The Club’s Meetings schedule runs from March/April each year, with field visits in the summer months and indoor meetings in the winter months. This pattern is largely followed by the Geology meetings schedule, though some field meetings may take place in the winter when vegetation is low. This section will contain brief details both of main Club and Geology meetings from past years. Not all meetings will have reports attached. Details from older years are further down the page. Full reports of indoor Winter meetings will be found in the Transactions for the relevant year.
Field Meetings Programme 2023
Saturday 22 April 2023 - Downton Gorge, Tom Wall
Wednesday 3 May - Purlieu, West Malvern, John Payne
Wednesday 17 May - Blackfriars Rose Garden & St. John Museum, Anne Harbour
Saturday 27 May - Silurian Anticlinal Inliers on the Hereford-Gloucester Border This meeting was cancelled and has been rescheduled in 2024. Dave Green.
Thursday 8 June - Offas Dyke, Knighton, Prof. Keith Ray
Thursday 15 June - Weobley, President Rachel Jenkins
Saturday 8 July - Black Mountains, Alan Bowring
Saturday 19 August - Kilpeck, David Whitehead
Autumn/Winter Meetings Programme 2023-2024
All meetings will be held on Saturdays at 2.15 p.m. in the Town Hall Assembly Room, Hereford unless otherwise notified and will generally be illustrated. Non members are welcome.
2023
16th September - Duncan James, Timber-framed buildings of Herefordshire: The results of research
14th October - Dr Stephen Roberts, The FC Morgan Lecture: Radicalism in Herefordshire, 1640 - 1660
11th November - Stuart Hedley, Initial Studies on the Vegetation of Herefordshire
25th November - John van Laun, Winter AGM. The "destruction" of Hereford Cathedral - preservation, restoration and intervention
2024
6th January - Roger Gill, No shortage of Honey Bees
27th January - Jane Adams, Political Reform in Early 19th Century Herefordshire: Slavery and "Old Corruption"
17th February - Prof. Jim Rose, Glaciations of the British Isles, with reference to The Marches
16th March - Club President, Spring Annual Meeting - Presidential Address
Geology Section Meetings Programme 2023-2024
Friday lectures are held in the Town Hall, Hereford at 6:00pm
2023
Friday 22nd September - Dave Whitworth - Merlin Energy Co. Ltd, An introduction to Carbon Capture and Storage
Friday 20th October - Prof. Richard Bryant - Earth Heritage Trust, Holocene in Herefordshire
Saturday 4th November - Woolhope Club attendance at Geologists Association at Festival of Geology 2023 in University College London
Friday 15th December - Kate Andrew, Mortimer Landscape of North Herefordshire
2024
Friday 19th January - Dr. Sue Hay, Martley Rock - a Victorian Gem Unearthed
Friday 8th March - Prof. Ian Fairchild, Latest update and explanation of "The Anthropocene"
WOOLHOPE CLUB AUTUMN/WINTER MEETINGS PROGRAMME 2022-2023
All meetings will be held on Saturdays at 2.15 p.m. in the Town Hall Assembly Room, Hereford unless otherwise notified and will generally be illustrated. Non members are welcome.
2022
17 September – MEETING CANCELLED. Hopefully it will be given next year.
15 October – Professor David J. Siveter, ‘The Herefordshire Lagerstätte: Soft-Bodied Virtual Fossils from a Silurian Volcanic Ash’. The FC Morgan Lecture.
12 November -- David Lovelace, on veteran trees
26 November – Winter AGM. Philip Hume, ‘”The King’s Writ does not run here”: The Welsh Marcher Lordships
2023
7 January – Keith Ray. ‘The Militarisation of Anglo-Saxon Hereford? Clues from Archaeology, Starting at Breinton’
28 January Joe Kerr, Alfred Watkins and the Woolhope Club
18 February -- Tim Hoverd, on Snodhill Castle - Herefordshire's Forgotten Castle
11 March – Spring AGM –President’s address
2022-2023 GEOLOGY INDOOR MEETINGS
Meetings continue to be held at Hereford Town Hall now starting 5.30 for 6.00pm – 8.00pm when we have to leave.
2022
Friday 23 September “The Enlightened Mr. Parkinson” - Dr. Cherry Lewis – School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol. James Parkinson (1755-1824) an apothecary surgeon 1817 published Essay of Shaking Palsy now known as Parkinsons Disease and internationally famous for his study of fossils.
Saturday 15th October “Herefordshire Lagerstette: soft-bodied fossils from Silurian volcanic ash”. Prof. David J. Siveter -Emeritus Professor of Palaeontology, University of Leicester, visiting Professor of Kunming University of Yunan Province, China and St. Petersberg Mining University Russia
Friday 18th November “Tectonics and landscape evolution”. Professor Tony Watts – Marine Geology & Geophysics- Leverhulme Trust Emertus Fellow-University of Oxford -Earth Sciences Department
Friday 16th December Christmas Special with Mince Pies – come along with rocks and fossils and another showing of a DVD made by Woolhope members “Picnic in Siluria”with the main role Professor Hugh Torrens acting as Sir Roderick Impey Murchison.
The Festival of Geology is being celebrated this year in combination with International Geodiversity Day (October 6th 2022) The Geologists Association -have a zoom lecture at 7.30 -9.00pm that evening. The real value of microfossils and the speaker is Dr. Haydon W. Bailey -Consultant Micro palaeontologist and Honorary Lecturer of University of Birmingham
2023
Friday 20th January “Geology of Antarctic” James Cresswell – a geology tour guide to many countries including Wales – GeoWorld Travel
Friday 24th February “Malvern Rocks: Geology in a Victorian Resort” with Dr. J. T. Carter
Friday 24th March “Strange Plankton of the Past” Dr. Denis Bates – Aberystwyth University -Department of Geography & Earth Sciences
WOOLHOPE CLUB FIELD MEETINGS PROGRAMME 2022 - MEETING REPORTS
Tuesday 26 April - a walk on North Hill Malvern with Dr John Payne. View here.
Saturday 14 May – A walk in Hereford visiting sites that intrigued Alfred Watkins. View here.
Thursday 16 June – a visit to Croft Castle with President David Whitehead and a revisit of the archaeology plus a walk to Fishpool Valley. View here.
Wednesday 20 July - a visit to the current excavations of Arthur's Stone and Snodhill Castle with Prof. Keith Ray. View here.
Saturday 10 September – a visit to Dudley Canal and the surrounding geology and historical area. View here.
FIELD MEETINGS 2021
FIRST FIELD MEETING TUESDAY 18 MAY, 2021
Moira Jenkins and Sue Olver led a visit to Ross Town and the surrounding area. The purpose of the walk was to compare the features seen in the Old Red Sandstone rocks with the modern day river features and to look at the geomorphology. See the meeting report here.
SECOND FIELD MEETING SATURDAY 3 JULY, 2021
Visit to Moccas and Woolhope Oak. David Whitehead, David Lovelace and Sue Olver led this visit to Moccas Park, its oak trees and the park extension on the west side of Dorstone Hill. See the meeting report here
THIRD FIELD MEETING FRIDAY 16 JULY, 2021
Prof Keith Ray and Prof Julian thomas led a visit to explore Arthur’s Stone, the historic landscape around it which is being measured and excavated. In the afternoon Tim Hoverd showed members around the extensive work which is being carried out a Snodhill castle. See the meeting report here.
EXTRA FIELD MEETING WEDNESDAY 4 AUGUST 2021
John Payne led a meeting to the Malverns. On this guided walk we saw some of the rocks of the hills and their immediate surroundings and discuss the geological aspects of the view from the hill top. See the meeting report here.
FOURTH FIELD MEETING WEDNESDAY 11 AUGUST, 2021
The President David Whitehead and other members led this walking trip around Hereford. See the meeting report here.
FIFTH FIELD MEETING SATURDAY 21 AUGUST, 2021
This field meeting went ahead in spite of the unpleasant weather. See the meeting report here.
CLUB FIELD MEETINGS 2019
Saturday 30th Mar 2019
Rosamund Skelton led a geological visit to Goodrich castle and Coppett Hill with Teme Valley Geological Society members.
Thursday 16th May 2019
David Whitehead's walk to investigate the routes of the planned Hereford Southern Relief Road and the Western Bypass. Newsletter unfortunately had to be cancelled.
Saturday 1st Jun 2019
A meeting to the Woolhope Dome led by Rowland Eustace
Saturday 8th Jun 2019
President Rachel Jenkins led a group of experts around Bredwardine, the Moccas area and Dorstone. Subjects included archaeology, natural history and buildings. Meeting Report
Wednesday 11th Sep 2019
“Bring out your Graptolites and Trilobites Day” led by Dr.Paul Olver at the Resource Centre, Friary Street, Hereford
CLUB WINTER MEETINGS 2018/2019
Saturday 22 September 2018: Hidden Secrets of Herefordshire, Baptismal Fonts:
DR JULIAN WEAVER
Saturday 6 October 2018: The F.C. Morgan Lecture: Kingdom Building, Identity and Heritage: Mercia, the Magonsaete and Beyond
DR JOHN HUNT, Honorary Research Fellow, School of History, University of Birmingham
Saturday 10 November 2018
‘Manors Maketh Man’: Hereford Cathedral Manors in the Middle Ages and Beyond
DR BETHANY HAMBLEN, Hereford Cathedral Archivist
Saturday 24 November 2018
Winter Annual Meeting: Physician, Naturalist, Philanthropist: The Life and Work of Dr Henry Graves Bull (1818-1885): DR HENRY CONNOR
Saturday 5 January 2019
War, Rebellion and Philanthropy: Thomas Coningsby (1550-1625) and his Hospital in Widemarsh Street, Hereford: DAVID WHITEHEAD
Saturday 26 January 2019
Well and Soundly Built: The Burghill Mental Hospital: RHYS GRIFFITH, Herefordshire County Archivist
Saturday 23 February 2019
Herefordshire Lore – Forty-Five Minutes of Living Local History:
BILL LAWS
Saturday 16 March 2019
Spring Annual Meeting - Presidential Address:
DR PAUL OLVER' The Wonder of Woolhope' - a look at the earliest Club field meetings including the first ever to the Woolhope Dome area on 18th May 1852 from which the Club's name originates. The talk covered the development of geological thought about its local Silurian successions right up to the present day.
GEOLOGY INDOOR MEETINGS 2018/19
Friday 23 March 2018
Cryogenian: "Let the Ice Age begin" with Prof. Ian Fairchild
Friday 28 September 2018
Carboniferous in the surrounding areas with Dr. Bernard Besley
Friday 26 October 2018
"Professor Fred Shotton" with Prof. Peter Worsley of Reading Geological Society
Friday 25 January 2019
From Martley to Mozambique - a tale of two coals with Dr. Bill Barclay
Friday 22 February 2019
AGM at 6.30 pm followed by Dinner at 7.30 pm at The Bunch of Carrots Inn, Hampton Bishop, Hereford. Details of costs to be advised soon.
Friday 22 March 2019
Oil and energy resources in the UK (title of talk to be arranged) with Dr. Tony Loy of Merlin Energy Co.
CLUB FIELD MEETINGS 2018
Wednesday 9 May 2018
Visit to Oxford with guided tour with a former curator to the Natural History Museum followed by a guided afternoon walk through historic Oxford churches, colleges and the famous Holywell Cemetery. Leaders: Nina Morgan & Philip Powell. MEETING REPORT
Tuesday 22 May 2018
All day visit to Brampton Bryan park, looking at the landscape history and veteran trees. Leader: David Lovelace MEETING REPORT
Sunday 22 July 2018
Geology - Footsteps of William Smith, the first modern British geologist. He started as a surveyor in the areas around Bath and the remains of his homes and works will be visited. Leader: Paul Olver. MEETING REPORTS
Thursday 16 August 2018
All day visit to Borderland castles: Richards Castle, Clifford and Snodhill. Leader: Rosamund Skelton
GEOLOGY FIELD MEETINGS 2018
Saturday 24 March 2018
Croft Ambrey - Members of the Croft Castle Geology Champions and Bob Williams leading this trip.
Monday 26 March 2018
A Worcester Day: Worcester Museum and Cathedral
Saturday 21 April 2018
Open to all beginners in geology - a GEOLAB Day with Prof. Chris King at Martley Village Hall from 10.00am. In the afternoon a Martley excursion led by Dr Paul Olver.
Wednesday 9 May 2018
Main Club event - visit to Oxford – see above.
Saturday 30 June 2018
Meet Lawrence Banks at 10.30 - 11.00am Hergest Gardens and visit local quarry as well as see the private collection.
Tuesday 10 July 2018
Main Club event - Footsteps of William Smith – see above.
Saturday 3 November 2018
Festival of Geology at University College London (UCL.)