Hull Geological Society
Our 2001 Summer Programme was affected by the Foot and Mouth outbreak, which
meant that we were unable to visit many inland exposures. Rifle Butts SSSI was
closed for most of the summer,
so we were unable to clean the exposure. There were two walks for beginners led
by Nigel Whittington and field meetings to South Cave, Elsham and South Bay
at
Scarborough. We did manage to do trips outside our usual area - to Caphouse
Colliery and a joint meeting with the Huddersfield Geology Group who made us
most welcome. I did like the idea of ending the meeting with a slice of fruit
cake!
In April two long-standing members died. Cyril Dutton lived in Weybridge but was
a regular contributor to Humberside
Geologist. Harry Thompson had been a member for longer than I have and
played a major role in the design and erection of the Rifle Butts shelter.
Dr E V Wright MA, MBE, died in May, aged 85. Ted was an honorary member of the
Society and had also been awarded an honorary Doctorate by Hull University. Ted,
and his brother Willy, had an interest in geology from an early age. They
published their first joint geology article in 1933 about the Holocene deposits
of North Ferriby. Their main local geological interest was in the Chalk of the
Yorkshire Wolds and they published an article listing all the Chalk Pits in the
area in 1942. Ted was probably better known as a marine archaeologist and the
finder of the Ferriby Boats.
The Rock and Fossil Roadshow at Hull and East Riding Museum on 26th May 2001 was
well attended. There were four exhibitors - Kingston Lapidary Club, Byron
Blessed from Nature's Wonders in Whitby, Hull Museums with fossil plaster
casting, a dinosaur trail and a computer display and our Society. Felix Whitham
had brought a variety of fossils from his collection for display and Nigel
Whittington displayed photographs of dinosaur footprints from the Yorkshire
Coast. David Hill, Chris Leach, Mike Horne and Terry Rockett helped on our
stand.
In July,
Steve Temperley paid tribute to Mark Piasecki with a special memorial lecture
entitled "The tectonic evolution of the Scottish Highlands: what we know and
what we owe to Marek Piasecki". The meeting in the Friends' Meeting House, was
well attended and as well as members their were former colleagues and students
in the audience.
The joint meeting with the Yorkshire Geological Society this year was a memorial
to Dr Lewis Penny entitled "Pleistocene World". As well as four speakers there
were several displays from the Quaternary of East Yorkshire, including material
from the Lewis Penny collection at the University. At the start of the meeting
John Neale gave a personal tribute to Dr Penny, describing his research and
contributions to the Geology Department at the University. The meeting was
attended by over 90 people, including members of the Penny family.
The winter lectures have all been well attended this year. We have had lectures
from Trevor Ford, Peter Scott, Martyn Pedley, Huw Griffiths and Paul Wignall.
The Members' Evening suffered a bit from technical problems, but included
contributions from Terry Rockett, Nigel Whittington, David Hill, Ron Harrison
and Mike Horne.
The 2002 field meetings started early with a visit to Hornsea on 19th January
that was recorded by BBC Radio Humberside for their "Sense of Place" series to
be broadcast in April
[and later was on Radio 4].
Six new members have joined the Society during the year. There are 125 members
at present on our mailing list, including six honorary members and two
institutional members. Thirty three members live in Hull, 39 in the surrounding
area, 37 are "out of town" members (live too far away to travel to evening
lectures regularly), and three live overseas. There are some members who have
not paid their subscriptions and their names will be removed from the membership
list this summer.
As our year draws to a close I would like to pay tribute Felix Whitham and
Lynden Emery who are retiring from their very active roles in the Society. Felix
had been our Treasurer for 37 years and Lynden has been an active member for 33
years. I am sure that we are all grateful for their hard work for the Society as
Officers and Committee members as well as leading field meetings, doing
displays, giving talks at our meetings and contributing to
Humberside Geologist. I am also
personally indebted to them for helping me start to understand the Chalk and
Speeton Clay.
I would like to thank the Officers and Committee for their help over the year;
Chris Blackhurst for organising the annual dinner; field meeting leaders;
members who helped out at meetings; Janet Binns for the catering for
"Pleistocene World"; Hull University and Hull Museums for their continued
support and hospitality.
Mike Horne, Hon. General Secretary, 4th March 2002
Copyright - Hull Geological Society 2020
Registered Educational Charity No. 229147