In this update:

The masthead shows crinoids in the Wenlock limestone, north of Martley. Click on links to find out more and pictures to see them larger. Next evening meeting–the one you have all been waiting for-‘The Yellowstone Mega Volcano‘ with Ian Sutton, Martley Memorial Hall, Monday 26th March 2012 7.30pm, members free, non-members £2.50. Remember we need your ideas for events, trips, talks, activities, it is your society and actually sometimes it is quite hard work to keep the ideas coming! WORKPARTIES–it is now the time to start calling for volunteers to help maintain and improve, initially Martley Rock site. Please .
If you wish to volunteer as librarian–keeper of the scrolls–again please let me know; here is our current list of books etc. These are all for lending out but need someone to keep a check on them–please. Dr Payne’s Talk on the Geology of the South Malverns. Final calls to enrol for the Snailbeach Day, 17th March and the Geology Mapping Course starting 15th May. Martley Geology Project progress. Le Grand Tour continues.

Dr Payne

Upwards of 30 TVGS members braved a cold grey winter’s evening to attend John Payne’s talk about the Pre-Cambrian and Ordovician rocks of the Malvern area. We are very grateful to John who stepped in at short notice to deliver the 2nd lecture of the TVGS winter season replacing the planned talk by Chris Damon who had a family bereavement. Our best wishes go to Chris  and we look forward to hearing him speak later in the year. We had a very interesting talk from John whose illustrations as usual were superb, allowing all of us to understand a little of the complex geology behind the formation of the Malverns and the many features that are there if you go looking! It gave us the idea for a trip to see all the features John presented, in the field, after all it is only just down the road! All in all a fascinating talk, thanks again John.

Snailbeach

There are one or two places left for the day tour to Snailbeach, leaving Martley around 8.15am Saturday 17th March. Please call me–John 01886 888318–if you wish to come along.

Here are the notes that I sent to those who have previously enrolled: I will drive my car so can take 3 or 4; any questions do not hesitate to call me or email me. Dr Olver is harder to reach! To get to Craven Arms by 0930 we would need to leave Martley at the latest 0830, and preferably 0815 as it is a fairly slow going tho only around 33 miles, John.

Paul’s notes–party to meet at 9.30 am on Saturday 17th March at the Corvedale Road Car Park in Craven Arms.
Take the B4368 off the roundabout on the A49 in Craven Arms and the car park entrance follows on the left almost immediately opposite a row of small shops.
Some cars will be left here and a few selected cars will take a circular tour. The roads are narrow in places and parking is at a premium so a smaller number of cars is best.
We will be visiting some Ordovician geological exposures in the Shelve & Acton Scott areas in the morning prior to having lunch at the Stiperstones Inn at approximately 12.30 pm – they are reserving a room for the whole party. I’ll have the bar snacks menu with me and we can order prior to lunchtime which will speed things up!
In the afternoon from about 2 pm we will be visiting the Snailbeach Mine. There is a lot of historic/industrial archaeology interest here and we will have a guide, Peter Sheldrake, for the whole of our visit. He will take the party around both the surface processing buildings and into the mine. The whole tour is £7-50 each (no reductions) which goes to the preservation group. For those not wishing to visit the mine itself there will be a reduced fee of £5-00 (no reductions). All these payments can be made on the day when we arrive so members will need some money with them – credit cards are not taken!! We will all have a chance to look for galena/sphalerite and other gangue minerals such barytes/quartz on the extensive tip heaps close to the mine. The visit will finish around 4.30 pm.
For those wishing to go into the mine – it’s a level adit for about 100 yds but you need to stoop first before it opens up – they will definitely need wellingtons as there is standing water and most importantly a torch each. As I said, this part of the tour is optional and should be avoided by anyone who is claustrophobic.
All members attending will need to wear stout footwear/boots and of course bring warm clothes/waterproofs especially if entering the mine.

Mapping

For the last few places on this 4 week course commencing 15th May, call Natalie on 01905 855184.

MGP Progress

Interpretation boards and other types of media to enable visitors to follow the complexities of the site at Martley Rock are on schedule for installation during April. Some work has started on the car park, moving the existing steel gates back 30 or 40m and installing a perimeter fence. The survey of the geology of Martley continues behind the scenes and the compilation of all of the data into an index will commence shortly. When the findings from this are made known it will show us other sites that we can put on the itinerary of our increasing numbers of visitors. We expect that maintenance work will be needed on these sites as well as at Martley Rock, hence the call for volunteers. In the new financial year attention will turn to the final strand of the project, production of educational packs, so that teachers visiting with students have learning materials at their disposal.

Le Grand Tour

In the last couple of weeks it has been my pleasure to show Professor Donny Hutton, he of the Antarctic who gave the talk in January, around the geological sites on Martley and area. Unfortunately on a cold and misty day, no views at all, we traversed Berrow Hill (thanks John Walker and Cob House for access) seeing putative coal pits on the way, excellent Permian breccia exposure before dropping down to Martley Rock and the Nubbins where at Scar Cottage yet more features were revealed.

This week, we completed the Martley traverse by visiting many small exposures

in and around Penny Hill,
all Silurian limestone and shale, full of fossils with grand views to the east.

The remaining low wall of a filled in quarry is a wonderful source of crinoid fossils, (the example shown here has been in my dishwasher) and the exposure is accessible as it is at the side of a right of way, SO 375279 262090.

We had the time to drop into the Teme Valley near Shelsley Beauchamp to explore Brockhill Dyke, an
impressive igneous intrusion that has been partially mined out for roadstone. Scrambling up unstable soil banks we discovered contact points between the original bedrock and the intrusion and very good examples of onion skin weathering in the igneous.
Southstone Rock, aka Tufa Rock was left for another time.

Books

We have:
4 x Geologial Map 182
4 x Geological Map 199
1 x Book The Geological History of the British Isles – Hunter & Easterbrook
1 x Book Geological Hisory of Britain and Ireland – Woodcock & Strachan
1 x DVD Living Rock – An Introduction to Earth’s Geology
1 x DVD Glaciers
1 x DVD Steven Hawkings Universe 1, 2, and Inside Planet Earth- 3-disc