Haslemere Museum

Geology Collection

Notable Fossil Collectors

Mr John Clarke Hawkshaw F.R.S. (1841–1921), a civil engineer by trade from Liphook, Hampshire was the nephew of Sir Charles Darwin. He collected marine fossils from around Orford, Suffolk in the 1860s, Filey Brigg, Yorkshire in 1868, Eastwear Bay, Cambridgeshire in the late 1860s and Folkestone, Kent during 1872.

This collection remains in its original cabinet and has been sorted in accordance with English counties by Mr Hawkshaw, and is accompanied by his field collection notebook.

Mr John Edward Lee (1808–1887) was a geologist from Yorkshire. His personal collection of fossils came to our Museum via his son.

In his collection are ammonites from Whitby, Yorkshire, brachiopods and corals from Visby, Gotland Island, Sweden, gastropods and bivalves from Headon Hill, Isle of Wight, crinoids, brachiopods and corals from Dudley, Worcestershire and trilobites from Bohemia, too name just a few.

Sir Archibald Geikie O.M. K.C.B. (1835–1924) was an eminent geologist. At the peak of his career, he was both President of the Royal Society and the Geological Society (the only geologist to have ever held that honour).

In this collection he collected gastropods from Isle of Wight, belemnites from Speeton, Yorkshire, bivalves from Osmington Mills, Weymouth and brachiopods and echinoids from Bridport, Dorset. Our Geikie collection also includes letters, field notebooks, photographs, watercolours, personal ephemera, rocks, fossils and minerals.

The Notable Mineral Collectors

Dr George Abbott (1844–1925) trained as a general practitioner and served in several medical posts around the country, including Guy´s Hospital in London. Later in his life, he developed a serious interest in the natural sciences. He became a curator and founded the present Tunbridge Wells Museum in Kent. He organised many field excursions and lectures that proved to be extremely popular.

Abbott was a prolific publisher of geological research, with a particular interest in concretions and their origin, formation and classification. A major subject of interest was the Magnesium limestone concretions of Fulwell Quarry in Sunderland, Durham. The Museum houses a wide selection of these rock specimens along with site and specimen photographs from that famous locality.

Mr Charles Percy Richards (1851–1941) was a cabinet-maker in the St. Austell area of Cornwall. He was also a clergyman to the many china-clay workers of Stenaleels.

His collection consists of an attractive suite of minerals from the china clay pits district of Cornwall and other specimens given to the Museum by Richard at various times throughout the early 20th century. A variety of written correspondence was also donated, providing useful contextual information. Richards was a passionate student of natural history in many areas and he also published several papers on the subject of entomology.