EMGS and WGCG Joint Residential Field Trip - Nick Chidlaw
2026-09-11 14:00 - 2026-09-13 15:30 (Europe/London) | Warwickshire
EMGS: Residential Field Trip: Friday 11th – Sunday13th September 2026 Conducted Jointly with WGCG: Led by Nick Chidlaw‘South Malverns to Cleeve Hill’

Itinerary:

Friday p.m (c.2 – 5 p.m) – Gullet Quarry and Hangman Hill.Circular walk viewing Gullet Quarry, along crest of Swinyard Hill, to Hangman’s Hill to see aspects of the late Pre-Cambrian Malverns Complex & Warren House Volcanics and contrasting views of the Welsh Borderland and Severn Valley / Cotswold landscapes (subject to weather conditions). (approx. 3-4km.)

Gullet Quarry

Saturday a.m. p.m. (timings t.b.c.)Visit two contrasting Severn River cliff exposures in the Severn Vale:Late Triassic at Garden Cliff, Westbury (approx. 1km.); and,Early Jurassic at Hock Cliff (approx. 2km.). Picnic lunch taken en route (details t.b.c.)

Hock Cliff

Sunday (c.9:30 a.m to 3:30 p.m) – Cleeve Hill Traverse of Cleeve Hill to examine mid-Jurassic limestones (approx. 3km.).This will involve transferring all participants using some vehicles from our assembly point finish about at the golf clubhouse (north side of hill) to a car park by the radio masts on Cleeve Common (south side of hill).Picnic lunch en route with further use of the clubhouse facilities nearby.

Cleeve Hill

Participants will be expected to be suitably prepared for whatever weather conditions arise, and sufficiently mobile / fit for the walking involved……mostly on rough tracks and footpaths. In wet conditions Hock Cliff can get very muddy; Garden Cliff and the Malverns less so. Malvern terrain includes some steep sections.

Participants will also be required to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

Tewksbury is the focal point for this trip. The price will be £5 for a half day (Friday) and £10 per full day. Total trip £25.

To register email julieharrald@googlemail.com

For full details, click here to view the event flyer.

Late Carboniferous - Dr Bernard Besley
2026-09-17 19:15 - 21:00 | Warwickshire
A talk from Dr Bernard Besley on the Late Carboniferous.

More details to follow.

Venue:St Francis Of Assisi RC Church, 110 Warwick Rd, Kenilworth CV8 1HLhttps://maps.app.goo.gl/9CGWRNdgFfttDKtd7

WGCG Bridgnorth Field Trip - Led by Stuart Burley, Mike Allen & Ray Pratt
2026-10-04 10:30 - 16:00 | Warwickshire
Bridgnorth, straddling the Severn Valley in a spectacular setting, is well known for its striking topography, defined by the Bridgnorth Sandstone Formation, a bright orange-red, soft sandstone of Permian age, some ≈ 256-260 million years ago. The succession is composed of well-sorted, quartz arenite sandstones organised into large scale sets of cross-strata and has long been interpreted as an aeolian dune deposit (e.g. Shotton, 1937). It is one of several lower Permian aeolian dune-field (‘erg’) successions present within the United Kingdom and adjacent offshore regions and is thought to be broadly time-equivalent to the desert sandstones of the Kinnerton Sandstone Formation in Cheshire and the Rotliegend Group in the Southern North Sea Basin, including the Leman Sandstone, which formed the main gas-bearing interval. The Bridgenorth Sandstone Formation is considered to be the time equivalent of the Clent Breccias, and possibly the Kenilworth Sandstone Formation.

The Permo-Triassic successions of the West Midlands mainly overlie Carboniferous basement rocks that were deformed during the Variscan Orogeny and partly eroded during early Permian sub-aerial exposure. The Bridgnorth Sandstone Formation occurs in the Stafford Basin, a major half-graben structure filled principally by Permian-Triassic deposits of continental origin. It forms part of a chain of interconnected rift basins that extend from Lancashire in the north to Warwickshire and beyond in the south, forming a large rift basin system in which a variety of non-marine environments developed including large ergs, small isolated dune fields, sandsheets, basin margin alluvial fans and, in the case of the Irish Sea Basin, a large interior-draining playa lake. The Variscan highlands occupied an equatorial latitude and the Stafford Basin lay approximately 400 km further north under the influence of a semi-arid to arid climatic regime. Aridity was maintained because the region occupied an interior continental position within the Pangaea supercontinent, away from any maritime influence, and because it lay in the rain shadow of the Variscan mountain chain that stretched east-west through Europe.

Within the Stafford Basin, the Bridgnorth Sandstone formed as the product of the migration of straight-crested and crescentic dunes that coalesced laterally to form elongate ridges (‘draa’). Many bedform slip faces were orientated transverse to the palaeo-wind with bedform migration occurring to the west. Along slope winds modified the dunes on a seasonal basis. The Stafford Basin contains only 200-300 m of Permian strata. By analysing the shape slip face orientations of these fossilised dunes the predominant wind direction when the dunes were formed can be determined. Analysis indicates winds blew from the east and south-east which is consistent with sub-tropical trade winds found at 20 degrees north of the equator today.

Overlying the Bridgenorth Sandstone Formation is the basal conglomerate of the Kidderminster Formation (formerly known as the Bunter Pebble Beds) within the Sherwood Sandstone Group. These conglomerates were laid down approximately 250 million years ago during the early Triassic. They represent massive high-energy river systems that swept across the region during periods of flash flooding, eroding deeply into the landscape.

On this field trip we will learn how to recognise aeolian dune sandstones and compare the Bridgnorth Sandstone Formation with the depositional characteristics of the Kenilworth Sandstone Formation.

To register for this trip please email julieharrald@googlemail.com

For more details please view the event flyer by clicking here

Day Field Meeting: Smestow Valley and Wightwick Bank - Andrew Harrison and Julie Schroder
2026-10-11 10:30 - 13:30 | Warwickshire
Details TBC.

Geology & Industrial Archaeology of Harlech – Allison Barraclough
2026-10-15 19:15 - 21:00 | Warwickshire
More details to follow.

Venue:St Francis Of Assisi RC Church, 110 Warwick Rd, Kenilworth CV8 1HLhttps://maps.app.goo.gl/9CGWRNdgFfttDKtd7

Ask a Geologist - Under Dippy!
2026-10-17 10:00 - 16:00 | Warwickshire
To celebrate Earth Science Week 2026, the Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group (WGCG) is hosting a special “Ask a Geologist” session. Join us right beneath the tail of Dippy the Diplodocus at the Herbert Art Gallery & Museum in Coventry. WGCG geological experts will be at hand to discuss geology in our everyday lives, geological careers, and geological science in general. Come along and examine specimens in super detail with our blue tooth microscope. We will have a number of rocks, minerals and fossils on hand to be viewed and discussed, a number of posters, geological references and free brochures of nearby geology trails.

This is a drop in event, no need to book ahead.

Venue:Herbert Art Gallery & Museumhttps://maps.app.goo.gl/3w57Gv8vonQH8sxT9

Geology of Stonehenge - Peter Worsley
2026-11-19 19:15 - 21:00 | Warwickshire
A talk on the geology of Stonehenge by Peter Worsley.

More details to follow.

Venue:St Francis Of Assisi RC Church, 110 Warwick Rd, Kenilworth CV8 1HLhttps://maps.app.goo.gl/9CGWRNdgFfttDKtd7

WGCG: Ask a Geologist
2026-12-05 10:30 - 13:30 | Market Hall Museum, Market Hall Museum, Market Pl, Warwick,, CV34 4SA, United Kingdom
The WGCG shall be holding a special Ask a Geologist session at Market Hall Museum in Warwick. WGCG geological experts will be at hand to discuss geology in our everyday lives, geological careers, and geological science in general. Come along and examine specimens in super detail with our blue tooth microscope. We will have a number of rocks, minerals and fossils on hand to be viewed and discussed, a number of posters, geological references and free brochures of nearby geology trails.

This is a drop in event, no need to book ahead.

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WGCG Christmas Social
2026-12-12 14:00 - 17:00 | Warwickshire
The next Christmas Social of Warwickshire Geological Conservation Group will be on Saturday 12th December at Kenilworth Senior Citizens’ Club, Abbey End, Kenilworth CV8 1QJ at 7.00pm. This year will feature wine tasting.

Details TBC.
