ISSN 1750-855X (Print) ISSN 1750-8568 (Online) John Randall (1810-1910) as Writer and Geologist 1 Hugh Torrens TORRENS, H.S. (2010). John Randall (1810-1910) as Writer and Geologist. Proceedings of the Shropshire Geological Society , 15, 28–43. Randall is best known as a Shropshire historian, of especially the Madeley area. He earned his living as a china painter (one of the best at Coalport - which brought him into contact with local raw materials - which he described in his Clay Industries book of 1877), then printer, postmaster and local councillor. But John Randall’s was an extra-ordinary life, both as a centenarian, but also as a prominent amateur geologist and author, the roles examined here. 1Lower Mill Cottage, Furnace Lane, Madeley, Crewe, Cheshire, CW3 9EU, UK. E-mail:
[email protected] RANDALL’S CAREER AS AUTHOR Randall's career as an author started in 1850 with the Worcester Literary and Scientific Institution (hereafter WLSI) of 1829. This had grown out of an earlier WL and Philosophical Society of 1821 1, after it had opened its Worcester Athenaeum, also founded in January 1829, on the model of a Mechanics Institute. Their building was a gift from William Laslett, erected in 1834 2, and it lay behind the equally new Museum of Natural History in Foregate Street; being approached by way of the 'Athenaeum Court'. The building contained a lecture hall, 40 ft by 28 ft, which being lit from above, was used for exhibitions of paintings. There were a library, reading rooms, and rooms where evening classes in music, French, Figure 1.