Lecture: Colin Horstmann Memorial Lecture: Bath and Bristol as a Cradle of Geology 1750 - 1850

Speaker: Professor Hugh Torrens, University of Keele

Entry Fee

Members: Free

Visitors: £5.00

Date and Time

19:30 -

Location

Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16-18 Queen Square, Bath BA1 2HN


Lecture Description

This area has held a special place in the history of geology ever since it was christened the ‘cradle of English geology’ in 1826 by Rev. Joseph Hunter. This was the result of the work there of William Smith (1769-1839) and who then responded to Hunter by noting that High Littleton had been its ‘birthplace’. But Smith had had several forerunners in this area, some quite forgotten, who will be discussed, as will Smith’s legacy in terms of the work of some of the many other later Bristol-Bath area geologists. The importance of the establishments of the two separate ‘Scientific Institutions’ in Bristol (founded 1820) and Bath (founded 1823) must also be considered, as will their quite separate, and instructive, legacies to the area.



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