Chapter 8.

Collaborations.

The Hull Geological Society has had and continues to have links to and collaborate with other societies and educational establishments.

Hull Museums.

The link to Hull Museums dates back to Thomas Sheppard becoming the first Curator of Hull Museum (Horne 2007 Local Heroes). In the 1980s there were two geologists at the Museum: Mike Boyd as Assistant Keeper of Natural History and Mick Stanley as Principal Keeper. The Society participated in joint Roadshows at the Hull and East Riding Museum and Ferens Art Gallery. The Society donated its archives to the Museum for safe keeping in 1990 and Lynden Emery donated his collection of Speeton Clay fossils to the HERM. From 1992 to 2000 Mick Stanley represented the Museum on our Committee and then Matt Stephens was their representative until 2005. The HGS held an annual public lecture at the Ferens Art Gallery from 1998 to 2002 and then one in 2007.

When Heather Rayfield was creating the new permanent display in the Hull and East Riding Museum in 1997 she consulted the Society about the content and we offered advice about the local geology. We also organised some field meetings to help her collect specimens for the exhibition. That display still contains some specimens on loan from the Felix Whitham Collection; the rest of Felix’s collection was donated to the British Geological Survey in Keyworth when he died in 2009.

 Hull University Geology Department.

The Geology Department at Hull University has been a good friend to the Society ever since it opened in 1948. It started to host Society meetings in the 1960s and the Society continues to hold most of its indoor meetings there, even though the University has ceased to teach a Geology degree twice. Staff and students are welcome to attend our meetings. Staff and post-graduate students at the University have given lectures to the Society or organised practical demonstrations for us. They have hosted longer meetings for the Society such as day schools, our Centenary Meeting in 1988, our 125^th Anniversary meeting, the Chalk Symposium in 2015 and our joint meetings with the YGS and GA. Members of the Society have led field excursions for conferences organised by the University and for the University Science Club. A group of Society members catalogued the Lewis Penny Collection in 2012 and this has been published on the Society’s website (Horne 2024).

George de Boer was the Society’s Secretary, Vice President, President and Librarian in the 1950s and early 1960s. Lewis Penny was Vice President from 1965 to 1967 and John Neale frequently attended HGS field meetings. Several members of the University Staff have been Honorary Members of the Society over the years: Ansell Dunham, George de Boer, John Neale, Lewis Penny, Mark Piasecki and Michael House. There has been a Representative of the Department on our Committee since 1992 offering help and advice: Dick Middleton, Mike Rogerson and Dave Bond. Four members of the HGS are Honorary Fellows at the University Mike Horne, Peter Rawson, Rodger Connell and Sonja Boehmer-Christensen (three of them sharing an office in the attic of the Cohen Building).

Hull University Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL).

The link with Adult Education teaching at the University has long been mutually beneficial. In fact some present and former members remember that they were introduced to Geology by Mark Piasecki’s classes and through him became members of the Society. Some present members of the Society achieved a University Foundation Award from the University’s CLL night classes (see appendix 9). Society members Lynden Emery, Sheila Rogers, Tony Benfield, Richard Myerscough and Mike Horne taught night classes for the University in Hull, Scarborough and York. A significant number of their students joined the Society and a number of HGS members regularly attended CLL classes until it finally closed in 2013. Some of our research projects originated in the CLL fieldwork classes.

Hull University Brynmor Jones Library.

The HGS had its own Library which was originally housed in the Museum in Albion Street, then the Central Library and then the Geography Department at the University. Eventually it was donated to the University of Hull’s Brynmor Jones Library, along with its publication exchanges with the Smithsonian Institute and the United States Geological Survey. We sent copies of Humberside Geologist to the USGS via the library as part of that exchange. Members of the HGS were entitled to a reader’s ticket for the Library free of charge and the Secretary would periodically send copies of the HGS membership list to the Library for that purpose. In 2002 the Librarian decided to remove a significant proportion of the geology books to make space. The Geology Department had closed in 1988 and very few of the books were being borrowed (though they might have been read within the Library). Through the auspices of Huw Griffiths, a lecturer in the Geography Department, the Society identified books of local interest and recommended that they be kept. The Deputy Librarian disagreed but because we had previously donated our library to the University we were given first choice of the books heading for disposal. Stuart Jones volunteered to house the books in a spare room in his home in Berkeley Street, Hull. The post of HGS Librarian was recreated and an honorarium was paid to Stuart as a contribution to heating and insurance costs. (The story of the new HGS Library is continued in Chapter 2 of this volume).

Geologists’ Association.

 When Eric Robinson of University College London was President of the Geologists’ Association in 1992 he aimed to visit regional geological societies including the HGS. Felix Whitham and Mike Horne of the HGS became friends with Eric and the GA Executive Secretary Sarah Stafford. Felix and Mike both became personal members of the GA, attending the GA Annual Reunion at University College London in 1992. The GA started to become the unofficial umbrella organisation for amateur geological societies in the UK, already having some regional branches. The HGS affiliated to the GA in 1991 and later took advantage of their group public liability insurance.  The GA’s Earth Alert II conference was held in Scarborough in 2002 and the GA asked the HGS to act as hosts at the Icebreaker event at the Sealife Centre in Scalby. Although this was not practical it prompted the HGS to create Yorkshire Geology Month in 2005. The HGS hosted a weekend field meeting for the GA in 2007 . The GA held its Annual Conference in Hull in 2022 with the University hosting the meeting and HGS leading field trips.

Yorkshire Geology Month (YGM).

Although there had been some pan-Yorkshire geology events in the past (a geology weekend in York in October 1991 and Yorkshire Geology Week in 1996 for example), Mike Horne proposed an annual Yorkshire Geology Month for 2005 following the GA’s Earth Alert Conference in Scarborough. The HGS agreed to fund it with a budget of £20 and the aim was to run free events for the public in the month of May. Mike wrote to regional museums, geological clubs and some quarrying companies asking them to host or organise events. The first planning meeting was held at the Yorkshire Museum in York in June 2004.  It was important that the events took place where people lived rather than expect the public to travel to quarries and remote locations for a traditional geological field trip. For the first year in 2005 there were 41 events including urban walks, coastal walks, exhibitions and lectures. These were attended by over 870 people.  The Yorkshire Museum hosted a meeting for all the event organisers after the first YGM in July 2005 . During the second YGM in 2006 the following year 37 events were held and about 300 people attended or visited the seven events organised by the HGS.

The North East Yorkshire Geology Trust took over the running of YGM for a few years before the Yorkshire Geological Society became the umbrella organisation for YGM. The HGS has run at least one YGM event per year ever since; though one was only attended by two members due to social distancing restrictions during the Covid pandemic in 2020; Mike Horne as Leader and Anne Horne as the public!

Yorkshire Geological Society (YGS)

There was always a close relationship with the Yorkshire Geological Society, with HGS attending the YGS meetings when they were held at the University and the YGS AGM in York which was held at the College of York St. John. Their AGM was followed by an Annual Dinner which was held at the Merchant Venturers’ Hall and well over a dozen HGS members regularly attended the dinner taking up one of the long dining tables, the HGS contingent often being coordinated by Felix Whitham. For a while Mavis May was the organiser of the Dinner for the YGS and Felix Whitham helped her arrange the seating plan.

Over the years several HGS members have had active roles within the YGS.  Sheila Rogers acted as the Membership Secretary. Tony Benfield and Paul Hildreth have both been the General Secretary of the YGS. Mike Allderidge, Tony Benfield and Pete Rawson are Honorary Members.  Several HGS members have been the President of the YGS: John Neale (1981-2), Ansell Dunham (1989-90), Pete Rawson (2003-4), Patrick Boylan (2012-4) and Paul Hildreth (2018-20). David Hill has been a member of the YGS Council (their committee) since 2011. Some HGS members have been awarded medals by the YGS: Michael House in 1985, John Neale in 1986, Simon Mitchell in 1989, Felix Whitham in 1993, Pete Rawson in 1994, John Catt in 2004 and Mike Horne in 2022 [source - YGS website accessed 8 Feb 2025]. Felix Whitham, John Neale, John Catt and Richard Myerscough contributed chapters to the Yorkshire Rocks and Landscape field guide published by the YGS in 1994.

Following the closure of the Geology Department at the University of Hull in 1988 the HGS helped with the role of organising an annual joint meeting with the YGS in Hull usually in October or November. The Geography Department paid for the room booking and porter, the YGS paid the speakers expenses, and the HGS provided the refreshments and geological displays. Usually the President of the YGS would chair the first half of the meeting and the President of the HGS would chair the second half. For a number of years Janet Binns (mother of HGS member Gordon Binns) and family organised the catering and baked cakes especially for the meeting. The new Geology Department at the University resumed the arranging of the YGS meetings in Hull in 2015.

Over the years members of the HGS have contributed talks and significant exhibitions to these joint meetings. Here is a list of some of the meetings we have organised or made major contributions to –

1996 – “Recent Research in Eastern Yorkshire” with talks by Felix Whitham and Mike Horne about the Chalk.

2000 – “Caves and Karst” with a talk by Richard Myerscough and displays by Chris Blackhurst, David Hill, Felix Whitham, Gordon Binns, Mike Horne, Nigel Whittington, Paul Hildreth and Terry Rockett.

2001 – “Pleistocene World” as a tribute to Lewis Penny introduced by John Neale and with contributions from John Catt, Stephen Whitaker, Stuart Jones and the East Riding Boulder Committee.

2003 – “Michael House Memorial Meeting” with an introductory talk by John Neale, a display of Devonian goniatites by David Hill and a display about current research into the Karst features at Sands Top Quarry, Newbald, by members of the HGS.

2004 – “Glacial Landforms” with displays by Mike Horne of the distribution of glacial erratics in Holderness, Stuart Jones of glacial erratics and Stephen Whittaker of erratics, bones and shell found at Keyingham Gravel Pits.

2005 - “Open Questions in East Yorkshire Geology” trying to answer the questions posed by George W Lamplugh to the HGS in 1898. Pete Rawson spoke about the Speeton Clay, John Catt about the Quaternary and Mike Horne about the contributions by local amateur geologists.

2006 - “Papers in Palaeontology -  a tribute to John Neale” with talks by Pete Rawson and Jack Doyle, preceded by a microfossils workshop in the morning led by Mike Horne, Patti McAlpin and Stuart Jones.

2007 - “Local Quaternary Heroes” included talks by Patrick Boylan on W S Bisat and Mike Horne on Tom Sheppard, J W Stather and the East Riding Boulder Committee. There was a field trip on the Sunday to Sewerby and Dimlington led by John Catt.

2008 - “Geology South of the Humber, Down Lincolnshire Way” which was organised at short notice by Paul Hildreth because the plans for the original topic fell through. Speakers from the HGS were Barrie Heaton, Terry Rockett and Paul Hildreth.

2009 - “The Last Glacial Maximum” with Ian Heppenstall speaking about the Quaternary deposits at Danes Dyke and South Landing. Stephen Whitaker displayed bones and fossils from the Kelsey Hill and Keyingham gravel deposits.

2012 – “Sedimentology – Process and Products” with talks and a field trip from Mike Horne, Rodger Connell and Stuart Jones and displays by Ron Harrison and the Flamborough Quaternary Research Group.

2014 - “Regarding Dynamic Process” a Geology and Art Symposium at Hull College organised by Anna Kirk-Smith, who also chaired some of the meeting. HGS members Patrick Boylan and Mike Horne contributed lectures and the HGS sponsored some of the prizes for the art exhibition. That summer the HGS also collaborated with a number of local artists creating an exhibition in a gallery in Humber Street and a booklet and website called “On the Endless Here”.

2015 – A weekend long Chalk Symposium at Hull University aimed to bring together chalk specialists to discuss problems with the biostratigraphy in the UK. The YGS paid a Hull University undergraduate to organise the meeting. HGS members John Green, Mike Horne, Paul Hildreth and Rodger Connell contributed lectures, displays and field meetings to the symposium.

For other collaborations with other societies see chapter 5 – Meetings. Also, there are abstracts and reports of most of the joint meetings with the YGS, GA and Hertfordshire Geological Society in the Archives section of the Society’s website.

[I thank David Hill and Rodger Connell for their contributions to this Chapter.]

Next Chapter

  Back to Humberside Geologist number 18 contents page 

copyright Hull Geological Society 2026