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