If you were disappointed not to attend the talks and reminiscences marking our 50th anniversary, you will be pleased to find a link to a recording of it on the Members’ page. This link will remain active until the end of January.

Members can also look forward to receiving a substantial magazine giving many past stories about the Society and its history, which is currently with the printer.

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

Out of respect for the Queen, Whateley Quarry have postponed the open day scheduled for Sunday 18th September. We will post the revised date, when it is announced.

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.

Whatley Quarry in the Mendips is holding an Open Day available to everyone on Sunday 18 September. One of the displays will be by the Russell Society showing the range of minerals collected at Whatley Quarry. There are a number of activities on offer; the poster below gives you all the information you need if you would like to attend.

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.

In September, The Cheltenham Mineral and Geological Society will be hosting a presentation by Sally and Neville Hollingworth giving the story behind the BBC documentary “Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard.” The major finds from the excavation will be on display.
Non-members are welcome to attend the lecture at the Millennium Hall, Bishop Road, Shurdington, GL51 4TB; Friday 9th September, doors open 7pm, talk starts 7.30; entrance fee £3.

More details are given in this link.

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.

There are a few places available on the Central Branch visit to Dolyhir Quarry on 30 July. Please contact Neil Hubbard if you would like to join us. Neil’s contact details can be found in the Member’s area of the website.