Buckland Fossil Table

Lyme Regis Museum successfully attained a grant from AIM (Association of Independent Museums) to conserve the Buckland Fossil Table. The table was owned by William Buckland one of the leading geologists of the 19th Century. Buckland was a highly regarded character who, whilst Professor of Geology at Oxford University, carried out pioneering work not only in the study of dinosaurs, but also the analysis of coprolites or fossilised faeces. The large inlay panel of the Buckland fossil table is set with coprolites which have been cut in half and polished to a high sheen. The table is highly unusual and an extremely popular exhibit at Lyme Regis Museum.

14th December - Bristol Red and Bristol Blue

´Bristol Red and Bristol Blue´ by Ian Donaldson on Tuesday 14th December, Dept of Earth Sciences, Wills Building, University of Bristol, 7.30.
Everyone knows of Bristol Blue cobalt glass, but few have heard of William Cookworthy's involvement with it, and his three important discoveries. Few too have heard of Bristol Red. It depended crucially on Alum. An Elizabethan naturalist discovered the secret of making alum from shale, and broke a lucrative Papal monopoly during The Reformation. This was the start of an industry based on rocks dug from the North Yorkshire coast, the Thames Estuary, and at Campsie, near Glasgow. Alum was made in Bristol for over a hundred years, until the 1970s.
Everyone is welcome - mince pies and refreshments - courtesy of WEGA.