The Russell Society

Topographical mineralogy, the conservation of minerals and the preservation of mineralogical sites

View Tom Cotterell’s talk of 12th March

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Tom Cotterell recently gave an excellent talk to The Society titled- Philip Rashleigh’s collection of minerals and its unique importance for researching the early history of copper arsenates from Cornwall. This was recorded and can be viewed by members using a link in the Virtual Talks section of the Members’ Page. The link will be available until the end of April.

Zoom Talk: Greenlaws Mine 21st March

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Southern branch are hosting a zoom talk at 7.30pm on Friday 21st March by Colleen Thomson on Greenlaws Mine: The Forgotten Treasure of Weardale and the Recent discoveries. Please contact David Aubrey-Jones, if you have not already had an invite.

Safety Documents Updated

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Could members please read the document relating to Personal Safety Equipment on the Safety webpage as this has been significantly revised, to bring it in line with current safety standards. All other guidance documents have been reviewed and headers and footers updated, without further changes.

Update on Wednesday Zoom talks 2024-2025

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The full programme for this season is now listed on the Members’ page.

Our next talk on the 8th January is “Mineral Hunting in the Swiss Alps” by Dr Andreas Stucki of Siber + Siber in Zurich. Members may be familiar with Andreas through BlueCap Production’s many interviews of key people in the mineral world, which can all be found on YouTube.

Buxton Museum under threat of closure

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Buxton Museum and Art Gallery is currently closed due to structural problems with the building.

See this link on local BBC

Concern is growing as to whether the Council will be able to find the necessary funds to get the building back into a state where the museum can reopen to the public.

Amongst other things the collections include:

  • Carboniferous limestone fossils from the Peak District collected between 1900 and 1950
  • Pleistocene (Ice Age) animal bones and teeth from caves and quarries throughout the Peak District
  • The archives and libraries of Professor Sir William Boyd Dawkins and Dr JW Jackson, geologists associated with the county and with Manchester Museum
  • Randolph Douglas ‘House of Wonders’ collection from Castleton which includes a huge collection of locks and keys and some very unusual Houdini material
  • Mineral collections including Blue John, local specimens, and cave deposits
  • unique collection of decorative Ashford Black Marble objects and the tools used to work it

Please register your support for the Museum and its important collections and public displays by signing the petition at chng.it/wTrzLymd and remember to click on the link that you will receive to confirm your email address, otherwise your vote will not count

Mountsorrel Quarry

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Please note that the field trip to this quarry will be on Tuesday 23rd April and not as advertised in the first release of the Society’s March Newsletter.

New Safety Forms

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A great number of the safety forms have been revised this month. Could the field trip organisers and coordinators please be aware of this and ensure that they use the latest forms which can be found on the Safety page.

Roy Starkey formally recognised for services to mineralogy with a BEM

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It gives me great pleasure to be able to congratulate Roy Starkey, a past President of the Russell Society (2009-2013), for being awarded the British Empire Medal for services to mineralogy.  The award was presented on 20th October at the Guildhall in Worcester by the Lord Lieutenant of Worcestershire, Mrs Beatrice Grant.  The ceremony was watched by family, friends, and members of the mineralogy community, including Robin Hansen, Curator, Minerals at the Natural History Museum London and Tom Cotterell, Senior Curator: Mineralogy and Petrology at Amgueddfa Cymru, National Museum Wales.

Roy is well known to most of us and it is wonderful that his invaluable contribution to mineralogy and the mineralogical community has been recognised by the Crown. The award celebrates Roy’s essential role in sustaining the mineralogical community and helping to preserve Britain’s mineral heritage for future generations.  His contributions to the Russell Society have been enormous, and I think it no exaggeration to say that if it wasn’t for Roy, the Society would be in a far poorer state than it is today. 

Roy was delighted to be given the award, commenting: “I was very surprised, to say the least, when I received the letter notifying me of the award. The study of minerals has been a lifelong passion for me, through which I’ve met many wonderful people. It has been a huge privilege to work with curators and collections in our national museums. I see the award as being good for mineralogy in general and it was great to be able to celebrate this honour with family and friends in Worcester.”

This is not the first time that Roy’s achievements have been recognised. In 2016, Roy was the first recipient of The Marsh Award for Mineralogy, which recognises ‘unsung heroes’ who have made a major contribution to the promotion of palaeontology or mineralogy in the UK and abroad.

Congratulations Roy

David

Dr David Aubrey-Jones, Honorary President of the Russell Society

Change of speaker Zoom meeting 8th Nov

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Our zoom talk on Wednesday 8th November will be Dr Michael J. Simms, Senior Curator of Geology, National Museums Northern Ireland, who will talking to us about “Mineralisation in Triassic caves of southern Britain”

Our previously advertised talk by Jamie Lund of The National Trust on the topic of “The archaeology of the Lake District extractive industries – its legacy, significance and future”, has been rescheduled for the 13th December.