It’s that man Skinny again–you all know him by now. Finest tree climber in Worcestershire (was). He made a good fist of it on Saturday 21st April, when he helped TVGS by cutting down (and up) the rotten oak branches that used to overhang the viewing path at Martley Rock.

Where? 7.30pm, Monday 26th March, Martley Memorial Hall–DON’T MISS IT!

Header picture shows part of Acton Scott quarry–Ordovician Actonian (Upper Caradoc) Limestone. In the rest of this blog: see the interpretation board designs for Martley Rock; check out Snailbeach day; news on some future events.

Lickeys’ Field Trip
Next field trip for those on the minerals course, is on Saturday 14th April; there will be places for a dozen or more ‘others’–The Lickeys with Eve Miles of H&W EHT; information to follow.

Martley Geology Project
As you are aware, the Martley Geology Project is continuing behind the scenes with the development of Martley Rock site, the parish geology audit, both stages nearly complete, with educational materials being the next point of focus. At Martley Rock three interpretation panels have been designed for us by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Earth Heritage Trust personnel. Here are the designs:

Panel One will be a the site entrance near the visitors’ book

Panel 2 will be sited by the short trench

Panel 3 will be on the western side of the bridge, looking north / north-east

Trip to the Ordovician Areas of Shropshire, near the Stiperstones.
On Saturday 17th March, those who had enrolled on Paul’s Minerals course enjoyed a fascinating day exploring quarries and mines in Shropshire. First stop was Acton Scott, the location for the BBC series Victorian Country Farm, and a quarry a short walk past A.S. church across fields with wide views of the wonderful rolling border countryside. The church and churchyard were notable for a number of reasons: the stones, mainly quarried locally, from which the church was constructed, the huge yew trees in the churchyard and the lady we met in the church who asked if we wanted to learn about church history but was not aware that a few hundred yards away was the quarry from which it was made?!
We scrabbled about in the much overgrown quarry that featured several low exposures, finding excellent examples of fossils from the Ordovician period. Not many left once the TVGS raiders departed. Paul’s notes helped us here a great deal as they did throughout the day, in identifying exactly what we were looking at, and of course he was always on hand to take off his glasses so he could see all the better!
The TVGS convoy then made its way to the western side of the Stiperstones, passing two old mine engine houses (just like Cornwall) en route to the village of Shelve. We took hammers to an innocent looking, somewhat vegetated outcrop at the side of the road. We were seeking i.a. the elusive graptolites to be found within Mytton Flags, but not in the volcanic dolerite that was also present and of interest in itself, of course.
Appropriately after our hard working morning, it was now time for Paul to escort us to the busy Stiperstones Inn for lunch. I think Scotland was 3 nil down at that stage and no radio in my car upset some of my passengers, luckily Ing. had her iPhone.
After lunch just round the corner (or two) and missing out what would have been the highlight of the day–the Stiperstones shop–Snailbeach village and the site of the old Snailbeach lead mine, where we shoved feet into wellies, hard hats on head and illumination in hand (or also on head). We were most competently guided around the surface workings and into the mine by two volunteers from The Shropshire Mining and Caving Club. Staggering to hear of the privation suffered by the hundreds of workers who toiled to make the Marquis of Bath a very, very wealthy man in the late 1700s early 1800s. They not only had to make their own tools and walk to work, but also had to buy the candles to see what they were doing and were paid only for ore produced. Those were the days, we’ve all gone soft. We spent a happy time after the tour, beating up rocks on the old dump, finding very good samples of lead (galena) and zinc ore (Sphalerite)as well as barytes–barium sulphate.
Final stop of the day was in Hope Village to see the contorted Hope Shales, as examples of ‘competent’ and ‘incompetent’ rocks.
Thanks are due to Paul for taking the time and patience with many ‘incompetent’ aspirant geologists; I for one enjoyed it more than I thought I would, it is really fascinating to begin to appreciate how the world around has been shaped over millions of years, and a field trip gives it a relevance and reality absent in the classroom. Thanks Paul.

For those dying to see themselves on a geology trip, try your luck with the gallery:

November 3rd three of us worked with chain saws at the Nubbins quarry to remove fallen timber blocking the view of one of the more splendid faces.

There is more work to do but the pictures hopefully show the change.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At Martley Rock, progress continues with fencing nearly complete.  Next task is to install the side boards along the walkways then fit in the membrane to stop weeds growing into the wood chip paths.

Manor Estates are moving on well with the fencing and later the walkways at our Martley Rock site.

Their work should be more or less completed, weather permitting–watch out Wednesday (apparently)–by end of this coming week. The recent rain has left a pool in the hollow where we exposed the old quarry rim, but we always intended to dig soakaways wherever needed so will bring back the digger to do this. There are a number of places where we need the digger, so best to make a full list of these before calling it in.

Had a gentleman from Leominster call me today wanting to find out about TVGS, then, at Martley Rock, met a lady from Martley with her grandchild in a push chair, and she too, is keen to be on the mailing list. Numbers grow all the time, it is amazing, so long as they all appear on 26th November for our ROCK DAY. Hopefully will do more clearance work at The Nubbins this week. Eve Miles from Hereford and Worcester Earth Heritage Trust, is coming out tomorrow to see what we have been up to and to point out the errors of our ways.

Here are a few more pics–including one of the lovely Teme valley, with autumn sunshine showing all the colours–fabulous. Did you know that the Teme and its valley is not only a SSSI (site of special scientific interest) all of its length but is also a noted geological feature too?

Today spoke with a local geophysics company–you know what geophysicists do, you might have seen them on Time Team–with a view to them coming out to Martley to check possibilities in the field adjacent to Martley Rock. Their non-destructive testing methods will show up what is happening below the surface and allow us to track the changes in rock types across the field. If you want to read more this is a link to the company. Also today, Radio Hereford and Worcester were here very bright and early (0730am) to interview a number of us about the broadband that we provide in Martley. You know me well enough to believe that I did not miss the opportunity of selling to Amani (with Louise the two BBC staff who drove out to see us in their very technical van with top mounted sat dish) the big geology vison we have and the work we are doing. I have even signed her up to the database and sent her some intro articles, so hopefully she will be a good contact. Finally, we hope to start work on site with fencing and walkways later this week.