Monday 20 April 2020

Shropshire Rocks - our county`s wealth of rocks & minerals

Brownhill House - the tiny River Perry was once a mighty torrent which carved out the flat bottomed valley between the sandstone.

Dear Blogger

Someone very kindly left this little fellow on the wall outside Brownhill House.  I will keep it with my collection of rocks.



Did you know
"Shropshire's Geology is very diverse and most geological periods of time, and most rock types, can be found within the county. There is also a large amount of mineral wealth in the county, including lead, barytes, limestone, coal and iron, which helped the area develop the industrial revolution west of Clee Hill and, later, in the Ironbridge Gorge area. Quarrying is still active, with limestone for cement manufacture and concrete aggregate, sandstone, greywacke and dolerite for road aggregate, and sand and gravel for aggregate and drainage filters".

Charles Darwin was an avid collector of rocks, especially the limestone of Llanymynech where he found, as you can today, fossils of sea creatures which had lived in the tropical sea when the rock was formed 360 million years ago..

Charlotte Kenyon of Prado, West Felton, was an avid collector of rocks and Darwin`s father was the Kenyon`s family doctor. 
Darwin, of course, was going to marry his sweetheart, Fanny Mostyn Owen of Woodhouse, Rednal, one of our XI Towns.   However, she upped a married Robert Middleton Biddulph and went to live at Chirk Castle, while young Charles was sailing the high seas on the Beagle.

Our little River Perry was once a raging torrent of meltwater which carved its way through the sandstone to form the valley between Brownhill House and the Drumbles.
In the garden we have large lumps of smooth rounded rocks which originated as far away as Northern Ireland - a geology expert gave me this information when I was researching my book on the history of the village.

Do go to www.shropshiregeology.org.uk and find out more about the fascinating county we are lucky enough to live in.