THE GEOLOGICAL MATERIAL IN THE T.B.PARKS COLLECTION, KINGSTON UPON HULL MUSEUMS

By Patrick J Boylan, B.Sc., F.G.S., A.M.B.I.M.

(Director, Leicestershire Museums and Art Galleries)

Following the death of T.B. Parks of Ulceby, North Lincolnshire, a prominent member of the Hull Geological Society for many years, his widow offered the whole of her late husband's collections to the Hull Museums, and this offer was gratefully accepted. The material was transported to Hull, where the task of preliminary sorting and treatment was undertaken by the then Keeper of Geology and Natural History, Mr. D.A.E. Spalding, who also published a brief note of the accession (Spalding, 1962). Detailed cataloguing of the central part of the collection (which was commenced by David Spalding) was completed by P.J. Boylan and the rest of the collection has been carefully studied, and it is now clear that the Collection is the most important geological acquisition of the museum since the 1930's.

Apart from Mr. Parks' own considerable personal collection, the gift also included a great number of specimens which he had received from other amateur geologists, mainly members of the Hull Geological Society, who had worked in North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, notably the whole of the collection of the late C.F.B. Shillito, of Brocklesby (which included more than 30 000 specimens of land and fresh-water mollusca from the Post-Glacial deposits of North Lincolnshire), and material from the collections of Sgt. P. Cambridge and the late C.W. Mason. (The remaining part of the Mason Collection was donated to the Hull Museums by Mrs. L. Mason in 1966).

It is clear that it will be a matter of years before every part of the Parks Collection has been fully studied, so it seems advisable to publish some brief indications of the principal contents, particularly in the case of material which has been referred to in publications. The summary below is arranged stratigraphically (apart from the rocks and minerals) and includes references only to important specimens, or to groups which are particularly well represented in the collections. All of the material is now in the Hull Museums, where it is available for examination or study.

A small number of East Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire glacial erratics are of interest, as is a collection of building stones and other constructional materials. Mr. Parks was, by profession, a Master Builder and he carried out repairs and restoration work at a number of churches and other important buildings in North Lincolnshire. In connection with this, and other work, he obtained samples of a number of building stones, sands and gravels and preserved a number of samples from stones removed during such work.

The collections included a large set of minerals (professionally prepared) and also a collection of polished and unpolished semi-precious stones, many of which were obtained on the East Yorkshire coast.

Lincolnshire Limestone: a small collection from the Ketton Lime Pit, Rutland.

Great Oolite Series: five epithyrid brachiopods collected in fields S.W. of Cranwell Village, Lincs.

Cornbrash: The collection includes some of the specimens from the Upper

Cornbrash of Ruskington, Lincs. listed by Dennison (1952a), i.e. Pholadomya deltoidea (J. Sowerby), Pleuromy calceformis (Phillips), Gresslya peregrina (Phillips), Ostrea (Liostrea) undosa (Phillips), Ostrea (Lopha)Sp., and Rhynchonelloidea cerealis (Buckman) also Trigonia sp. indet.

Kellaways Beds: There are some fine specimens from the South Cave (East Yorks.) pits, including ammonites, bivalves and brachiopods from the Mason Collection.

0xford Clay: Of the local Oxford Clay material, the most interesting items are the specimens from the Kettleby (Lincs.) borehole, which was described by Kent (1939). These include Upper Callovian and Lower Oxfordian ammonites, i.e. Kosmoceras aff. pollux, Creniceras sp., Quenstedtoceras sp. and undetermined nuclei of perisphinctids. There is also a fine specimen of Cardioceras (s.l.) sp. which was apparently a surface find (ex. Oxford Clay) at South Cave, Yorks.

Kimmeridge Clay: The collection includes some important specimens from the Lower Kimmeridigan of the Wrawby Cutting (North Lincs.) and from temporary exposures in the Wrawby-Elsham area. Several of the ammonites were identified by Dr. L.F. Spath of the British Museum (Natural History) and lists were published by Dennison (1952b) and by Cambridge & Parks (1955). There is also some unpublished material from the same area. (Three ammonites from the Wrawby Cutting were presented by Mr. Parks to the City and County Museum, Lincoln).

Elsham Sandstone: From about 1940 onwards, Mr. Parks collected a large number of ammonities and a few bivalves from two small pits at Elsham (Lincs) in which a sand, containing large blocks of a sandstone of Lower Kimmeridigan age, was exposed. In 1953 Mr. Parks submitted a number of ammonites from these blocks to Dr, Spath who reported that "they are derived from the Lower Kimmeridge Clay. They are, in fact, species of Rasenia ...... though they are probably new and so far undescribed" (Parks 1954a). At Dr. Spath’s request, Mr. Parks presented three of these ammonites to the British Museum (Natural History). The area around Elsham had been mapped by the Geological Survey in the 19^th century as "Spilsby Sandstone" (Neocomian), mostly on lithological grounds, and Spath appears to have assumed that the deposit examined by Parks was a glacial sand with derived fossils overlying the "Lower Cretaceous" beds shown on the map. It is clear however, that Parks was not completely convinced by this argument, although he never mentioned these doubts in either of his publications dealing with this material (Parks 1954a, Parks & Cambridge 1955). For example, an additional label to one of the specimens examined by Spath (Hull Museums Reg. No. 80.62.210) and identified by Spath as "Rasenia sp. nov." (Cambridge & Parks 1955) is labelled "? Spilsby Ss. T.B.P. Wrawby Gravel Pit, Gallows Fm c. 1940; (I think in situ, T.B.P.)". Arkell and Calloman (1963) described the specimens presented to the British Museum (Natural History) by Parks as types of Aulacostephanus (Xenostephanus)ranbyensis var. elshamensis nov., in an account of some Lower Kimmeridgian ammonites from the Lincolnshire drifts. While this paper was in press, Kent and Casey (1963) showed that

Lower Cretaceous: There is surprisingly little from the Lower Cretaceous of either Yorkshire or Lincolnshire in the collection, apart from a few brachiopods and bivalves from the Claxby Ironstone of Nettleton, and a specimen of Hoplocrioceras sp. from the Tealby Limestone of the same locality. There is also a small collection of terebratulids, bivalves, belemnites from the Red Chalk of Speeton, Yorks.

Chalk: For many years Mr. Parks collected regularly from the Lower and Middle Chalk of the Elsham Chalk pit. The specimens include a considerable number of terebratulids, rhynchonellids, bivalves and echinoids and also some fish remains (teeth and scales) from both the chalk and the "Black Band" (Plenus Marl), and there is also a fine specimen of Actinocamax plenus (Blainville) from the "Black Band". There are also several Lower Chalk ammonities from South Ferriby and other localities.

Apart from a small collection of vertebrate remains from East Yorkshire, the most interesting material is a collection of marine mollusca collected by Shillito from the gravel pit at Laceby (Lincs) and identified by J.F. Musham and A.S. Kennard (Musham, 1936).

From about 1933 onwards Shillito devoted a great part of his energy towards the investigation of various Post-glacial deposits of North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, and in the next thirteen years he collected about 35000 fossil shells from four areas of the two counties, most of which are now in the Parks Collection, together with all notes and correspondence relating to the material. The specimens were sorted and identified by J.F. Musham and they were then submitted to A.S. Kennard, who checked and, where necessary, amended Musham's [notes.] Unusual material was submitted to other authorities for confirmation. The greater part of the material is from a Neolithic or Early Bronze Age tufaceous deposit in the Ancholme Valley at, or near, Broughton, Brigg, Lincolnshire. Preliminary accounts of Shillito's work were given by Musham (1935, 1936), and a full account of the material collected in the first few years was given by Kennard & Musham (1937). Additional records and lists of material from new sites were given by Musham (1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941 and 1942) but the full account that Kennard hoped to write was never prepared for publication.

Several East Yorkshire deposits were investigated by Shillito, in association with C.W. Mason, and the specimens were again determined by Kennard. These included Holocene mollusc deposits at North Ferriby, Barmston and Skipsea, already published in detail (Boylan 1966). The other Holocene specimens of interest are the animal bones from South Ferriby, referred to by Parks (1954b).

ARKELL, W.J. & CALLOHAN, J.H. 1963, : Lower Kimmeridgian ammonites from the drift of Lincolnshire. Palaeontology 6, 2: 219-245.

BOYLEN, P.J. 1966. New records of Holocene mollusca from East Yorkshire. Naturalist, 899: 113-8

CAMBRIDGE, P. & PARKS, T.B. 1955. Elsham, Melton Gallows and Wrawby Cutting. Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1954) 13, 4: 253-4.

DENNISON, V.D. 1952a. Fossils from the Cornbrash, Ruskington. Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1951) 13, 1: 37-8

--------- 1952b. North Lincolnshire. (Geology Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1951), 13, 1: 39

KENNARD, A.S. & MUSHAM, J.F. 1937. On the mollusca from a Holocene tufaceous deposit at Broughton - Brigg, Linconshire. Proc. Malac. Soc. Lond. 22, 6: 374-9

KENT, P.E. 1939. Notes on a borehole at Kettleby, near Brigg. Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1938) 9, 4: 221-2.

------- & CASEY, R. 1963. A Kimmeridgian Sandstone in North Lincolnshire. Proc. Geol. Soc. Lond. 1606: 57-62.

MUSHAM, J.F. 1935. Important finds of land and freshwater shells in the lime deposits around Broughton, near Brigg,. Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1934) 8, 4: 93-8

------- 1936. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1935) 9, 1: 50-1

------- 1937. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1936) 9, 2: 119-120.

------- 1938. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1937) 9, 3: 177-9.

------- 1939. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1938) 9, 4: 222-3.

------- 1940. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1939) 10, 1: 26-7.

------- 1941. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1940) 10, 2: 66-7.

------- 1942. Conchology. (Report). Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1941) 10, 3: 94-5.

------- 1943. Conchology. (Report). Lines. Nat. Union Trans. (1942) 10, 4: 145.

PARKS, T.B. 1954a. Exposures of chalk and sand with derived fossils at Elsham Quarry. Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1953) 13, 3: 192-3.

------- 1954b, Exposures at North Ferriby, 1953. Lincs. Nat. Union Trans. (1953) 13, 3: 193

SPALDING, D.A.E. 1962. Hull Museum’s Acquisition. The Naturalist (1962): 114

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