Hull Geological Society
This year 18 individuals, families and institutions joined the Society. There
are at present about 137 members, of which four are honorary, three are
institutions, 24 families and eleven are students. The breakdown of membership
by areas is as follows -
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47 in Hull
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32 near Hull
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16 further away in the East Riding
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13 in other parts of Yorkshire
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14 in Lincolnshire
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4 in Nottinghamshire
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7 elsewhere in the UK
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4 overseas.
With sadness we record the deaths of Tony Hibbert and Lynden Emery.
Tony was a very active local naturalist, as well as being the Treasurer and keen supporter of the East Yorkshire RIGS Group. He trained and worked as an Industrial Chemist. He was an active member of the Hull Natural History Society for over 30 years and spent a few years as a regional conservation officer for the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. He also undertook Humber Estuary Counts for the British Trust for Ornithology.
Lynden Emery, Honorary Life Member of the Society, died
on Sunday 27th January 2008, aged 68. Lynden joined the Society in 1969 and the
Yorkshire Geological Society in 1973. He was President of the Society from 1974
to 1977 and 1987 to 1990. He was Vice-President of the Society in 1986 and 1987.
He was also an editor of East Yorkshire
Field Studies and Humberside
Geologist. In 1979 he wrote a 448-page thesis about the palaeoecology of the
Speeton Clay, under the supervision of John Neale, and received a MSc from the
University of Hull. He donated his carefully curated collection of Speeton Clay
fossils to Hull Museums, before moving to Castle Carey in Somerset.
We have held ten field meetings in the Summer programme, including a joint
weekend field meeting with the Geologists' Association, plus four research
meetings at Flamborough and Roadshows at Hornsea Museum, the Treasure House and
hull and East Riding Museum. The Summer Programme included our first field
meeting by boat: to see the contortions in the Chalk at Old Dor, setting off
from North Landing.
There were seven winter meetings including a Members' Evening which included
contributions from ten members and a workshop on 'leading
and organising field meetings'. There was also a joint meeting with the
Yorkshire Geological Society as part of the bi-centenary of the Geological
Society of London. We plan to publish the proceedings of that meeting as a
CD-ROM. We have also held 11 meetings of the Microscopy Group in the last year.
On 25th June 2007 flooding badly affected parts of Hull and the East Riding.
Part of the Society's stock of publications was destroyed and I lost my
collection of specimens that I use for teaching. The Humber and Wolds Community
Council kindly provided a grant to reprint the copies of
Humberside Geologist that we lost
in flooding.
Unfortunately there has been some vandalism at Rifle Butts SSSI by a geologist
digging out the rocks along the line of the unconformity: this will create extra
work for members who annual visit the site to keep it clean, as well as
potentially having longer term affects on the stability of the exposure.
On behalf of the Committee I would like to thank our retiring President, Paul
Hildreth; David Baker for his work on the new Society Web-site; Janet Binns for
the cakes at the YGS meeting; the Geography Department at the University for
hosting the meetings; all the speakers and field meeting leaders; and the
University of Hull Central Print Unit for printing our publications. And I thank
the Committee and members for their continued support.
Mike Horne, 11th March 2008.
Copyright - Hull Geological Society 2023
Registered Educational Charity No. 229147