Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z1205/257
  • Title
    Male. Museum curator and fossil specialist. b. 12.06.1967 Side A (00 mins)Brought up in Dunnington, a village outside York. Only child from a family which went back for hundreds of years in the area. Went to study at Liverpool University and graduated in 1988 in Zoology. Trained as secondary science teacher at Nottingham. Lifelong interest in fossils, from age 8. (05 mins)Summer holidays spend in Dorset or in Norfolk. Preferred coastal areas. Parents moved to Sidmouth so went to live with them and was able to do fossil hunting in Lyme Regis and volunteered for Exeter Museum. Met Dr. Mike Benton (now Professor Mike Benton of Bristol University) there. Ways of fossilling at Lyme Regis. Commercial practice there. Good and bad practice in fossil hunting. (15 mins)Relationship of Bedford Museum staff with the brick company staff with regard to the discovery of fossils in the clay pits in Bedfordshire. Finds over recent years. (20 mins)Details of pre-historic fossil finds of ancient creatures from the prehistoric period. (25 mins)Limitations for fossil hunters within commercial extraction sites. (30 mins)Health & safety issues when exploring pits. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)Discovery of Pliosaur. (05 mins)Many fossils in local museums have been wrongly labelled because of lack of experts to identify them. As a result the greatest likelihood of discovering new species comes from looking at museum collections. (10 mins)Skulls are the ideal part to identify species. Issues of preservation of fossils. (15 mins)Attempts to set up Regionally Important Geological areas to prevent to preserve certain quarries or geological features. Brickworks are ideal places for fossil hunters because new faces are being constantly being revealed. (20 mins)Wildlife around clay pits. Plans to search for fossils in North Africa while on holiday. (25 mins)The monetary value of fossil collections. (30 mins)Amateur collectors who have had species named after them. (32 mins)End of Side B ORIGINAL INTERVIEW 60 mins.
  • Date free text
    22 January 2004
  • Production date
    From: 1965 To: 2004
  • Level of description
    item
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