Lectures 2021/2022 23 June – the usual monthly lecture is cancelled and we encourage members to join one of the Midsummer Bonfires run by the Old Cornwall Societies and sing and enjoy this Cornish tradition in honour of Neil Plummer, who made an immense contribution to the Society and sadly passed away on 22 April (see news). For people who know Beatrice personally, the Redruth Old Cornwall Society event will be held at Pencoose Farm, Stithians (Covid rules permitting) near Neil’s home. 21 July - The Ice Age in Cornwall: new perspectives on old problems. Professor James Scourse. 18 August – The Nebra Sky Disc - Professor Gregor Borg. 15 September - ‘Pyrite’ The Ubiquitous Sulphide - Frank Howie. 20 October – Mining and Miners of Newton St Cyres - Brian Please. 17 November - Recording Earthquakes with a Raspberry Shake - Mark Vanstone. 15 December - Christmas event, details to follow 2022 19 January - Precariously balanced rocks - Anna Rood. 16 February – more information to follow Saturday 19th February - AGM, Penzance More details about all the above lectures including zoom links below.
May Lecture If you missed the last lecture on 19 May in Geomicrobiology - How Microbes change the Earth by Laura Newsome, Lecturer in Applied Geomicrobiology, Camborne School of Mines and Environment and Sustainability Institute, access the recording by clicking on the link. Only available for 30 days from 19 May.
Wednesday 21 July at 7pm on zoom (rescheduled from January)
The Ice Age in Cornwall: new perspectives on old problems. Professor James Scourse, Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, University of Exeter (Penryn).
The recently completed 6-year BRITICE-CHRONO NERC Large Grant has reconstructed in great detail the Last British-Irish Ice Sheet. Highlights in our region include new extensive offshore ice limits, very tight constraints on the timing and extent of the glaciation on Scilly but brought into sharper focus some longstanding problems, such as where was the ice limit offshore north Cornwall, or was north Cornwall glaciated after all?
Wednesday 18 August 7pm on zoom
The Nebra Sky Disc - Professor Gregor Borg, Professor of Economic Geology at Halle-University, Germany and Honorary Professor at Camborne School of Mines. https://www.campus-halensis.de/en/artikel/die-spur-nach-cornwall/
Wednesday 15 September 7pm on zoom
‘Pyrite’ - Frank Howie, Chair of Cornwall Geo-conservation Group. The Ubiquitous Sulphide.
Wednesday 20 October at 7pm on zoom
Mining and Miners of Newton St Cyres - Brian Please. Brian is local historian who lives in Newton St Cyres, and is descended from families from this part of Devon. He is member of the Newton St Cyres History Group, and discovered the remains of manganese mining in a field next to his home. It can be claimed that, together, Upton Pyne, Newton St Cyres had the first commercially successful manganese mines in the world! The talk explores those early mining ventures, how and why it was done, and who did it.
Wednesday 17 November at 7pm at Truro School if possible
Mark Vanstone, Director of Studies, Truro School: Recording earthquakes with a Raspberry Shake (provisional title)
Wednesday 19 January 2022 at 7pm on zoom
Anna Rood, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London
Precariously balanced rocks are ancient formations found throughout the world where a slender boulder is balanced in such a way as to be vulnerable to being pushed over by earthquake shaking. These natural balancing acts provide a geological record of seismic shaking of large, rare earthquakes, a record that could drastically improve estimates of future earthquake ground shaking.