OUGS East Anglian Branch Newsletter
December 2020
From the Branch Organiser
Dear All,
Welcome to the last newsletter of this unbelievable year. I hope you have at least been able to take part in some of the online events detailed in the national OUGS website and bulletins. Don’t forget that any member can visit any branch activity, but you may have to contact the organiser beforehand to receive a link. The latest bulletin also contains a report of the national AGM which finally took place in October.
Things are not likely to return to normal for some time and reluctantly the OUGS Committee has decided the next national AGM, that was to have been held in Glasgow on 17th April, will now be a virtual event online. Similarly, next year’s Symposium has been cancelled to avoid the possibility of unrecoverable fees.
All branch AGM’s in the New Year will take place virtually. Our own branch AGM will be zoomed on 30th January, and the agenda, and minutes of the previous AGM, are included in this newsletter. I hope as many of you as possible will take part. If you’re not familiar with Zoom meetings please contact me and I will try to help, or at least point you in the right direction. You don’t have to take part on camera or even speak; just have online access to a smartphone, tablet or computer. Those of you who have elected not to receive OUGS notifications by email will need to send me your email address so we can forward you the appropriate Zoom meeting link in due course. One point to note is that, if voting, only one vote per device is possible. You can of course join and leave whenever you wish and, as I say, switch the video/mic on and off at will. We can continue to socialize post meeting if people would like, though you have to supply your own delectable buffet this year.
Unfortunately I have not had any response to my requests in previous newsletters for ideas on how to move forward either while the pandemic is still with us, or suggestions for the future. I have put down an AGM agenda item for us to discuss again the future of the branch. In anticipation of trips restarting in the summer do let me have any suggestions or we can discuss them at the AGM, either in the context of the meeting or informally afterwards.
I hope everyone has a Happy Christmas and it would be great to see you on 30th Jan.
Phil Ridley
From the Newsletter Editor
As Phil says this is the last newsletter for 2020, and again we are indebted to Philip Findlay who has thankfully written another really interesting article to offset the newsletter’s otherwise mundane administrative content. This does, however, exhaust my bank of pending articles and so, apart from an initial newsletter in 2021 to circulate the minutes of the upcoming AGM, I am not sure when I will be in a position to edit a second. I am in your hands. Come on all you budding authors – your Branch needs you!
Chalk (Clunch) Marks across Cambridgeshire.
(by Philip Findlay)
Is there chalk in Kent? Yes, there are the white cliffs of Dover. Is there chalk in Sussex? Yes, there are the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters. Is there chalk in Cambridgeshire? Yes, there are the white fields of Cambridgeshire as shown in Fig. 1. However, this view is from a satellite during that short time period when the produce has been harvested and the fields freshly prepared for the next crops. Viewed from ground level the presence of chalk in Cambridgeshire is not as immediately eye-catching as in some other counties.
Fig. 1. Fields near Burwell.i
This article does not contain detailed information about research concerning the geology of south Cambridgeshire; it is a summary about places visited where chalk, and in particular clunch, have left their marks in the southern parts of the county. The places visited are described in sequence travelling from east to west, from near the Suffolk border to the outskirts of Cambridge and then on to Steeple Morden near the neighbouring counties of Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
The bedrock succession in south Cambridgeshire is shown in Fig. 2. Towards the border with Suffolk the chalk ridge rises out of the fens and the younger Cretaceous beds then dip gently towards the south-east. Compared with rises of 200m along the limestone ridge of the Cotswolds this 20m ridge is tiny but it still appears significant. Perhaps it is partly an illusion prompted in the east by the constant presence of the flat fens that stretch out to and then along the horizon. The chalk from south Cambridgeshire has long been the raw material for the production of lime for mortar and for agricultural use. Chalk is typically soft. Although chalk’s main mineral component, calcite, has a Mohs Scale hardness of 3, owing to its structure chalk itself has a hardness of only 1.ii It is permeable. When absorbed, moisture near the surface freezes, and then the chalk’s outer layers flake off. In spite of these inherent disadvantages chalk remains an important substance for modern buildings and construction works through its use as a raw material in the production of cement.
Fig. 2. Bedrock succession across the Cambridgeshire chalk ridge.iii
Clunch, a harder and stronger chalk than most, has been used unprocessed as a building stone. Totternhoe Stone, in a bed typically 1 to 2 metres thick but in Cambridgeshire reaching a maximum of about 7m in the Swaffham Prior area, is probably the most well-known clunch (Fig 2). It is a fine-grained calcarenite with a high proportion of small shell fragments. The location of Totternhoe Stone across South Cambridgeshire is shown in Fig. 3 with younger Cretaceous beds at the surface to the south-east and older ones to the north-west.
Fig.3 Map of Totternhoe Stone bedrock across South Cambridgeshire.iv
If the map shown in Fig. 3 was extended to the south-west then the Totternhoe Stone bedrock trace would be seen to run just to the north of Luton and Dunstable before passing through the Bedfordshire village of Totternhoe that gives its name to the stone.
In Isleham near the Suffolk border, at the other end of the map shown in Fig.3, the Priory Church, built early in the 12th century, has lots of clunch in its walls.v In places, thin blocks have been laid in herringbone patterns, (Fig 4a). Larger blocks in the walls show the fine-grained texture and grey-white colour of the clunch, (Fig 4b).
Fig. 4a Priory Church, herringbone pattern. Fig. 4b Priory Church, clunch block. There is evidence that clunch was already being quarried in Isleham from the eleventh to twelfth centuries, so the clunch in the Priory Church walls may not have travelled very far.vi In later years, the softer chalk was converted to lime in lime kilns built within the Isleham quarries. One set of lime kilns (TL 64389 74202), in use from 1860 until 1935, is still standing on the quarry floor (Fig. 5a).vii The quarry itself has also stopped working and bats have taken up residence inside the lime kilns. A public notice appeals for the bats to be left undisturbed. In fact, the whole of the old quarry has become a residential area, as it is now filled with houses making up what is now named Limestone Close. White chalk quarry walls, further reminders of the area’s past identity, are on show at the bottom of the gardens, (Fig. 5b).
Fig. 5a Old quarry floor lime kilns, Isleham. Fig. 5b White chalk quarry wall behind houses in Limestone Close in the old quarry, Isleham
To help make the clunch used in external walls more weather resistant the surface is often painted with lime wash but this needs to be re-applied periodically. A clunch wall alongside Mill Street, the main street in Isleham, shows both the lacelike remnants of a white lime wash coating, and also the grey-white clunch blocks weathered and crumbled where the lime wash coating has deteriorated, (Fig. 6).
Fig. 6 Clunch wall with residual traces of a lime wash coating.
Totternhoe Stone and the younger chalk above it are permeable but the West Melbury Marly Chalk below the Totternhoe Stone is not. In places along the chalk ridge, water that has accumulated in the chalk above emerges as springs at the bottom of the Totternhoe Stone. The existence of these springs, as well as the access to clunch that could be used for buildings, may have been important factors in the early establishment of the communities that have grown up along the Totternhoe Stone bedrock line, (Fig. 3). Burwell is one of these communities.
The earliest known record of “Burwell” used as a place name is from the year 1060.viii The name means fort or fortified village by the spring.ix The name was already in use before 1143, when under the orders of King Stephen of England, the building of a castle next to the springs was started but never finished. Today the ruins of that building site lie over a wide area and these castle ruins themselves in turn sit on top of the ruins of a Roman building.x
The springs and the castle ruins are in a field along the side of which runs the appropriately named “Spring Close”. The springs (TL 58866 66057) emerge on the eastern edge of the field at the foot of the chalk ridge that climbs less than 10m from the springs to the nearby Church of St Mary. The harder, lumpy chalk, the Totternhoe Stone, is visible amongst the vegetation surrounding the springs, (Fig. 7). This lumpy appearance of the Totternhoe Stone may be an explanation for the stone acquiring the name “clunch”. Arkell and Tomkeieff suggested the name was probably from the adjective “clunch” meaning “lumpy; heavy and stiff or close,” xi whilst the Oxford English Dictionary suggests the origin was perhaps from the use of “clunch” in dialogue meaning “lumpy, thickset”.xii
Fig. 7. Lumpy Totternhoe Stone at the spring line at Burwell.
Totternhoe Stone has to be cut and shaped before it dries and hardens. It tends to shatter if it is worked once it has dried out.xiii The Totternhoe Stone from the Burwell quarries was particularly valued for its high quality and was widely known as Burwell Rock or Burwell Stone and Burwell itself was an important clunch production centre for Cambridgeshire.xiv The last clunch quarry in Burwell ceased working in 1962.xv As in Isleham, modern houses now occupy most of the old quarry floors; however amongst the new homes one quarry corner (TL 59246 66188) has not been “developed”, allowing trees and bushes to make the most of this opportunity, (Fig. 8).
Fig. 8 Corner of old clunch quarry at Burwell.
The quarries in the village may have closed down but the clunch extracted from them is still on display in many buildings and walls in Burwell. One of the most striking buildings is the Granary and Maltings, a Grade II listed building, at the south end of the village, (Figs 9a and b). The building’s clunch walls rest on gault brick foundations. The main length of this late eighteenth century building has a thatched roof and the malting kiln at one end has a tile roof.xvi Purcell wrote that clunch walls “protected by a good overhang to the roof and raised on a sound brick base” would last for many generations and the walls of this building have done so.xvii Purcell made use of the same analogy as Loudon who, in 1835 writing about cob walls, declared that their durability depends upon “a good hat and a good pair of shoes”.xviii
Fig 9a The Granary and Maltings building. Fig. 9b The malting kiln. The village of Reach, like Burwell and several other villages near the Cambridgeshire chalk ridge such as Swaffham Bulbeck and Bottisham, is connected across the Fens to the River Cam by a lode, an artificial waterway. From the village, Reach Lode runs for almost 5 kilometres to the north-west where it joins the River Cam at Upware. In the opposite direction, starting from the village and then covering more than 10 kilometres to Woodditton, run the ditch and chalk rampart of Devil’s Dyke, built as a defensive barrier against incursions from the south-west, (Fig. 10).xix
Fig, 10. The Devil’s Dyke looking towards the south-east.
The Devil’s Dyke construction dates from the sixth or seventh century xx and the whole length is now a SSSI for its chalk and clay earth habitat.xxi Reach Lode, possibly dating from the late Roman period, made Reach an important port from the fourteenth century for the export of clunch. The clunch, Totternhoe Stone, was extracted from the pits dug into Reach Hill on the edge of the village. The last cargo of clunch carried from Reach along Reach Lode left in the 1930s.xxii Totternhoe Stone bivalve fossils from Reach are part of the collection at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge, (Fig. 11).
Clunch Pit Lane leads from Reach to the old clunch pit area which is now a developing wood. On one November day in 1994 local volunteers planted 3,200 trees here to create a new wood in England’s least wooded county. xxiii
Fig.11 Bivalve fossils from Reach
Swaffham Prior and Swaffham Bulbeck are neighbouring villages, both lying on the chalk ridge. At Swaffham Prior the High Street lies on the Totternhoe Stone but there has been no extensive quarrying of the stone in the village. St Mary’s Church sits on a terrace in the slope of the chalk ridge and below it a clunch wall borders the High Street (Fig.12). At Swaffham Bulbeck, there was a quarry from which Totternhoe Stone as well as softer chalk was extracted. A field now covers part of the old excavation area at the corner of Quarry Lane. Clunch was used to build much of the village church, the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, including the West Tower.xxiv
Fig.12 Clunch wall and St. Mary’s Church, Swaffham Prior The area of the village next to the Swaffham Bulbeck Lode is still called Commercial End. The clunch blocks in a high wall (TL 55630 63490), alongside the road leading to the lode, display an extensive array of relatively young “trace fossils”, (Fig. 13).
Fig. 13 Clunch wall with “trace fossils” at Commercial End, Swaffham Bulbeck.
The aptly named village of Lode lies at the southern end of Bottisham Lode. The foundation stone of the Church of St. James in Lode was laid in 1852. Clunch was used for the walls of the church, (Fig. 14).
Fig. 14 Church of St. James, Lode
A side chapel was built in the 1960s and consecrated in September 1962. Clunch from Burwell was used to build the walls of this chapel.xxv As mentioned earlier, the last of the clunch quarries in Burwell ceased working in 1962 so the blocks of Burwell Rock in the walls of this chapel, (Fig. 15), are possibly amongst the last to be sourced from Burwell itself.
Fig.15. Side chapel at Church of St. James. The chalk ridge passes along the edge of Cambridge through Cherry Hinton. Here, at the foot of a slope alongside the crossroads by the Robin Hood public house is the source of the Cherry Hinton Brook. A spring (TL 48538 56197) feeds water from under the Totternhoe Stone and the water moves away flowing around the Giant’s Grave island, (Fig.16).
Fig.16. Cherry Hinton spring
Perhaps this spring was the source of water for a nearby Iron Age settlement, traces of which have been found on what is now called Lime Kiln Hill.xxvi A short walk up Lime Kiln Road leads to the East Pit, (Fig. 17). The extraction of chalk from this pit stopped in the early 1980s and the pit is now a local nature reserve.xxvii None of the Cherry Hinton quarries that once supplied chalk for the lime kilns of Lime Kiln Road is still active. Fig. 17 East Pit local nature reserve
On a sunny day, if you are standing in the middle of the East Pit, with the glare from the surrounding white quarry faces dazzling and forcing you to squint and shield your eyes, it can be difficult to think about the local, let alone the global scale of accumulation of the microscopic calcium carbonate particles contained in the chalk. Microscopic examination of chalk dust from the East Pit reveals intact coccoliths amongst the CaCO3 particles, (Fig. 18)
Fig.18 Coccoliths in East Pit chalk dust x400
The upper levels of chalk extracted from the East Pit belonged to the Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation. Changes in the material deposited during the formation of the chalk in East Pit produced two thin coloured bands, the older one red and the younger one yellow. These coloured bands provide an opportunity to identify several parts of the rock sequence shown in Fig. 2 above, (Fig. 19). xxviii
Fig. 19 Rock sequence in East Pit chalk face
The Cherry Hinton spring was bought by Cambridge University and the Town Waterworks Company in 1852 to supplement the supply of fresh water to the city of Cambridge.xxix An earlier supply of fresh water for Cambridge came from the cluster of springs also emerging from below the Totternhoe Stone, further along the chalk ridge at Nine Wells. A channel, named Hobson’s Conduit after one of the benefactors, was constructed in 1610 to carry the spring water to flush out the stagnant water in Cambridge’s ditches and separately to provide a source of fresh water. An obelisk (TL 46105 54113) was erected at Nine Wells in 1861 in recognition of the immense impact of Hobson’s Conduit, (Fig.20). The open roadside channels in Cambridge, such as the runnels along Trumpington Street outside the Fitzwilliam Museum, are part of the Hobson’s Conduit distribution network. Other parts of the network, such as along St. Andrew’s Street outside Christ’s College, are now covered over but marked with metal plates next to the kerbstones, (Fig. 21). The water from Hobson’s Conduit ran into and helped clean the King’s Ditch, a defence barrier that had become an open sewer at what is now the junction of St. Andrew’s Street and Hobson’s Street outside Christ’s College. In comparison with those earlier times, today, with increased extraction of water from the aquifer, the flow of water from the springs at Nine Wells is much reduced.
Fig. 20. The commemorative obelisk at Fig.21. Hobson’s Conduit metal plate, Nine Wells outside Christ’s College, St. Andrew’s St.
Having followed spring water from the Totternhoe Stone along Hobson’s Conduit into Cambridge, it seems appropriate also to consider the use of clunch as a building stone within the city. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Cambridge colleges bought clunch from Burwell, Reche (Reach), and Hinton (Cherry Hinton) as well as from Barrington to the south-west of Cambridge.xxx
Today, clunch can still be seen in Cambridge; a clunch wall has been retained in Garret Hostel Lane (Fig.22).
Fig. 22 Clunch wall, Garret Hostel Lane
Clunch window surrounds survive in Trinity Lane, (Fig.23)
Fig. 23 Clunch window surrounds, Trinity Lane
The 1615 clunch statue of Henry VIII is still standing in its niche in Trinity College Great Gate, (Fig. 24). The clunch of the Henry VIII statue has survived longer than the metal sword the statue once held in the right hand. The sword had disappeared by the 1980s, possibly taken by climbing students, and was replaced with a wooden chair leg, (still there) by two window cleaners, one anchoring the other who stretched across from a nearby window.xxxi
Fig.24 Henry VIII statue, Trinity College Great Gate.
Chapel Hill, south-west of Cambridge, is an outlier of Zig Zag Chalk. At the foot of the slopes of Chapel Hill, to the south, north and west, lie the villages of Barrington, Harlton and Orwell, all of which have their own clunch quarries on Chapel Hill from which Totternhoe Stone was extracted. By far the largest quarry is at Barrington where the chalk was also used in cement production. Quarrying of chalk at Barrington stopped in 2008 and the site was closed in 2012.xxxii As in the old quarries at Isleham and Burwell, houses are now being built on the floor of part of the old quarry. Totternhoe Stone from the Barrington pit can be seen in the walls of the Church of All Saints in Barrington village.xxxiii The white quarry faces left in the side of Chapel Hill at Barrington are still visible from 15 kilometres away at Steeple Morden, (Fig. 25).
Fig. 25 The white quarry faces at Barrington Fig. 26 Harlton Clunch Pit as seen from Steeple Morden.
At Harlton and Orwell, the old clunch pits are much smaller than the quarry at Barrington and now each pit is owned by its local village. Lumpy chalk is still exposed on the steep sides of the old pit (TL 39076 52074) at Harlton, which is now a small area of woodland, (Fig. 26). At Orwell the clunch pit (TL 39396 50673) is a SSSI for the chalk grassland that has survived there and is now grazed by sheep, (Fig. 27).xxxiv The clunch from the Orwell pit was used in the building of the tower and walls of St. Andrew’s Church alongside Fishers Lane in Orwell itself, (Fig. 28).
Fig. 27 Orwell Clunch Pit Fig. 28 St. Andrew’s Church, Orwell. At Litlington, in 1811, the name of one of the village inns was the “Robin Hood and Little John”. The name arose from a local fable that Robin Hood had shot an arrow that landed in the village chalk pit (TL 31547 41702) and then the arrow grew into a thorn tree. The inn closed in 1910.xxxv Perhaps in deference to the local fable, hawthorn now dominates the thicket that covers the old chalk pit, (Fig. 29). Fig. 29. Litlington old chalk pit.
Fig. 30. Chalk processing works, Steeple Fig. 31 Conveyor belt running between the Morden quarries
The Station Road Chalk Quarry at Steeple Morden is still active. It is chalk from the Holywell Nodular Chalk Formation that is being extracted from this quarry. The quarried chalk is carried more than a kilometre on a covered conveyor belt to the processing works sited in a different chalk quarry, the Plantation Quarry, amongst woodland, (Figs. 30, 31). Omya UK uses the chalk to produce whiting for paper as well as fillers for uses such as in paints, pharmaceutical products and UPVC window frames. The chalk is also used to produce food grade calcium carbonates for the food industry.xxxvi The village of Guilden Morden lies north of its neighbour Steeple Morden but the parish of Guilden Morden stretches south to the west of Steeple Morden and on into the south-west corner of Cambridgeshire. It is in this corner, in sight of Ashwell in Hertfordshire,that Ruddery Pit (TL 28490 40082), the old parish clunch pit of Guilden Morden, is located, (Fig. 32).
Fig. 32 Ruddery Clunch Pit The pit encroaches on an early Iron Age and Romano-British cemetery. During archaeological excavations in 1936, the finding that later burials in the cemetery often reused the sites of earlier burials led the Director of Excavations, Thomas Lethbridge, to suggest that it was a practice “done to save the trouble of digging more hard, undisturbed chalk than was necessary”.xxxvii
The River Cam flows roughly in a north-east direction through the southern part of Cambridgeshire to join the River Great Ouse near Ely. To the west from Ruddery Pit, less than a kilometre over the Cambridgeshire border into Hertfordshire, alongside the High Street in Ashwell, a series of springs (TL 27013 39783) provide the source water for one of the main tributaries of the River Cam, the River Rhee.
As in other places already mentioned along the chalk ridge, the spring waters emerge from the junction between the Totternhoe Stone and the West Melbury Marly Chalk, (Fig. 33). The area in Ashwell where the springs rise is a SSSIxxxviii as the springs provide cold water at an almost constant temperature, never greater than 12°C, for a glacial relict population of flatworms.xxxix Fig.33 One of the springs at Ashwell
Crenobia alpina, one of the species of flatworms still found at Ashwell, used to be found in the water near the springs at Nine Wells but, since the drought of 1976, no longer.xl
Cambridgeshire, but not the Totternhoe Stone, ends at the county border along the approach road to Ashwell. After John Burroughs visited England in the nineteenth century he wrote: “England is not a country of granite and marble, but of chalk, marl, and clay”.xli He was right about the marble; he did not visit the West Country and his visit to what he called “Wordsworth’s Country” focused on Helvellyn, so his comment about granite is understandable: his overall summary was an excellent one for Cambridgeshire.
i. Bing maps, < https://gridreferencefinder.com/bing.php>. Accessed 30 November 2019 ii. “Properties of Chalk” in Compare Rocks, < https://rocks.comparenature.com/en/properties- of-chalk/model-17-6>. Accessed 29 February 2020. iii . Chart information from The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units,
Ages from “Cretaceous”, BGS Geological Timechart ,
East Anglia Branch of the Open University Geological Society Annual General Meeting
30th January 2021 Agenda
1. Welcome 2. Apologies for absence 3. Minutes of the 2020 AGM 4. Matters arising from those minutes 5. Branch Officers’ reports a) Branch Organiser b) Newsletter editor c) Events officer d) Treasurer e) Secretary f) Webmaster g) Branch librarian 6. Nominations for branch Committee – all posts (see list below) 7. Election of officers a) Branch Organiser b) Newsletter editor c) Treasurer d) Events officer e) Secretary f) Webmaster g) Branch librarian h) Committee members 8. Future of East Anglia branch
OUGS East Anglia Branch
Draft Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Saturday 25th January 2020 at Milton Community Centre, Coles Road, Cambridge, CB24 6BL at 2:30pm
Present: Angela Bellis, Sue Brown (Branch Secretary), Dominic Davey, Jenny Davies, Susan Dupey-Williams, Mike Fahey-Wilson, Sue Fahey-Wilson, Philip Findlay, Andrew Fleming, Peter Fletcher, Margaret Gillham, Wendy Hamilton, Ken Hubbard, Margaret Ridley, Philip Ridley (Branch Organiser), David Smith, Kate Smith, Josephine Stubbs, Corinna Tabor
1. Welcome Philip Ridley welcomed members to the AGM and thanked everyone for coming.
2. Apologies for absence Bev Chesterman, Emma Emerton, Mike Harlow, Mike Sandison and Sally Southall.
3. Minutes of the 2019 AGM These were agreed as a true record and the Branch Organiser signed them.
4. Matters arising from the minutes None.
5. Branch Officers’ reports
Branch report – Philip Ridley
Our year began in January with 21 members enjoying three excellent talks prior to our AGM.
Linda McArdell visited Christchurch after the New Zealand earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and gave us a first-hand account of the damage done, and delved into the background geology and previous earthquake history. She also recounted the problems encountered in rebuilding.
The ‘load of old coprolite’ by Dr Simon Kelly turned out to be an examination of the historical geology of Upware along with the commercial exploitation of the local coprolite, and new developments from his recent digs there. In particular, he shed new light on reviewing the anomalous dating of the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary of which this new evidence forms part. This has been a favourite site for geologists since Adam Sedgwick led student field trips there on horseback.
‘Neotectonics and periglacial landscapes of eastern Norfolk’ was a summation by our own Elvin Thurston of his painstaking analysis of BGS borehole data revealing the possibility of a previously unknown Pleistocene river system. I think we were all taken aback by the sheer work involved and Elvin’s skill in interpreting the result.
At our AGM the existing committee remained in post. Additionally, Mike Sandison, our Treasurer, who had been temporarily editing our Branch Newsletter, admitted he actually quite liked the job and agreed to take it on permanently. Sally Southall was persuaded to tackle the role of Events Co-ordinator, the emphasis being on co-ordinating other people’s suggestions. It was good to have Andrew Fleming rejoin the committee, though he claims he never left. So we had a full team to move into the new year.
Our first trip of the year was to Kings Dyke Nature Reserve, where 14 people spent an enjoyable, sunny day up to their knees in Oxford Clay, discovering myriads of ammonites, belemnites and bivalves. Dr Richard Forrest was a mine of information, not least on prepping such ephemeral beasties. Alas, no plesiosaurs were found.
Our residential trip to Anglesey, led by Dr Chris Arkwright, was an eye opener, at least as far as I was concerned. Anglesey must surely contain within a relatively small area the greatest variety of rocks and structures in the UK. Its recent UNESCO Geopark status is well deserved; 21 people spent four days of good weather in the field (well, by the seaside really) unpicking the extraordinary complexities of tectonic movement and terrane emplacement. Thanks to Chris for such a satisfying trip.
Simon Kelly’s promised trip to Upware did not take place, unfortunately. We do not know why and hope to persuade him to rearrange.
Dr Steve Parry led eight members on a fascinating building stones trip around Cambridge. What we lack in accessible local stone in situ is made up for by the variety of building stone here. There is everything from Mount Sorrel and Peterhead granite to the ubiquitous Portland Stone. Steve is involved in the ongoing BGS Building Stones Atlases and we enjoyed pondering with him the quarry origins and accepted provenance of the stones. Steve was eager to schedule another trip: as far as he was concerned we had barely scratched the surface.
The Committee would dearly love more input from members about potential activities and the direction the branch should take. I think I had just one e-mail over the year with suggestions. On the other hand we had good input for our newsletters, and, thanks to the contributors and Mike our editor, four newsletters were produced this year, including a bumper edition of very comprehensive reports from Anglesey.
Although we lost eight members over the year, we gained six, and our branch membership now stands at 67, so the previous decline may be levelling out somewhat.
Treasurer’s report – Mike Sandison
We entered 2019 with a balance of £2197 and ended it with £2711, an increase of £514, a very satisfactory position.
Our main source of income is the Branch grant - £370 in 2019 – and although this is on a declining trend this is more than balanced by the fact that, with the change to an e-mailed newsletter, we no longer incur large costs for printing and postage. We also benefited from a one-off surplus of £352 on the Anglesey field trip (Note: it has been pointed out to me subsequently that OUGS rules require this to be returned to the participants so this will not appear in the 2020 accounts).
The only significant items of expenditure were for the AGM (£192) and trip leader expenses (£35).
The accounts have been audited and signed off by an independent examiner, and they have been sent to the OUGS Treasurer.
Open University East Anglia Branch
Summary of receipts and payments for the year ended 31st December 2019 Receipts Payments
Brought forward from previous year: Branch Main Account £2,235.44 Branch cash in hand £61.65 Branch Trips Account -£100 Grants £370.00 Newsletter £0.00 Sundries £0.00 0.00 Other Admin 0.00 Events (less than 24 hours) £18.00 £226.32 Trips (see Trips Accounts page) £7,354.00 £7,001.50 Carry forward to next year: Branch Main Account £2,350.07 Branch cash in hand £8.70 Branch Trips Account £352.50
Balanced totals £9,939.09 £9,939.09
I certify that the above accounts are a true summary of the Branch transactions for the year.
I certify that the total number of pages in the Branch Newsletter issued during the year was 70 pages (A4 or A4 equivalent).
A schedule of the Branch's assets is attached.
Signed …M Sandison……………………………………….Branch Treasurer
I certify that the above accounts agree with the accounting records, vouchers and bank statement(s) of the Branch.
Signed ……Sue North………………………………………..Independent Examiner
Phil Ridley proposed adoption of the accounts, seconded by Sue Brown. This was agreed by all.
Branch Secretary’s report – Sue Brown Events in 2019 started with the branch AGM and day of talks on 26th January. Although I stated last year that I hoped to attend more than one branch event in 2019, I didn't manage to achieve that.
I’ve received no branch-related correspondence during the year. I managed to attend both the national AGM in Swindon and symposium in Milton Keynes. This year's symposium will be in Lancaster. If you haven't been to one yet, do try to go as it's a good opportunity to meet up with members from other branches and those you may have met on field trips.
I’ve been on only one (official) geology trip this year. That was the London branch trip to the Mendips, led by Dave Green. I travelled there by train to Bath and then a local bus to Wells. It was a long journey, with the bus taking as long as the train. I also visited Brazil and Argentina for the first time. In Rio, we took the cable car up Sugar Loaf Mountain, as well as the funicular up to Christ the Redeemer. We then spent a couple of days at Iguassu Falls, visiting both the Brazilian and Argentinian sides. I've seen a few waterfalls around the world, but this was by far the most impressive.
Geology is a subject that should be seen in the field to really appreciate it. Although there seem to be fewer OUGS trips around these days, those that are arranged by the various branches are usually well-organised and very interesting. Do try to attend at least one trip this year, if you can. Even if, like me, you're less mobile than you once were, don't let that put you off. You won't be alone!
Newsletter editor – Mike Sandison Thanks to Philip Findlay, Ken Hubbard and the Anglesey field trip participants, I was able to produce four newsletters during the year, totalling 70 pages. I personally found them extremely interesting and felt that they benefited greatly from the quality photographs and diagrams. I hope you all did too. Let’s hope we can do as well in 2020!
Webmaster – Emma Emerton Nothing to report.
Branch librarian – Ken Hubbard This is my third year as branch librarian and I have found that loans from the library only take place during the AGM’s. Requests for books during the year simply do not occur, probably because of the high cost of postage.
The number of items borrowed has increased year on year since I became the librarian (Table 1). So contrary to my first year when I thought that the use of the library was in decline it appears that there is still some life in it yet.
Year No. of items borrowed Books Maps 2018 3 3 0 2019 5 3 2 2020 7 6 1 Table 1 – East Anglia Branch OUGS library loans by year
6. Nominations for Branch Committee All current Committee members are willing to stand again. Sally Southall has volunteered to be Events Co-ordinator and Andrew Fleming wishes to become a Committee member.
7. Branch Organiser – Philip Ridley, Branch Treasurer – Mike Sandison, Branch Secretary – Sue Brown, Webmaster – Emma Emerton, Librarian - Ken Hubbard, Wendy Hamilton and Andrew Fleming (Committee members) all agreed to continue in their posts.
Proposed by Andrew Fleming, seconded by Corinna Tabor and agreed by all. The Committee for 2020 is therefore: Branch organiser – Philip Ridley Treasurer – Mike Sandison Secretary – Sue Brown Events Co-ordinator – Sally Southall Newsletter editor – Mike Sandison Webmaster – Emma Emerton Librarian – Ken Hubbard Other Committee members – Wendy Hamilton, Andrew Fleming
8. Future of the Branch
Members discussed the future of East Anglia branch with reference to the regional model outlined in the national OUGS newsletter. The current branch structure is based on the original OU regions which are now redundant. There may be a case for reducing the number of branches so there are fewer organisers to attend meetings. This would mean much larger regional areas.
The BO reported that the merger of the two former Scottish branches had worked well, but the demise of Oxford branch had been more problematic. Yorkshire branch can’t find a new BO to take over this year, so will have to be managed by National in the interim. Northumberland voted not to merge with Yorkshire.
There are now fewer than 70 members in EA branch, but many are fairly active. Nearly one quarter of branch members attended today with another six sending apologies. Some members present didn’t want existing members split between different neighbouring branches, should a change occur. Others wouldn’t object if this happened. Most were concerned that East Anglia was the only branch whose members were likely to be split up into different branches under the current proposals. The consensus seemed to be that members would prefer to merge with Walton Hall or East Midlands branches, rather than be split between three branches.
The main problem faced by all branches is how to recruit new members. Suggestions included sending flyers to local geology clubs and museums and to any colleges that run geology courses. The general consensus was to retain the branch in its current form. Can we make more use of ex OU tutors to lead trips? Can we get involved in more joint trips with local groups? Should we consider holding another day of talks during the year at another venue?
The meeting closed at 3:45pm.
Signed…………………………………. Date………………………………. Branch Committee Members
Branch Organiser – Philip Ridley. Tel. 01223 842922. Email: [email protected] Treasurer – Mike Sandison Longlea, Esplanade, Maylandsea, Essex, CM3 6AW Tel: 07402 553499 Email: [email protected] Secretary – Sue Brown Mill Cottage, Newbourne Road, Bucklesham, Ipswich, IP10 0BY Tel: 01473 736519 Email: [email protected]
Events Organiser – Sally Southall. Email:[email protected] Newsletter Editor – Mike Sandison – as above Branch Librarian – Ken Hubbard. Tel. 07803 351029. Email: [email protected] Website Co-ordinator – Emma Emerton. Email: [email protected] Committee Members – Wendy Hamilton. Email: [email protected] Andrew Fleming. Email: [email protected]
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