Etheldred Benett Memorialised

Etheldred Benett unveiling 

All Saints Church, Norton Bavant 24th September 2024

A chance reference to Etheldred Benett crossed my desk some years ago and I was immediately hooked. To discover that this remarkable woman was born and lived in Wiltshire, just a few miles from my own home village, was a revelation. It turned out that she also explored the surroundings of my own village, Dinton, looking for fossils. She found at least one, an unidentified ammonite. I subsequently found that she was but one, albeit the most fascinating, of geology’s early pioneers, and the only woman, among those who were very active in Wiltshire, Wiltshire can rightly claim to have made a unique contribution to the development of our science in the 18th and 19th centuries. (See Sarum Chronicle issue 2022 ISBN 978-1-9161359-5-6)

A few years before its unveiling in 2022 in Lyme Regis, a young local girl had asked her mother why there was no statue to such a famous fossil collector as Mary Anning, a contemporary of Etheldred Benett. By May of that year, over £100k had ben raised and the statue was unveiled by such luminaries as Prof Alice Roberts and Prof Hugh Torrens. I spoke to Prof Torrens on the day and outlined plans for a more modest memorial for our local hero, EB. As the person who rediscovered her collection at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Science in the US he was delighted. Alas, now, due to health reasons,  he cannot receive emails so probably does not know that EB’s memorial has been installed.

I visited All Saints Church in the village of Norton Bavant near Warminster to see the Benett family mausoleum and the family chapel. The Benetts were huge landowners which included the manor house in Norton Bavant where EB lived for 43 years. To my surprise there was not a single reference to EB in the church for her geological work. That just had to change!

My approaches and suggestions to the Parochial Church Council (PCC) were positively received so then the task of raising funds to pay for a memorial board kept me busy. The PCC had the daunting task of applying for a faculty, the permission to make changes to the church given by the local diocesan authorities, nearly always a tortuous event.

All my enquiries for a grant received a positive response. I am truly grateful for the financial support that made the memorial possible. The sponsors were:

• Wiltshire Council which gave the largest sum as allocated by the Area Board for the Warminster area.
  
  
• HOGG gave a contribution and gave advice on the wording used on the memorial board.
  
  
• The Curry Fund of the GA gave funds. Dennis Curry, who was a gifted geologist, was the oldest son of the founder of Curry’s the electrical retailer. He took over the firm on the death of his father. His generous gift of shares to the GA provided the capital for the establishment of the Curry Fund which makes grants to support geological projects throughout the country. This is not the first time that the Wiltshire Geology Group has used grants from the Curry Fund. Some years ago when Curry’s, the business, was involved in restructuring an individual involved bought Pyt House, the birthplace of EB. That property is now on the market again at £18 million – small world!
  
  
• Lovell Stone now own Chicksgrove Quarry near Tisbury, the location for EB’s first ever measured and labelled geological section in 1815, described as ‘an indefatigable feat’. Simon Hart, the CEO also made a donation.
  
  
• Professor Renee Clarey of Mississippi State University also secured a donation from the Geological Association of America. 

Following an item in a geological email I received indicating that Prof Clarey was preparing a data base of locations important in the historical development of geology, I wrote enquiring if Chicksgrove Quarry was on her list. It was not but Prof Clarey and I exchanged a number of emails and on a conference visit to the UK we met and I took her to Chicksgrove Quarry. We were also generously invited to lunch with Sir Henry Rumbold and his wife who live at Hatch House, once part of John Benett’s vast estate. Sir Henry is a descendant of one of EB’s brothers (EB never married) and has displayed at his home a portrait of EB as a young woman as shown on the memorial board.

The unveiling took place on 24th September in All Saints churchyard. Twenty people were in attendance, including Sir Henry Rumbold, a representative from Wiltshire Council, members of the PCC, WGG members, the current owner of EB’s old home next to the church and a journalist from the Warminster Journal. Kindly provided by the PCC, we enjoyed tea and refreshments in the church, following the formalities.

After nearly 200 years, EB now has a modest memorial in her home churchyard which captures a little of her huge contribution to the early development of the science of geology.

Etheldred Benett – RIP.

Steve Hannath

Chair of Wiltshire Geology Group