Open University Geological Society (London Branch)
• Lectures
Please use the Registration Form to express your interest in these events and obtain more information.
Fieldwork is an essential part of geology. Whether it is someone looking at rocks for the first time or people engaged in speciality research, the field element is essential.
It is recommended to register with the event's organiser so that you can be notified of any change, and to avoid events being over-subscribed. We will always try to contact anyone who has registered an interest in a trip in advance. If you have registered and find that you will not be able to attend please inform the event organiser to allow someone else to take your place.
Details of events more than two months ahead are provisional. None of the event descriptions here constitute a brochure under the Package Travel Regulations (1999).
Note that day field trips generally carry a charge of £2.50 to cover costs. Where an event carries an admission fee, more will be charged, and the amount should be made clear in the event details.
Sunday 12 May
**Details for this event have changed since originally displayed**
FIELD TRIP: Green Chain Walk Geotrail
Lead by Diana Clements and Laurie Baker, members of the London Geodiversity Partnership who devised the geotrail.
10.30 - 16.30
Meet at Thames Barrier café, above the Information Centre, 1 Unity Way, SE18 5NJ. Car Park available (pay). Nearest train station: Charlton (10 mins walk). Bus routes 161, 188 and 472 from North Greenwich Jubilee Line station (alight at Eastmoor Street stop).
The London Geodiversity Partnership has recently developed a Geological Trail with the SE London Green Chain between the Thames Barrier and Lesnes Abbey. The walk is a seven-mile trail taking in the many points of geological interest. There are a number of hills along the route. A pdf of the Geotrail giving more details is available on the Green Chain Walk website:
www.greenchain.com/pdfs/Geologytrail.pdf
Contact: John Lonergan
Sunday 2 June
FIELD TRIP: Pett Level with Peter Austin
To investigate the Wealden beds, with some fossils, land slides, slope stabilisation - and dinosaur footprints. This is timed to suit the tide, we will walk along the foreshore looking at the cliffs and wave cut platform.
Contact: John Lonergan
Sunday 7 July
**Details for this event have changed since originally displayed**
FIELD TRIP: Sarsens in the Landscape with Geoff Downer
Visiting Lockeridge, Avebury and Fyfield Down, Wiltshire
We shall be visiting three sites in the picturesque Kennet Valley near to the historic town of Marlborough. Two locations will enable us to see sarsen stones in the landscape. In the morning at Lockeridge a train of stones along the valley floor will be examined. Here highly intractable sarsens have been used locally as a building stone and we shall see examples of both ‘stone quarrying’ techniques and house and wall construction. In the afternoon we shall visit Fyfield Down where there are reputed to be over 10,000 sarsen stones scattered over the grass slopes (stone counting here is optional).
In 1644 colonel Richard Symonds wrote in his diary of sarsen stones, "They call that place the Grey-wethers, because a far off they looke like a flock of sheepe." During the day we shall consider the possible method of formation of these grey-weather stones and why today they should come to cover much of the Chalk landscape of Wiltshire.
Lunch shall be taken at the village of Avebury. Located around the village we shall see part of the largest stone circle in Europe constructed from local sarsen stones. This prehistoric henge monument of UNESCO World Heritage status was constructed about 2600BC. Some of the upright stones weigh over 40 tons and we shall consider the transportation and erection of the stones as well as their geology.
Contact: Gavin Mair
Thursday 18 July
FIELD TRIP (Afternoon): London Building Stones in the Cannon Street area of the City with Diana Smith
Contact: Sue Vernon
Sunday 8 September
**Details for this event have changed since originally displayed**
GEOWALK: Hogs Back, Guildford with Iain Fletcher
Contact: Iain Fletcher
Sunday 29 September
FIELD TRIP: Church geology in West Sussex with David Bone
Contact: John Lonergan
Saturday 19 October
FIELD TRIP: "Mr Kipling's Exceedingly Good Rocks" with Graham Williams
London Branch Field trip to East Sussex
Mr Kipling’s exceedingly fine house is built of exceedingly fine (to medium grained) sandstone. We study this sandstone “in the wild” where it exhibits exceedingly fine sedimentary structures, and “in captivity” where we will appreciate why Rudyard Kipling said 'That's She! The Only She! Make an honest woman of her – quick!' the first time he saw 17th C Bateman’s house in the wooded landscape of the Sussex Weald. And there can be little doubt that he was influenced the gorgeous mellow golden glow of the Sussex Sandstone from which Bateman’s is built.
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| Mr Kipling’s exceedingly fine house
– glorious Sandstone “in captivity” |
Exceedingly fine- to medium-grained sandstone sediment “in the wild” |
Two 1km walks with a picnic lunch. The trip is car based. We visit Harrisons Rocks, Eridge Rocks and Bateman’s (National Trust).
MEET: Harrison’s Rocks car park, Groombridge, TQ 533 364 at 10.00am. There is ample parking (£1).
HOW TO GET THERE: from Groombridge, SW of Tunbridge Wells, go south along Station Road, up hill over railway bridge; after 300m take right fork down Bridge Road; after 200m turn right down narrow lane signposted Birchden Wood and Harrisons Rocks - car park and toilet.
WALK: The walks are not arduous. About 2 km on grassy, sandy and stony paths.
WEAR: Clothing suitable for November weather!! Bring waterproof footwear with a good tread suitable for countryside/dog walking.
LUNCH: Bring a picnic and drinks.
ALSO: Please bring 1:25,000 maps 135 and 136, hand lens, field note book, and your National Trust card. We also visit nearby Eridge Rocks TQ 554 355, and Kipling's House at Bateman's, Burwash, to include afternoon tea (TN19 7DS, TQ 669 238).
Contact: Yvonne Brett
Sunday 20 October
S276 Student Day to Herne Bay
For details see the S276 Student Page
Contact: Iain Fletcher
Please use the Registration Form to express your interest in these events and obtain more information.
