Group photograph of geologists on a trip to Sweden, Norway and Lapland 1909/1910

BGS image ID: P883132

Group photograph from the Lady Rachel MacRobert collection. British Geological Survey Archives: LSA 213.  

Participants include John Horne, middle row, fourth from right (with moustache and prominent side-burns) Rachel Workman (later to become Lady Rachel MacRobert), middle row, third from right. Sir Alexander MacRobert is in the back row on the far right.  Edward Battersby Bailey, front row, second from the right (with hat)

Rachel Workman and  Sir Alexander MacRobert married in 1911. 

The photograph was possibly taken before/after a trip to Sweden, Norway and Lapland in 1909/1910. The trip included a stay with the Emperor of Lapland as well as with Dr Lundbohm, originator of the Swedish Ironworks. Rachel Workman's diary also mentions a Mr. Bailey, a young Highland surveyor, we believe Bailey is front row, second from the right (with hat).

Places mentioned in Rachel Workman's diary are Narvik and the snow mountains of Torne Trask and Gellivare. 

Many thanks to Vicky Duke of the The MacRobert Trust who supplied most of this information and the identification of Rachel Workman (Lady Rachel MacRobert).

Does any reader know any of the other participants or able to provide information about the background to the trip e.g. was the trip related to the 1910 International Geological Congress held in Sweden in 1910?

Bob McIntosh

Letter from Charles Darwin to Trenham Reeks

BGS image ID: P883129

 

BGS image ID: P883130

 

BGS image ID: P883131

This letter from Charles Darwin to Trenham Reeks was written on 13 August 1858 and concerns some slate reliefs that Darwin wanted to sell. The letter has been transcribed as part of the Darwin Correspondence Project and can be read here .

Andrew L Morrison

Three Scottish building stone specimens

BGS Image ID: P519461

Rock specimen of sandstone from Bloody Mires Quarry, Kippen Muir, Central Region, Scotland.

Sample of red sandstone, showing uniform grainsize and colour. This specimen is of Devonian age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC2092. This sample is from an abandoned quarry which may have been used for local building stone. Red sandstone was commonly used in Scotland from the late 19th century. The largest and most significant quarries of red sandstone in Scotland were in Ayrshire and Dumfriesshire, from where the stone was transported by railway.

BGS Image ID: P519533

Rock specimen of sandstone from Hailes Quarry, Edinburgh, Lothian Region, Scotland.

Oblique photograph of a specimen of Hailes sandstone, with the name of the quarry carved on one side. This specimen is of Carboniferous age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number MC1318. The upper surface has been left in its natural state, showing the uneven bedding surface. Such samples were prepared by the quarry in order to market the stone. This sample dates from before the First World War. Size of specimen: 11x11x5 cm. Munsell colour code and colour 5YR8/1, pinkish grey.

BGS Image ID: P519560

Specimen of roofing slate quarried from Easdale Island, Argyllshire, Scotland

This slate shows the trade mark stamp of the Easdale Slate Company. The specimen is of Precambrian, Dalradian age. British Geological Survey Petrology Collection sample number EMC 5736. The slate is a typical dark grey colour with a strong 'grain' and containing pyrite crystals. This specimen was donated to the Geological Survey of Scotland sometime before 1916. For hundreds of years slate was the preferred roofing material in Scotland. The geological variation found in slate quarries from across Scotland meant that each produced a characteristic slate, with a colour, texture and thickness varying from region to region.

Bob McIntosh

Sheringham beach. Ring of flint.

 BGS Image ID: P241299

Sheringham beach. Ring of flint. Image taken 1886.

Original image number BAAS03432. From the British Association for the Advancement of Science photograph collection

Bob McIntosh

St. Mary's Church, Sompting, West Sussex. Saxon church constructed from quarried flints

BGS image ID: P212490

St. Mary's Church, Sompting, West Sussex.

This church with its rare but distinctive Saxon tower with a 'gabled pyramidal cap' or Rheinish Helm (Rhineland Helmet) is suggestive of early German (Saxon) architectural influence. Nevertheless it is built principally of flint nodules and local sandstones from the Weald Clay Formation. The walls of Sompting Church are built mainly of undressed flint nodules. The quoins are of a variety of rock types, some possibly derived from older buildings. The nave and transept are roofed with thin sandstone slabs from the Weald Clay. The unusual tower of this church is an important Saxon structure. Many of the churches of West Sussex were principally constructed from locally 'quarried' flints, the only suitable building stone readily available. The Rheinish Helm on top of the tower is an original Anglo-Saxon spire, the only one in the country.

Original BGS photograph number: A 133394. Date of image 1979.

Virtual tour: The Friends of Sompting Church

Bob McIntosh

Concretion, near Cove Harbour, Berwickshire

BGS Image ID: P002240

Concretion. Shore, 0.4 km. east of Cove Harbour, 1.3 km. north-east of Cockburnspath, Berwickshire. 

Concretionary balls with calcareous cement in a sandstone of Ballagan Formation, Inverclyde Group (formerly Calciferous Sandstone Measures). This is an exceptionally large concretion which forms when minerals (here calcite but can also be silica) migrate towards a centre and concentrate into a discrete spherical body. Carboniferous strata in the Cockburnspath to Dunbar area rest on Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands terrane and form the landward margin of a large basin which extends eastwards into the North Sea. When rocks are deformed, the concretions also deform, commonly into ellipsoids. By making an assumption about their original shape, the proportions of the deformed concretions can be used as a measure of the amount of deformation.

The Ballagan Beds is the same formation the nearby TW:eed Project were drilling while looking for 'Romers Gap'. It was a scientific research project undertaken this year to study fossils and environments from the Early Carboniferous Tournaisian Stage, roughly 350 million years ago.

BGS Old photograph number:  C02038. Date of photograph: 1914.

Bob McIntosh

China Clay works, Lantern Pit and Cleaves Pit, North Cornwall, April 16th 1914

BGS Image ID: P804212

Lantern Pit, North Cornwall, April 16th 1914

BGS Image ID: P804218

Cleaves Pit, North Cornwall, April 16th 1914.

China clay is a material called kaolin and was used to make fine white porcelain. The extraction of China clay in the St. Austell area was one of the great extractive industries in Cornwall.

Bob McIntosh

Happy birthday - Sir Charles Lyell born 14 November 1797

BGS Image ID: P517443

Charles Lyell, Bart. born 14 November 1797.

Sir Charles Lyell, a Scottish geologist was born 14 November 1797 near Kinnordy, near Kirriemuir. He was author  of 'Principles of geology', published in 1830, it was a major work at the time that supported James Hutton's view on Uniformitarianism. He was also a keen supporter of geological surveys.

The British Geological Survey (BGS) and Heriot-Watt University are joining forces to create a new centre for earth and marine science and technology. Based in Edinburgh it will be called the Sir Charles Lyell Centre and will be one of Europe's leading centres for research and expertise in the earth and marine sciences. The centre is scheduled to open by 2015.

Jointly funded by UK and Scottish funders, Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Scottish Funding Council (SFC) and Heriot-Watt University, The Sir Charles Lyell Centre will promote innovative research at the core of geoscience, marine ecology, computing, mathematics and engineering. The Lyell Centre will create a world-leading research cluster bringing science and technology together to tackle major issues of natural resource and energy supply in a responsible and sustainable way.

Full press release on the new centre.

Bob McIntosh

Landslip under Southdown between Beer Headland and Branscombe 1789-80

BGS image: P804446

Landslip under Southdown between Beer Headland and Branscombe which took place in 1789-90 looking Westward to Sidmouth Torbay and the Start Point. Artists impression filed with Excursion to Lyme Regis, June 1st 1914.

From the Geologists' Association 'Carreck Archive' on deposit at the British Geological Survey.

Does anyone have a recent picture of this spot?

Bob McIntosh

Origins of the British Geological Survey - a poster

Link to download full sized PDF file

The British Geological Survey has had a long history. Its origin was as part of the Ordnance Survey. It became a separate geological organization by 'Act of Parliament' in 1845 called the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1965 it became a component institute of Natural Environment Research Council and the survey changed its name to Institute of Geological Sciences. There was a great expansion, it incorporated the Overseas Geological Survey which had it origins in the earlier Imperial Institute, also the units covering seismology and geomagnetism, the latter descended from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. In 1984 the survey changed its name to the current British Geological Survey. In 2013 the the ownership and governance model is again under review.

The poster was created for a BGS Open Day.

Bob McIntosh