The Geology of Cheshire talk

'The Geology of Cheshire'? – not the most enticing subject. Expectations of another large attendance for the History Society meeting on Thursday February 19th were not high!

But again the committee was putting out extra chairs, and all who came were amply rewarded.

The speaker, Peter Styles, Geophysics professor at Keele, told the life – and pre-life – history of our earth with engaging vigour and simplicity.

• We learnt how thousands of millions years ago the continents preceded the oceans.
• We did not realise that Scotland and England were originally separated; they 'never got on'.
• The lump of local red sandstone, which he passed around, derives its name from the desert sands which preceded the Ice Age.
• Nor were we aware that in distant pre-history the continent of Europe 'pressed up the backside of England'.

Beneath this region lie enormous quantities of gas and coal, as mined from pits at Silverdale, which the Sneyd family owned, but not from Keele ( 35 seams there), where they lived.

Professor Styles passed round a lump of rock salt – red because of oxidised iron – before licking it to prove his point ( an example not I think followed by the audience). He only touched on the topical issue of gas 'fracking', but reassured us that the shale deposits under Audlem were too deep and therefore too hot to develop.

The Society was privileged to receive the distilled knowledge of a life-long enthusiast who is also a national authority, adviser to government committees, and last year the winner of the William Smith medal from the Geology Society of London, of which he was a former President.

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