017-09-20 19:00 - 21:30 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
September 2017 evening lecture

Marie Stopes: Sex, Lies and Fossil Plants, Professor Howard Falcon-Lang

Marie Stopes (1880–1958) was one of the most flamboyant and influential figures of the early twentieth century. In addition to her well-known work on birth control, she wrote a controversial sex manual for women, and produced numerous novels, plays and works of poetry. She is also remembered as a passionate advocate of eugenics, courting the architects of the Third Reich, and was identified, in some circles, as a threat to empire and country. But geology, and specifically palaeobotany, was her first love and indeed her life’s most enduring passion. Although Stopes’s life has been thoroughly dissected in four biographies, her geological career has been overshadowed by her later work. This is unfortunate, because she made major contributions to palaeobotany and coal research, and her scientific career, like her humanitarian endeavours, makes fascinating reading.

April 2017 talk:Life just got complicated: The Ediacaran Fossils of Charnwood Forest, Dr Phil Wilby, BGS
2017-04-19 00:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Dr Phil Wilby, BGS

19th April 2017

LIFE JUST GOT COMPLICATED: THE EDIACARAN FOSSILS OF CHARNWOOD FOREST

Life first appeared on Earth at least 3,800 million years ago but, for the great majority of this time, it was dominated by simple microbes. Large, complex organisms only appear at around 580 million years ago, but their position(s) in the tree of life and the trigger for their sudden appearance remain mysterious. Charnwood Forest, near Leicester, hosts the very earliest examples of these enigmatic organisms, and is at the forefront of research into understanding what they were, how they made their living, and how they helped pave the way for the modern world. The fossils form part of diverse communities, killed en masse and buried beneath submarine landslides of volcanic ash. Almost invisible in daylight, their exquisite detail can only easily be studied using laser scanning or silicone rubber moulding techniques. A programme of conservation and long-term monitoring is underway to protect these globally important fossils, including the effects of pollution and lichen-attack.

March 2017 talk: The Corsi Collection of decorative stones: where geology meets the arts, by Monica T. Price,
2017-03-15 00:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
The Corsi Collection of decorative stones: where geology meets the arts

Monica T. Price, Collections Manager, Earth Collections Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Faustino Corsi was an early 19th century lawyer in Rome who delighted in collecting samples of the different marbles, granites, serpentines and other polished decorative stones used since ancient times in his native city. He was by no means the first to build a substantial collection or to write about ‘marbles’, but his intellectual approach to the study of decorative stone was more pioneering. He intended that his collection should be used as an identification aid, and significantly, he recognised that an arrangement into a petrological order would be most useful. In his published catalogue, he tried to articulate in his descriptions such subtle details as grain-size, texture, lustre, and significant mineral and fossil constituents, as well as the more obvious properties of colour and pattern. While some parts of his geological commentary are satisfyingly accurate, others reflect contemporary mineralogical misunderstandings or represent a curious discrepancy between theory and observation.

Corsi’s work brought a geological perspective to decorative stones – an area that had largely been the preserve of artisan stone workers, archaeologists and antiquarians. He helped to give decorative stone collections a rightful place in scientific institutions worldwide. I will be telling you more about Corsi and his collection, and the website www.oum.ox.ac.uk/corsi which allows anyone worldwide to explore this beautiful collection.

Feb 2017 talk: Can we get metals out of the ground in a “green” sustainable way? by Dr Gawen Jenkins
2017-02-15 00:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Can we get metals out of the ground in a “green” sustainable way?

Speaker: Dr Gawen Jenkins from the University of Leicester

Dr Gawen Jenkin will first examine the ongoing need for mineral resources to underpin a good quality of life for the population of planet Earth. Although we might ultimately develop a “circular economy” this is a long way off and we will need to continue to extract minerals for many years to come. However, the mining industry is under a variety of pressures, both geological and anthropogenic, which make it ever harder to operate economically. At the same time the industry needs to be moving to more sustainable operations, in particular reducing carbon emissions. He will then describe an exciting breakthrough technology developed at the University of Leicester – ionic liquids – that has the potential to revolutionise the processing of mineral ores to metals in a green and environmentally-benign way. The talk is aimed to be accessible for non-specialists.

Workshop on Igneous Rock Identification
2017-02-11 12:00 | Kenilworth Senior Citizens Club
Workshop on Igneous Rock Identification

Led by Dr Paul Olver

A 5 hour intensive workshop which aims to provide novices – and not-so-novices – through the mysteries of differentiating igneous rocks from sediments and metamorphics, and then provide the tools for them to separate out the main igneous families when examined in hand specimens. To be held at Senior Citizens Club, Abbey End Car Park, Kenilworth.

January 2017 talk: The volcano that changed the World: Tambora and the great eruption in 1815 by Dr. Ralf Gertisser
2017-01-18 00:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
The volcano that changed the World: Tambora and the great eruption in 1815 by Dr. Ralf Gertisser (Keele University).

The year 2015 marked the bicentenary of the largest eruption in recent historic times: the 10-11 April 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. In this talk, I will give an overview

of the great eruption, its environmental effects both locally and world-wide, and the wide-ranging consequences that may be expected from a future Tambora-size eruption. I will further discuss the record we have of large past eruptions and show that, two hundred years after the catastrophic eruption of Tambora, the risk from volcanic eruptions in Indonesia remains amongst the highest in the world, with eruptions ranging from relatively small lava dome forming events to some of the largest eruptions ever witnessed on Earth.

The 1815 summit caldera of Tambora volcano, Sumbawa, Indonesia.

November 2016 talk: Cave deposits (speleothems) as archives of past environments and climates Ian Fairchild
2016-11-16 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Cave deposits (speleothems) as archives of past environments and climates

Ian Fairchild, University of Birmingham

A clear understanding of long-term climatic change over the Quaternary has come primarily through studies of sediments in the deep ocean and cores through the major ice sheets, forming a framework to which the myriad more fragmentary and less definitive records can be related. Caves used to be thought of as complex environments unlikely to yield records of widespread significance. The search for better climate proxies on land, as well as a series of advances in technology has transformed this situation so that well-dated speleothem records now provide definitive records of regional to global environmental change.

In this talk, an introduction to Quaternary palaeoclimates is followed by a discussion of how caves function (they have a ‘physiology’!) and the manner of formation of speleothems. Next we consider the many properties that speleothems display that may be modified depending on an interaction of climate with the cave and karst system. The crucial role of good dating of the archives is illustrated with a discussion of uranium-thorium radiometric dating combined with counting of annual layers. Finally, some case examples are used as illustrations of the varied ways in which past climates and environments have been brought to life by studying the underworld.

Sept 2016 talk: The village of Martley, Worcestershire, John Nicklin & Bill Barclay
2016-09-21 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
The village of Martley, Worcestershire

We will have two speakers covering topics relating to the village of Martley, Worcestershire.

John Nicklin is a founding member of the Teme Valley Geological Society (TVGS). He is not a professional geologist, but a great ambassador for the subject. He will speak about how and why TVGS was formed and their inspirational achievements.

Bill Barclay, a professional geologist, worked for the British Geological Survey prior to retirement (and he is still very busy with fieldwork here and abroad). He has worked with TVGS for several years on researching a small but important site in the village, located on the East Malvern Fault. Bill will tell us about this work and the findings so far.

April 2016 talk: The History of the Harbury Railway Cutting, by Luke Swain, Network Rail
2016-04-20 19:00 - 21:00 | St Francis of Assisi R C Church
Luke Swain CGeol , Senior Asset Engineer (Geotechnics) — Network Rail:

The History of the Harbury Railway Cutting.

Since the Great Western Railway came to Harbury in Warwickshire, the geology which underlies the village, has provided its fair share of challenges to all of the infrastructure owners. First constructed in circa 1850, the original plan was to construct a tunnel but this soon proved a significant and risky task for the engineers. The solution was to opt for an alternative and to construct the deepest hand dug cutting known in Europe at this time. The most significant landslip to occur in the Network Rail era occurred on the 30th January 2014 and resulted in 400,000 tonnes of soil and rock from the Lower Jurassic period moving towards the railway. The remediation that followed has provided an interesting insight into the Geology of cutting.
