PORHAGS (Post Office Research Historical, Archaeological and Geological Society) was not a society known to many people, because of its need to conform to security measures at the Martlesham Research Station (now BT) where it held its monthly talks on East Anglian themes.
I note from records that I gave its second talk (in 1971) and its penultimate one (in 1998)! PORHAGS also had joint field meetings with the Ipswich Geological Group to Bawdsey (23rd July 1972) and Stratton Hall and Levington Marina (30 July 1976).
Stalwarts of the Martlesham society with whom I had contact over the years were Ralph Austin, Walter Begbie, Dr Bob Blake and Dr Phil Pantellis (to whom thanks for information for this note).
if you attended this match ( I will not mention the score!) did you see the geological section behind the flats facing the entrance to the Football Ground in Valley Grove, Charlton? It shows (at least it did show), behind railings, Thanet Beds on 'Bull Head Bed' on chalk, very similar to Suffolk sections at Sudbury and Bramford.
This fair was held at the Dussindale Centre, Pound Lane, Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich, on Saturday 30 May 1998.
I saw a number of familiar faces there, including Lee Patterson, who now runs a business 'Fossils for the Discerning Collector' (38 Rowan Way, Worlingham, Beccles, Suffolk, NR34 7ES, tel. 0 1 502 716599); his catalogue included some nice Glossopteris leaves from the Permian of Australia. Our friends from the Geological Society of Norfolk (General Secretary, 8 Eaton Old Hall, Hurd Road, Eaton, Norwich, NR4 7BE) also had a display.
I also discovered an excellent selection of Earth Sciences publications on the stand of the Endsleigh Book Company, Unit 2B, Tharston Industrial Estate, Long Stratton, Norwich, NRI5 2PD (Tel: 01508 531014); they also have instruments and various accessories.
The fair was organised by the Norfolk Mineral and Lapidary Society. Membership Secretary is David Eden, 5 Oakfield Close, Horsford, Norwich, NR 1 0 3RS (Tel: 01603 898798).
At this period Ipswich Museum was a private institution in Museum Street.
It opened on Wednesday 15 December 1847. The Right Rev. Dr Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich (then the local Diocese) chaired the proceedings. In earlier years, when Rector of Alderley, Cheshire, he occasionally gave lectures at the Mechanics' Institutes at Chester and Macclesfield on geology. Chief speaker at the opening was the Very Rev. William Buckland, Dean of Westminster and Professor of Geology at Oxford.
In December 1848 the Rev. Adam Sedgewick, Woodwardian Professor of Geology in the University of Cambridge, gave a lecture on the anatomy and structure of the South American fossil mammals Mylodon, Megatherium and the Glyptodon. He also told that about 30 years before he was proceeding to make some researches among the Suffolk crag when, in one week (one day according to some reports) he was kicked three times out of the same field. He determined thenceforth to leave the pursuit to someone else.
John Brown of Stanway, Essex, gave a paper on Mammalian Fossils in May 1849. When he attended the Museum lecture in 1848 he was described by a journalist as a little man in a brown coat and a brown wig, and an enthusiast in Geology. He was a journeyman stonemason in early life and his geological interest was aroused when he found two shells embedded in a stone he was chiselling. He owned a farm at Stanway. In 1848 he presented a replica of the right branch of lower jaw of Mastodon giganteum from Missouri, and fossil shells from the Copford freshwater deposit, Essex, to the Museum. He also deposited a pair of antlers of the 'giant Irish elk' Megaceros hibernicus at Ipswich, 'until there was a museum at Colchester'; however he eventually presented them to Ipswich.
David Thomas Ansted, Professor of Geology at King's College, London, lectured on the Geology of stone and iron in May 1849, on coal (four lectures) in January 1850, and on the Inlaid and Ornamental Stone Work exhibited in the Crystal Palace, in November 185 1. He presented models of crystals to the museum in 185 1.
Rev. John S. Henslow was Professor of Botany at Cambridge, tutor of Charles Darwin, President of Ipswich Museum and Rector of Hitcham. He lectured on Geology in November 1849 ('specimens of coral stone received from Charles Darwin were placed on the table') and on the Tertiary Strata of England in November 185 1. His donations to the Museum included 'casts' of whale's ears from Felixstowe (in 1847).
Richard Owen, Hunterian Professor of Comparative Anatomy in the College of Surgeons, London, and author of 'History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds', gave a lecture on the Gigantic Birds of New Zealand in December 1849. George Ransome, Hon.Secretary of Ipswich Museum, had taken a tooth of a rhinoceros from the crag brought in by one of the 'working classes' to Professor Owen, who made a drawing of it. Professor Owen was so pleased with the specimen that he said as the 'working classes' appeared to take such an interest in the Museum he should be happy to give them a lecture. He also gave some casts of Dinormis bones (from New Zealand) to the Museum (in 1849).
Sir Charles Lyell, President of the Geological Society of London and author of 'Principles of Geology' gave a lecture on the White Chalk in December 1851. He also presented the Museum with recent footprints of birds and raindrops on red mud, from the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.
1847 Tusks, teeth and bones of Elephant, etc.
Stoke Hill, near Ipswich. Mr Girling.
1847 Bear jaw, Tiger, Hyena, Elephant, Hippopotamus, etc., bones.
Kent's Cavern, near Torquay, Devonshire. W. Long, Hurt's Hall, Saxmundham.
1847 Fossil Turtle, found at Harwich. Rev. Zincke, Wherstead.
1848 'Geology of Suffolk' by Rev. W.B. Clarke. - volume bound in green morocco. W. Long.
1848 Specimens of coloured sands from vertical beds,
Alum, Isle of Wight. Mr F. Smagg, Ipswich.
Box containing 14 kinds of sand from a pit near the Hospital, Ipswich, and a bottle with
the coloured sands arranged in the order in which they occur in the pit.
1848 Flints from Ipswich neighbourhood, including cast of Asterias lunatus. Master F. Webster, Ipswich.
1849 Copper Ore. Valparaiso. Mrs Cobbold, Ipswich.
1849 Rhinoceros tooth. Crag, Hemley. Rev. R. Exton.
1849 Mastodon angustidens tooth. Crag, Felixstowe.
George Ransome, Hon. Secretary, Ipswich Museum, and Chemist, Ipswich.
1849 Coniferous Wood and Pileopsis ungarica. Crag, Sutton. Rev. D.C. Whalley, Great Wenham, Suffolk.
1851 Vertebra of lchthyosaurus. Drift, Suffolk. C.R. Bree, Stowmarket.
1851 Fossils from Ohio, U.S.A. John and Maria Candler, Springfield.
1851 Stone with fossil fish remains. Mount Lebanon. Capt. Ellwood.
1851 Preparations of Iodine, Bromine, Phosphorous and Chlorine. Michael Faraday, Fullerian Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
1851 Stalagmite. Cave at eastern end of Ireland Island, Bermuda. Lieut. Col. Hope, Royal Engineers, Harwich.
1851 Piece of amber found on the beach near Orford Haven, weighing five ounces. Mr W. Mannell.
1851 Mastodon and Rhinoceros teeth, and ammonite portion. Red Crag. Felixstowe. E. Ransome.
1852 A very large Shark's Tooth from Crag at Felixstowe. C.R.Bree.
1852 Fossil Fish (Liassic). George Ransome.
R.A.D. Markham. 1990. A Rhino in High Street: Ipswich Museum - the early years. Ipswich Borough Council.
We met at the car park (TM 274432) at Newbourne Springs. The site is owned by Anglian Water Service and managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust. We then walked round the reserve in an anti-clockwise direction; there are good boardwalks for much of the way.
A flume was inspected in the stream at 273433. Here, at the end of the meeting, Caroline Markham, with practical help (wading!) from Joe Caddick, and a metre stick, stop watch and dog biscuits (they float) demonstrated how to measure (approximately) the discharge of water issuing from the many Red Crag - London Clay springs above this point. The width of the flume was 2.50 metres, depth 0.44 m, giving a cross-section area of 1. 1 m'. The length was 2.73m, for which distance dog biscuits took 16 seconds (average), a speed of 0. 17m/sec. This gave a discharge of 0.187 cu.m/sec = 11.22m'/.minute = 673.2 m'/hour.
We then walked upstream noting fragmentary crag shells
and ripple marks, and tributary streams from springs. Then over two small bridges, up a
slope and followed the higher ground above the steep sided (north-east side) of the
valley. We then descended off the path (by permission of reserve warden Mike Wise) to
inspect a crag spring and washed out shells at 27004365.
Regaining the path, we then descended it to the stream at 26854370. Here, to the north of the bridge, crag from a spring meets mud from the main stream. To the cast of the bridge, Jon Stone showed us peat still forming. Further on, at 268436, Jon showed us a deposit of brown clay containing non-marine mollusca. Much of the success of this field trip was due to Jon Stone's research work on this site, which I gratefully acknowledge.
We returned via Pit Lane/Fenn Lane, noting seepage from springs, and reeds and spongy peat surface along a path north from 27154335. The excavation for the lake at Fenn House showed (during a visit in June 1985, by invitation of Mr M. Riggs) peat on 'crag' washed out of springs; pollen analysis of the peat could well give interesting information on the history of the valley.
We then passed by old crag faces behind Crag Cottage and Hobart Cottage, before visiting old Red Crag pits and springs at Street Farm (by kind permission of Mr J. J. Goodwin) and to the east of the road to Martlesham.
Unfortunately time did not allow for inspection of building stones at the Church and at Newbourne Hall (which Mr J. Somerville had kindly invited us to see).
Field trip to see Chalk, Lower London Tertiaries, 'Crag', and later gravels.
Meet at Bramford Picnic area, just south of Bramford Railway Bridge, TM 128463, at 10.30 a.m. Bring packed lunch and stout footwear.
At Amberfield School, Nacton.
Telephone 01473 659265 for details