Geo-interpretation

Overview

Encouraging more geo-interpretation is one of our two main priorities in the coming years – as there are many interesting stories to tell about Somerset’s geology. There is currently relatively little information on this available for Somerset’s various coastal, countryside and other locations. Recent advances in IT, such as QR codes, provide new opportunities for its provision – it does not necessarily need to be on-site or in printed form. Plus, there are many opportunities for creative, community-based and educational projects.

• The LGS Review area reports (available on our Geo- conservation page) include many ideas for community, educational and/or rural tourism projects (more widely than simply in relation to LGS) that could culminate in the provision of interpretive material.

See Geo-exploring for the popular publications, booklets and leaflets that are already available for locations in Somerset and Exmoor.

Town trails

We particularly hope to encourage town building stone trails and our SGG meeting in autumn 2024 focused on this. See the notes from the meeting, currently on our News and Updates page, which include sections on: things to think about; and existing sources of information.

Town trails can provide excellent scope to tell the story of Somerset’s varied and interesting geology in an accessible way, through the local building stones used in their buildings. Many of the old quarries that the stone was extracted from are now overgrown or infilled, so buildings often provide better and more readily accessible examples of the local rocks. There are similar opportunities for village geo-walks, including their churches, and at heritage buildings open to the public. See also  Building stone under our Geo-conservation page for existing sources of information on Somerset’s building stones.

In 2023, for example, Garry Dawson, led two walks for Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (SANHS) around Taunton, while the Mendip Rocks Festival programme 2023, included walks led by Doug Robinson, around Wells, and Simon Carpenter, around Frome. Geoff Rowland has drawn our attention to some ‘missing material’ from Hugh Prudden’s Somerset Good Rock Guide, which provides a potential trail that could be developed for Bridgwater and Sheila Alderman has published (as part of Dorset Building Stones Group) a trail for Sherborne, just across the Somerset border.

Best practise

See above for Town Trails, while Some of the points emerging from discussion at our SGG autumn meeting in 2022, on interpretation for geological museum material may also be useful.

Another potential good starting point for inspiration can be found via Earth Heritage magazine (see National resources on our Geo-conservation page) – as geo-interpretation and related activities are often incorporated in geo-conservation projects. There are many examples from across the country. A search of Geopark web sites and the Geologists’ Association web site can also spark ideas.

Some printed leaflets were produced in the past in Cornwall, written by John Macadam, and these may also help as examples of “good practice”. They were:

• produced in partnership with owners, funders and others
• explain the environment at the time the rocks were formed
• relate this to contemporary issues (such as climate change)
• and signpost those interested to sources of further information.

This example (which we attach here as a scanned document) is one of John’s leaflets. Some, but not all, of his material is available  via  Earthwords | Cornwall Mining Alliance

History of Somerset geology

There are also many opportunities to tell the story of how geologists developed an understanding of the geology of Somerset. We therefore hope to develop this section further in the future. Meanwhile the examples below come from information gathered for the LGS Review (see our Geoconservation page for the LGS Review area reports).  

• The Somerset geologist, Charles Moore (1815 -1881), grew up in Ilminster and took over his father’s printing and bookselling business there until c. 1853, when he retired to Bath to focus more fully on geology. His first find was a fossil fish in a nodule in an Ilminster Quarry and his collection now forms over two thirds of the c. 5000 macro-fossils held by the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (see https://www.brlsi.org/museum-collections ). His scientific papers include early cross sections of the geology at other localities in Somerset.
• William Smith (1769 – 1839) is regarded as the ‘father’ of geological stratigraphy. See strata-smith.com , established in 2015 by Peter Wigley et. al. for the bicentenary of the first geological map of England and Wales, produced by Smith in 1815. Smith developed the concept of stratigraphy from his work in the Somerset coalfield (mostly in Bath and North East Somerset) and building canals. The web site provides a biography and full details of Smith’s work. His county map for Somerset was never fully printed, but through comparison with other Smith maps, the 2015 project has been able to recreate it. His geological section through Dorset and Somerset to Taunton was published by Cary in 1819 – see http://www.strata-smith.com/map/media/sections/christchurch_taunton.pdf .
• A number of well-known geologists visited the Exmoor area from the early 1800s onward, including Adam Sedgwick (1785 – 1873) and Henry De la Beche (1796 -1855), with scope to develop stories on the history of understanding the age and origin of the Devonian rock strata there. Plus, there may be potential links between visiting geologists, locally prominent landowners and the early development of tourism, including links to the Romantic movement poets and their appreciation of the landscapes of Exmoor and the Quantock Hills.

• The Geologists’ Association Carreck Archive is “a record of the Geologists’ Association (GA) field activities from the 1870s to the present. It is mostly albums of black and white photographic prints from a range of GA field meetings, with named locations, sections, and pictures of GA members on those excursions. Other material includes albums of negatives, bundles of photographic prints and other ephemera relating to the GA, e.g. menus from the annual dinners, postcards, letters etc. — all very interesting material for historians of geology”. Click here to see the list specifically for the 22 excursions to Somerset going as far back as 1871.

The History of Geology Group (HOGG) is a national group, affiliated to The Geological Society, that encourages interest in the lives and work of the scientists and philosophers who influenced the study and the practice of geology. It is open to anyone with an interest in the history of geology, and the events and personalities that have shaped the way it is understood and practised today. See https://www.geolsoc.org.uk/hogg

Creative approaches

A geological wall in Watchet and a three-dimensional model of the geology at the Staple Hill viewpoint (the latter in the Blackdown Hills overlooking the Vale of Taunton Deane) are examples of the range of different ways in which interpretive material can be provided.

Ham Hill Country Park and its geology is now inspiring a range of creative projects with community involvement. SGG assisted local artist, Carolyn Lefley, with information of its geology and a community fossil identification day, leading to the artwork she created for Somerset Art Week 2022.  In 2023 Sheila Alderman assisted Stanchester School with information on Ham Hill’s geology. The resulting performance, written and performed by its drama students about Ham Hill’s history, was performed in the stone circle there for three evenings in late June 2023.

See the latest update on the new Ham Hill visitor centre here on “Uncovering Ham Hill’s Past for its Future

Page last revised July 2025.