Date for your diary - Sunday September 21st

Professor Michael Benton from the University of Bristol will be joining us at 10.30 a.m. at Knapp Hill (car park near SU121636, about 2km NNE of Alton Barnes and about 6km NW of Pewsey) on Sunday September 21st to officially launch the new Wiltshire Geology Group's Vale of Pewsey landscape and geology guide. After the launch and an interpretation of the view at this site, we shall walk to a dry dewpond with sarsen stones. We shall then travel down to Alton Barnes Church to look at the stones at its base and then across the field to a spring. There may be time to visit Alton Priors Church too. After looking at an unusual chalk building and the sarsen building stones in Stanton St. Bernard en route, we shall end the event with lunch at the King's Arms in All Cannings. Please book a table for lunch as the pub is busy on Sundays.

Lady required by WEGA - sorry gentlemen

A female person has pulled out of WEGA's trip to Northumberland. Would you be interested in filling the gap?
The dates are Saturday 13th September to Saturday 20th September 2008. It would cost £550 for the week. You would be sharing a twin-bedded room with some other lady in a hotel where we will be staying on a dinner, bed and breakfast basis. Click here for details of the hotel. The £550 includes the hotel, transport in a superior minibus, including from and to Bristol, and tuition by Andrew Bell, a well known Open University lecturer.
The geology is also rather superior - mainly Carboniferous but lots of other stuff, including (at a small additional expense) a boat trip to see Siccar Point - the most important unconformity in the world!
If you could give a response soon WEGA would be very grateful - email

Tedbury Camp - latest information

This is to let you know that a new website describing Tedbury Camp, near Frome, is now available. Over the last couple of years this wonderful locality has attracted the documentation it deserves and there are now three major complementary sources of information available for the area.
The new website - 'Tedbury Camp - a geological gem in the Mendip Hills', has been compiled by Dr. Martin Whiteley on behalf of the Earth Science Teachers' Association (ESTA). It is aimed at A Level students, undergraduates and researchers, and includes lots of illustrative material and a detailed map of the quarry. It forms part of the ESTA website.
The two other sources of information are:-
- the UKRIGS Earth Science On-Site education project which is designed to encourage non-specialist science teachers to undertake Earth science fieldwork with pupils from primary to GCSE level,
- British Geological Survey (2008) publication - walkers' guide to the geology and landscape of eastern Mendip. This can be obtained from the BGS at Keyworth, Nottingham for £12 and comprises a 68-page book and a map at 1:25000 scale. Additional information can be found on the BGS website.
In the future, we hope to improve the steep access path to Tedbury Camp, clear some of the overgrown faces and produce a geotrail leaflet that describes this and several other localities in the Mells valley. It will be aimed at casual visitors who may be interested to learn a little more about the rich heritage of this area.