What's New?
(Updated 9th August 2012)
The University of Hull has closed the Centre for Lifelong Learning at the end of July 2012. I am teaching the last course now. There will be the opportunity for continuing students to complete their qualification in 2012-2013. I hope to have a couple of events to celebrate the achievements of the geology students over the last sixteen years. If you are interested in attending, please contact me. The Adult Education Department was one of the first to open at the University, in 1928.
It has been a privilege to be able to offer the classes to local people and I have really enjoyed being able to pass on my knowledge and understanding to the students.
I plan to ake the course notes available to all via these web-pages in 2013.
I have added some pages about the late Felix Whitham including an obituary and unpublished papers. Click here for more information about Felix. His family plan to have a medal made to be presented to local geologists who publish research or encourage the public to take an interest in our science.
The temporary display in the Treasure House in Beverley is about "Life in the Chalk Sea"
Yahoo's Geocities are stopping hosting websites this summer so I have transferred my Geocities sites to Webring's personal pages, as the primary content was originally written to support the Amateur Geologists' Webring. The new index page can be found at http://webspace.webring.com/people/ps/speetonclay/ and I will amend that page accordingly in due course to correct any bad links.
MSN discontinued their Groups service in February 2009. I have transferred the Groups I manage to Multiply. All the postings, links and pictures have been transferred to the new sites, but members of the Groups have to rejoin by creating a Multiply identity and password. To access the Groups click on these hyperlinks - Amateur Geologists' Group, Yorkshire Geology Group and UK Buddhist Group
In September 2008 I become the manager of the the JISC dyslexia forum - membership is open to all with an interest in Dyslexia - either professionally or personally, though commercial advertising is not allowed.
On a Yorkshire Geology Month field trip to Thixendale in May 2007 I lost my field notebook. I turned back and retraced my steps back to the start of the walk looking for the notebook. But did not find it. It contained notes on research I was conducting in Norfolk and Holderness, and I was "gutted" to lose it. On 4th January 2008 The notebook arrived in the post - the best New Year present I have ever received. So I say a huge THANK YOU to the person who found it and posted it back to me!
For the 2007 joint meeting if the Geological Society of London, Yorkshire Geological Society and Hull Geological Society in Hull, as part of the Geological Society's bicentenary celebrations, I gave a short talk about my local heroes Tom Sheppard, J W Stather and the East Riding Boulder Committee .
The Hull Geological Society has a new website - http://www.hullgeolsoc.org.uk and a new website editor - David Baker e-mail webeditor at hullgeolsoc.org.uk
I have been doing some research into my family ancestry - some pages are on the web-site.
WebRing were going to start charging Ring Masters for the rings they run in 2007. I have created the Amateur Geologists' Webring for altruistic reasons and have subsequently created the Geologists' Webring for commercial sites to join and then adopted the Palaeontology, Dinosaur and Dyslexia Webrings. I considered closing some of those Rings rather than to have to start to run them in a commercial way. WebRing subsequently decided to have two levels of Rings - a basic free one and a commercial one.
The advertising on the Fortunecity part of my web-site is becoming increasingly intrusive and embarrassing so I am transferring those pages onto the University of Hull web-server - http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/chsmjh/index.htm it will also give the opportunity to change some of the pages. I wish to thank the University for its support.
Yorkshire Geology Month 2006 -
This year there was a total of 58 geology events for the public. Members of the Hull Society organised seven events for YGM2006. Here is a short report of the events:
"Walk on the Woldside" led by Derek Gobbett - attended by 9 people, more than in 2005.The 2005 joint meeting of the Hull and Yorkshire Geological Societies focused on the work of G W Lamplugh in East Yorkshire - click here for further details and abstracts.
I have compiled a CD-ROM of the October 2005 joint HGS/YGS meeting. Included on the CD are recordings of three of the talks (as wav files), the text of two of the talks, a report of the field meeting and photographs of the displays and field meeting taken by Paul Richards. The CD should play on all modern computers that have web-browsing facilities; no technical support is offered. If you would like a copy of the CD please contact me - the cost is one pound if you plan to collect it, or two pounds if you would like me to post it to you (UK rate). Please make cheques payable to the "Hull Geological Society" and send to Mike Horne, 28 Salisbury Street, Hull, HU5 3HA.
Hull Museums - geology.
Local geologists, the Society and East Yorkshire RIGS Group have been worried that Hull Museums have not replaced Matt Stevens, who left the post of Keeper of Geology and Natural History in 2004. In reply to enquiries we have discovered from Jayne Tyler in July 2005 that :-
"The Assistant Keeper of Natural History post has been deleted from Hull Museums Service as part of savings we had to make in terms of posts. This was not a decision we took lightly but one that followed a review of all of the City's Designated and non-designated collections and the use which was being made of the collections by the residents of Hull and the wider public. In a climate of local authority restructuring, reviews and reallocation of funding we have to continually justify the areas of our collections and Service which are being funded and the benefits for our community. I realise that this is not such good news for the areas of the Service which have been cut as a result of re-allocation of resources. The impact on the natural history/geology collection at present is that it is no longer an active collection but instead one that is being maintained and preserved by the Service. However we are pleased to inform you that we are currently seconding a natural history curator from the Yorkshire Hub to work on the maintenance of the collections on a monthly basis. This as you are aware is being carried out under the supervision of Bryan Sitch and a colleague at the Yorkshire Museum."
I feel that this will have an affect on the future of geological education, research and conservation in East Yorkshire. Please let me know what you think.
Bryan Sitch subsequently left the Museum and was replaced by Paula Gentil. The switchboard telephone number for Hull Museums is 01482 609100.
Yorkshire Geology Month 2005 was a success and those involved have voted to run it again in 2006. Click here for details and reports of YGM2005.
The Amateur Geologists' Webring was put up for 'adoption' in May 2005 without my knowledge. I lost ownership of it for a couple of weeks, during which time several members of the Ring got deleted. If this your site has been affected please contact me. I thank Dan Freedman donating the Ring back to me so that I can continue to run it for the benefit of other amateur geologists. I have also created the Geologists' Webring, membership of which is open to commercial dealers as well as amateurs and a Ring for Geology Teachers.
Rifle Butts SSSI - you no longer need permission or to borrow the key to visit Rifle Butts - but please remember that it is a conserved site and that you should not hammer or collect from the site (it is very rich in fossils anyway!).
On holiday in Norfolk 2003!
Geology:
I have now become the joint-manager of the Yahoo Microfossils Web Group
The Hull Geological Society has started work on a project to convert the Society's out of print publications into a computer format. We plan to put back numbers of Humberside Geologist, Field Studies and Transactions onto CD-ROM and put selected articles on to the web-site. Back numbers of Humberside Geologist are available now as photocopies.
A group of friends and members of the Hull Geological Society has been measuring and recording solution features in the top of the Cave Ooilte in a quarry at North Newbald. I have put some of the raw info and rough drawings on the web at http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/chsmjh/karst.htm and further information will be added as the research progresses.
I have created Yahoo newsgroups specifically for anyone interested in the Speeton Clay or the Chalk, as extensions of my web-sites. Anyone can join the Groups and post messages, documents, queries or pictures. The "Friends of the Speeton Clay Group" is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Speeton/ and the "Friends of the Chalk Group" is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chalkfriends/ . So if you are interested in these rocks then do please consider joining and telling you friends about them.
Paul Richards has very kindly scanned a copy of the Bibliography of East Yorkshire Geology 1938 to 1988 for inclusion on the Hull Geological Society's library catalogue CDROM. A copy is now on-line on the Humberside Geologist web-site. There is also a new article by Dr. Roger A. Hewitt as a tribute to Professor Michael House.
I have been scanning some more fossils and have uploaded them to the web-pages . I have found that scanning small fossils directly is better than photographing them first.
Urban RIGS in Hull The RIGS Group has also designated the first Urban RIGS sites. These are buildings with interesting geological features useful for educational purposes and unique in our area. We have written to Hull City Council requesting that their status be recognised and their conservation be considered in future planning. The Council has added the geological importance to the buildings that are already "listed", but does not have a method of recognising the ones that are not listed. Do you have any ideas of a method they could use?
I have found some interesting fossils recently: a Chalk coral (similar to ones I have seen at Trimingham in Norfolk) and the ammonite Rasenia as galcial erratics. And two specimens of the zonal ammonite Discoscaphites on the wave cut platform in situ at Sewerby Steps, which indicate that the zone starts several metres lower in the sequence than previously thought.
I have started to add some pages about the geology of Holderness , with pictures of some sites, erratics and reports of the "East Riding Boulder Committee", including recent updates.
I have found a strange looking ammonite in the Chalk at Selwicks Bay. It has been provisionally identified as Texanites texanus and could provide evidence for the Coniacian-Santonian boundary in the north of England. Prof. Jim Kennedy has also sent me some information, and suggests it is Texanites pseudotaxanus. I will have to read this carefully and then add some information to the web page.
Regularly updated geology pages:
Bibliography of East Yorkshire Geology
Hull Geological Society News archive pages have been added
Hull Geological Society Meetings
Buddhism:
Since 2009 Wesak Celebration was organised by Thurstan Binns. It has been held at the new Friend's Meeting House in Hull.
The 2008 Wesak Celebration was organised by Thurstan Binns and Ann Surgey, at the new Friend's Meeting House in Hull on Saturday 17th May.
The 2007 Wesak Celebration was organised by Neil Smith, it was held at the new Friend's Meeting House in Hull on Saturday 19th May.
The 2006 Wesak Celebration in Hull was held on Saturday 13th May - the actual Wesak Day. We raised about 35 pounds for Angulimala (the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy)
Liz Hamilton died on 18th July 2005. Liz had been ill for some time with a degenerative disease and spent the last few weeks in hospital. Liz was one of the leading members of the Hull Buddhist Group, often leading mediations or reading scriptures. She was also an active member of the Hull Buddhist Forum and for several years hosted the meetings at her house in Beverley. Liz also took part in the Wesak celebrations we have held in the last few years, but was too ill to attend this year. We will miss her.
The 2004 Wesak Celebration in Hull was held on a Saturday 1st May in the Friends Meeting House in Percy Street. Twenty five local Buddhists and friends attended and we raised just over 56 pounds for Angulimala. Seventeen local Buddhists from several traditions attended in 2003 and the event raised over 34 pounds for Angulimala (the Buddhist Prison Chaplaincy).
I have started Buddhism FAQ and beginners guide pages, these have been updated recently.
Recent updates - recommended reading page,
I was disappointed when the Buddhist Society stopped publishing their news and events section in the Middle Way, so I have created a new web-community called "UK Buddhist News" where Buddhists of all traditions can join and leave news of their activities and details of events they are organising.
Other Stuff
New - download now available to print out from this web site - the little book of complimentary medicine.
Also new pages of some of my favourite photographs and pictures of my father's 80th Birthday Party
Mike Horne, Hull, East Yorkshire, UK
