How you can support one of the world's great geology museums ...
The Friends exists to support and encourage the development of the museum, and promote and publicise the collection to a wider audience.
Membership of the Friends is open to all. Our members benefit from:
- Talks on topics relevant to the museum and its collections.
- Tours behind the scenes at the museum and the conservation unit to see parts of the collections not normally accessible to the public.
- Guided visits to places of geological interest.
- Social events including a garden party and an annual dinner with a reception in the Museum.
- Newsletters to keep members informed about events and activities.
- Exclusive previews of new exhibitions.
- Opportunities to become a volunteer and be involved in the work of the Museum.
>> How to Join
>> Download the latest edition of Trilobite, the Friends' newsletter
Events and Lectures 2010
Unless otherwise stated, events will be held in the Department of Earth Sciences (entry below the Sedgwick Museum). Parking is available on the Downing Site during these events, with access from Tennis Court Road. At events held in the Department, tea, coffee and biscuits will be available from 6:15pm, and the event will start at 7pm. At most events we will invite donations of £1/head towards expenses and the support of the Museum.
Contacting the Friends
Some of the events listed require pre-booking or pre-payment. Talks do not normally require this, unless you are thinking of bringing a group. Visits often do require pre-booking so that numbers and logistics can be sorted out. Pre-payment should be made by cheque made out to the "Friends of the Sedgwick Museum", and sent to the "Friends of the Sedgwick Museum", Department of Earth Sciences, Downing St., Cambridge CB2 3EQ.
Pre-booking and other communications should be emailed to swri07@cam.ac.uk and copied to pff1000@cam.ac.uk, or phoned to 01223 333400. The Friends now have a mobile phone on 07754 592439 which will be switched on for 90 minutes before the start of each event, and kept on for 2 hours.
Visit: Wandlebury and Linton
Saturday 24th April 2010, 11am
We shall be making a traverse to the south-east across the Chalk escarpment picking out the way the Chalk stratigraphy influences the landscape and local water supply, and the story of the gravels that also form topographic features along the traverse. Leaders: Steve Boreham, Peter Friend, Josephine Leggo and Rosemary Wellings.
Meet up at 11am, in the Cambridge PPF (Past, Present and Future, formerly Cambridge Preservation Society) car-park (£2 unless you are a member), sign-posted off to the left of the busy A1307, some 3.5 km south-east of the Addenbrooke's Hospital main round-about. Please bring packed lunch. There will be a small charge per head, for use of the lunch room. We then plan a number of stops further south-east, and will have some tea before we disperse. Please phone 01223 333400 or email pff1000@cam.ac.uk to register your intention to come (£2 donation requested).
Visit: the Suffolk Coast
Saturday, 8th May 2010, 11am
We shall be visiting the Sutton-Bawdsey Peninsular, south-east of Woodbridge (Suffolk) to see recent work on the Tertiary London Clay, Coralline Crag and Red Crag, under the leadership of Bob and Caroline Markham. Meet up in the car park at 11am (TM357401) 300 m North of the Martello Tower at the sea-ward end of the B1083 east of Bawdsey village, where beach engineering work has recently revealed new bedrock. Bring a packed lunch with you. We will move on to examine the fine new developments that have made it possible to see the Sutton Knoll Crag deposits (TM304442) and their fossils, and the way these provide evidence of sea-level change. Please phone 01223 333400 or email pff1000@cam.ac.uk to register your intention to come (£2 donation requested).
Visit: Peterborough Area
Saturday 22nd May 2010, 11am.
Meet at the Barnack Stone "Hills and Holes" Nature Reserve (TK 075 047) car-park, the site of long-term quarrying of the Middle Jurassic Barnack building stone. We shall then drive to Barnack village church (TF 079 050) to see the use of Barnack Stone in its Anglo Saxon and later construction. A wide variety of other building stones have been used in the church and the churchyard, and we will attempt to classify these and suggest their origins. Bring a packed lunch with you.
We shall also visit the Norman church at St Kyneburgha, at Castor (TL 125 985) to examine further use of Middle Jurassic stone in its structure. In the afternoon, we plan to drive to King's Dyke, near Whittlesey, where boots and polythene bags will be needed as we collect ammonites, belemnites, brachiopods and bivalves etc., from a sample dump of Late Jurassic Oxford Clay provided by the quarry company. Leaders: Mike Tuke, Peter Friend and Rob Theodore.
AGM and Museum Showcase
Tuesday 8th June 2010, 6:00pm. Doors open 5:15pm.
We appeal specially to local members to attend this meeting. In addition to voting for the Committee for 2010-11, this will be the opportunity to influence the way the Friends have been supporting the Museum and developing our scientific outreach in the community. Ken Rolfe will briefly review plans for the audit of Cambridgeshire geological sites, and invite Friends to become involved with this programme. We also plan to have a short talk on the recent (27th February 2010) severe earthquake in central Chile.
Weekend Visit to Derbyshire
Friday 11th to Sunday 13th June 2010
Members have been making their own accommodation bookings for this visit to the Castleton-Hathersage area, using the internet , an accommodation list available from marjeveale@ntlworld.com or pff1000@cam.ac.uk or by phoning the Department of Earth Sciences. The group will meet up at the George Inn, Hathersage (the Courtyard Suite) at 8pm on Friday 11th June for an introductory talk by Dr Ian Sutton (formerly of Nottingham University). Dr Sutton and Marj. Veale are planning a very varied programme which will depend, in practice, on weather conditions.
Possibilities for the Saturday include: Short walk up Cave Dale to see Carboniferous reefs and volcanics, mineral veins and lavas, followed by a further short walk to the Winnats Pass area; visit to the Treak Cliff show cave; visit to Mam Tor and land-slip features. In the evening, a group meal is being arranged at the George Hotel, Hathersage. Sunday morning's programme may involve a visit to Stanage Edge to see features in the Carboniferous Millstone Grit, and then possibilities include visits to Chatsworth House (where there is a remarkable collection of different ornamental and other stones), and/or the National Stone Centre at Wirksworth (5 km south of Matlock).
Depending on individual plans, it will be possible to leave the main group at different stages during this Sunday programme. Assuming people have booked their own accommodation, please check that we have registered you. We will be asking registered people for payment for the group meal, leaders' costs etc., and will send you tickets in acknowledgement of payment.
Cancellation of the Midsummer Tea Party
This event will not be held this year, because of a clash with another event in the Bullard grounds.
Tenth Anniversary Party
Tuesday 12th October 2010
Plans are still being made for this event. The idea is to ask our members, and non-members to attend a supper evening (probably from 6pm to 8pm) held in the Department and Museum. We shall present the occasion as a fund-raising and recruiting occasion, when people will be asked specially to contribute to a specified Museum project.
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies (LCHES)
Tuesday 26th October 2010
This visit is part of our series of events on Human Evolution. Cars may be parked in the Downing Site car park after about 5pm. Members are invited, as normal for talks, to meet in the Department of Earth Sciences ground-floor common room, where tea/coffee will be available, and the group will then walk together at 6pm to the LCHES building (about 400 m).
Icelandic volcanism and the growth of the Atlantic ocean
Tuesday 16th November 2010, Department of Earth Sciences, 7pm, doors open 6:15pm
We are sorry that this talk by Dr. John Maclennan, Department of Earth Sciences, had to be cancelled in October 2009, but it has now been rearranged, incorporating new ideas, for this autumn.
Friends' Christmas Party
Tuesday 7th December 2010, 6- 8pm
A lively programme of short talks, mainly by students, will be interspersed with mulled wine, bread, cheese and other snacks, for which we will ask for a donation of £5 at the door. People are asked to bring suitable items for our raffle. Please book a few days ahead.
