Members who have had problems receiving their electronic newsletter can now read it on line. Go to the members page and scroll down to near the bottom where you will find a link to the latest newsletter -March 2023. It is a pdf so you can read it online or download it to your computer. You will also find links to earlier newsletters

8pm Wednesday 19th April via Zoom

A question that is starting to come up more and more often in conversations is “What should I do with my collection?” Today’s mineral collecting community is increasingly grey-haired and perhaps dominated by people who began collecting in the 1960s and 1970s. As such, this population of collectors and collections represents a considerable and potentially important mineralogical resource.

In a special event hosted by The Russell Society, and chaired by Roy Starkey, we will present an overview of the key factors to be considered, some of the constraints and hurdles to be overcome, as well as opportunities and threats which may confront us.

We owe it to the specimens, and to those who came before us from whom we have benefited so much, to ensure that our collections are handled in a suitably responsible and satisfactory manner, and that important pieces are curated and preserved together with as much curatorial data and specimen history as possible.

Is your collection properly labelled and organised such that someone coming to it ‘cold’ would be able to understand what is what, and to be confident in dispersing it appropriately? Do you have a catalogue? If so, is it on paper or in electronic form? If electronic, is it regularly backed-up and in a format likely to be machine readable in the future? Does someone else know how to access it, where to find passwords etc.? Do your family members understand the importance (and perhaps financial value) of your collection? Do they know who to contact and what to do in the event of your unexpected demise? Should the collection go to a museum or university (either in its entirety or segments of it)? Is the best route to return the specimens to the collecting fraternity via a sale or auction, or is sale to a dealer a better option.

We’ll be addressing these questions, and a whole lot more, in discussion with a panel of experts from the Natural History Museum (London), National Museum Wales, National Museums Northern Ireland, BGS, The Geological Curators’ Group and National Museums Scotland.

Please make a note of the date and join us for what is perhaps a unique opportunity to assess and to learn what you need to do to put your mineral (or fossil) collection in order whilst there is still time.

Members will find the link to the meeting on the members page, but all are welcome to attend. Just contact [email protected] to be put into contact with Roy Starkey

Roy Starkey

The ASM weekend, 31st March – 2nd April, is at Buckfast, on the fringes of the Dartmoor National Park. It is proving very popular with 60 delegates booked by the start of 2023. Members are urged to book up quickly particularly if they wish to secure a place on the associated field trips.

Please join us for an evening of reminiscences, happy memories and funny stories. We’ll be looking back over a fantastic fifty years of mineral collecting, sharing photos and testing your knowledge of the history of The Russell Society and the people that make it special. There will be plenty of opportunity to chip in with your own contributions. If you have any photos you would like to share please send them to Roy Starkey ASAP.

The zoom login will be posted on the members’ page a couple of days before. See you there!

Provisional Programme

19:45 Doors open

20:00 David Aubrey Jones Hon. President – Welcome, opening remarks and a toast to The Russell Society

20:05 Nigel Moreton – The Early Years

20:15 Paul Monk – Reminiscences from the Far North

20:25 Frank Ince – Central Branch Projects

20:35 Marashean Parker – Maisemore and Other Memories

20:45 Sheila Harper – South West Memories

20:55 Owen Baker – Looking Back in Cornwall and Devon

21:05 David Ifold – Excursions to Lundy Island

21:15 Tom Cotterell – The importance of JRS

21:25 Roy Starkey – Quiz (30 mins)

22:05 Finale and a few nostalgia photos – for maybe 15 minutes – aiming to wrap up before 22:30

Earlier that year, Britain had joined the European Community and President Nixon famously met the Chinese leader Chairman Mao.

The crew of Apollo 17 took the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph of the Earth from a distance of about 18,000 miles.

On 27 October 1972 the number one record in the UK charts was Mouldy Old Dough by Lieutenant Pigeon  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64VvUVLl7W0 but more importantly a group of people met at a pub in Leicester to form The Russell Society!

We plan to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of the formation of the Society exactly fifty years to the day, possibly almost to the hour!

Join us from 8:00 pm on Thursday 27 October to raise a glass to the Society, contribute your memories and reminiscences and hear those of others. Participate in a light-hearted quiz loosely linked to the Russell Society, and share any funny stories that come to mind.

We’ll be online via Zoom with the doors opening at 7:45 pm.

If you would like to give a short presentation, contribute photos to show, or have a story that you’d like to share, please contact Roy Starkey ASAP.

Further details will be circulated nearer the date.

Charge your glasses, dig out your old photos and memories and get ready for a fun-filled evening of nostalgia.

See you there!

The Society will not be holding a meeting at Maisemore this autumn, but is is hoped that this very successful annual event will resume next year.

Our programme of monthly zoom talks starts in September. All talks start at 8pm with the waiting room open from 7.45pm. As usual log-in details will be given on the members’ page. Non-members are welcome to join us subject to there being places as there is a limit on numbers. If you would like to attend any lecture but are not a member, please contact the webmaster about a week before: 

 

21 September – Roy Starkey – Philip Rashleigh’s Mineral Collection at the Royal Cornwall Museum and Why It Is Important.        Joint meeting with the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall (see http://geologycornwall788.bravesites.com/2021-lectures-and-events for full details and the log-in link)  Note: The waiting room for this talk will open at 7.50pm

19 October – Shane Webb – Loch Tay, Scotland: a mineralogical overview of some of the highest-grade gold deposits in Britain.

16 November – Ollie O’Reilly, Cornish Lithium – The Geology and Mineralogy of the Trelavour Deposit: a Lithium-Rich Granite Resource

21 December Rachel Walcott – Data-capturing history, mysteries, and the emergence of Robert Jameson’s systematic mineral collection.

18 January – Michael Doel – The Uranium Mine at Menzenschwand.

15 February – David Aubrey-Jones – Last Season’s Russell Society Trips.

15 March – Woody Thompson – Maine Pegmatites.

19 April – Speaker and topic awaiting confirmation.

17 May – Speaker and topic awaiting confirmation.

Members may be interested to know that former Society Hon. President Roy Starkey will be Bryan Swoboda’s guest on next week’s episode of Mineral Talks Live at 18:00 hrs BST, on Wednesday 3 August. If you are interested in watching the programme please register in advance using the link in the advert.

The Society have been pleased to help fund and to provide technical support enabling information boards to be erected on Clevedon sea front which highlight the unique local geology. Clevedon Pier and Heritage Trust has just issued the following press release:

Clevedon Pier and Heritage Trust are very pleased to announce the installation of three public Information Boards on Wildlife, Geology and Minerals. Each Board is supported by a more detailed account of the subject on the Piers web site which can be accessed directly by a QR code on each Board. The Boards highlight the rich landscape, geology and coastal ecology which can be viewed from the Pier and along the beach, including the Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) adjacent to the Pier’s toll house.

The Boards were generously funded by the Architectural Heritage Fund, the Geologists Association and the Russell Society and were supported by inputs from Roy Starkey and David Green (The Russell Society), Jonathan Larwood (Natural England and the Geologists’ Association’s Curry Fund) and Mark Ward (Somerset Wildlife Trust). The Geology Board features artwork by Bob Nichols.  The Mineral Board was manufactured and designed by Querceus. The Wildlife and Geology Boards were designed by Emily Moran, featuring her original artwork, and manufactured by CE Signs Clevedon. North Somerset Council supported the project and installed the boards.

Further information can be found here.

Inspired by the geology information board local author Peter Gibbs has written the following poem:

Really, Really Old Clevedon
A long, long, long, long time ago
Before we all were here
You would have found our Clevedon
In Southern Hemisphere
But not as we would know it now
No bouncing kangaroos
No surfers out on Bondi Beach
Not somewhere you would choose
Although the sea was warmer then
An ocean tropical
Forming Mendip limestone
Which we see now so tall
Then continents collided
With an almighty crash
I’m sure from many miles away
You would have heard a splash
Mountains formed, then wore away
The climate took its toll
Our place it headed northwards
Towards another pole
The water turned all salty
Our ocean now a lake
Where dinosaurs on holiday
Could take a welcome break
Two-twenty million years ago
Our beaches they enjoyed
Before they were extinguished
By mighty asteroid
Devonian rocks beside the pier
They have a tale to tell
Our time is oh so fleeting
So we must use it well.

The Society has received the following email from the Directors of the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro to say that the Museum’s major source of funding is to be cut. Many mineralogists will have visited the Museum to see its superb collection of Cornish mineral specimens, including those of the Philip Rashleigh collection.

Hello, 

I am sorry to say we are having to write to share some devastating news with you. We were informed last week that Cornwall Council has cut all its funding to the museum.

This decision will directly lead to the imminent closure of Royal Cornwall Museum and the Courtney Library.

We are still in the process of understanding why, and the decision is even more disappointing considering the great successes we have had over the past two years. You can read more about our recent work here.

We need you to take action and voice your support now more than ever, and we want to make it as easy as possible for you to help out. We have drafted an email/letter template you can download here for you to send to your local councillor and/or the MP for Truro and Falmouth, Cherilyn Mackrory You will need to replace anything in square brackets with your own details. If you are unsure who/where to send it to, you can find out who your local councillor is and how to contact them here – https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/my-area/

You can also help out if you use social media by posting messages of support, making sure you copy in Cornwall Council and the museum by using the following tags:

Facebook: @CornwallCouncil @RoyalCornwallMuseum
Twitter: @CornwallCouncil @Cornwall_Museum
Instagram: @CornwallCouncil @Cornwall_Museum

This should hopefully only take 10 minutes of your time but it could make a huge difference so we would really appreciate if you could do this for the future of the museum. 

Best wishes,

Bryony and Jonathan

Bryony Robins, Artistic Director
Jonathan Morton, Executive Director