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The amateur in Lake District geology
The amateur in Lake District geology R. Alan Smith SMITH, R. A. 2003. The amateur in Lake District geology. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 114, 355-361. The contribution made by amateurs to the geology of the Lake District is analysed with reference to six men - Jonathan Otley (1766-1856), John Bolton (1790-1873), John Ruthven (1793-1868), John Postlethwaite (1840-1925), Charles Edmonds (1885-1964) and Edgar Shackleton (1903-1991). All six qualify for amateur status in terms of the simple definition of 'amateur' as one who has a love for the subject and pursues it as a pastime. Nevertheless all made significant contributions and made their mark as local experts. The main reasons for their success included early introduction to geology in childhood, long periods offield observations, opportunities to supplement their income from geology, links and contacts with professional geologists, the availability for contact and publication through local societies and a conviction to 'popularize' geology. None became 'establishment' figures, but all were influential in pioneering geological discovery in the area. Rigg Side, Grange Park, Keswick. Cumbria CAll 4A Y, UK (e-mail [email protected]!
1. INTRODUCTION
For over two hundred years amateur workers, undaunted by a region of great geological complexity but inspired by a landscape of great beauty, have demonstrated an ability to make significant contributions to the study of the geology of the English Lake District. Working alongside professionals and academics, a number of men, often from quite humble backgrounds, have strived tirelessly on aspects of the subject. carving out a personal niche and making their own mark on the history of geological discovery in the region. By examining the work of six men who have been particularly influential, it is possible to see some of the reasons for their success and to analyse the ways amateurs have been able to operate.
2. AMATEURS 'Amateur' can be a confusing term. All the six men discussed here clearly fall within the simple definition of an amateur as one who had a love or fondness of geology and cultivated it as a pastime. Implied within that definition is that they were not 'professionals' as they lacked academic training in the subject leading to qualifications and that they did not use their geological expertise as a means of earning their main income. The term 'amateur' is, however, often used in a pejorative context, implying that something 'amateurish' is of second-rate quality. Examination of the work of these This work was first presented orally at a joint meeting of the Geological Society of London History of Geology Group and the Geologists' Association, The Amateur in British Geology, held at the Geological Society, Burlington House, London, 14-15 March. 2002. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 114, 355-361.
particular six men, and of the ways they operated and what they achieved, will be seen to refute this interpretation. Similarly, the extent to which they were 'outsiders', beyond the geological establishment, has to be considered. 3. SIX MEN The six 'amateurs' examined here span over 150 years of the story of geological discovery in the Lake District from the early nineteenth century to the post-war period of the mid-twentieth century. Detailed studies of the life and work of all these men is well documented (Smith, 2001). The focus here must be on their role as amateurs. Jonathan Otley (1766-1856) Jonathan Otley was born into a very humble family in October 1766 at Loughrigg, near Grasmere in south Lakeland. Up to the age of 25 he worked with his father making wooden sieves and baskets but, in 1791, he moved north to Keswick and established himself in a small town centre business as a watch and clock repairer. This was to become his lifelong profession and his cottage workshop also became the base for his interest in local geology and from where he built a reputation as a local amateur naturalist and an authority on the Lake District. J. E. Marr (1916) gave Otley the title of 'Father of Lakeland Geology'. Otley was the true amateur pioneer, the local man who walked the ground, came to know it like the back of his own hand, but had the amazing ability so early in the nineteenth century to see the broader picture of this structurally complex region. Otley was the first person 0016-7878/03 $15.00
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to write an account of the geology of the Lake District (Otley, 1820), and the first person to see that •... the greater part of the central region of the Lake Mountains is occupied by three distinct groups of stratified rocks of a slaty texture'. These he called the Clayslate, Greenstone and the Greywacke - remarkably perceptive descriptions of the three familiar groups of rocks we know make up the Lower Palaeozoic inlier of the Lake District and we now term the Skiddaw Group, the Borrowdale Volcanic Group and the Windermere Supergroup. Perhaps, even more perceptive, and arguably his greatest achievement, was his exposition of the relationships between bedding, cleavage and jointing in Lake District rocks. These relationships were probably known to quarrymen in the first instance and transmitted by them to Otley, who was renowned for his local contacts and his astute local observations. It was Otley, however, who first committed them to paper for the geological community. Even today, the fundamental differences between these properties and their structural implications are not easy to grasp and in many field situations in Lakeland they have to be established before the geological story can be revealed. Otley spent a long bachelor life of 90 years pursuing his amateur obsession with the Lakeland landscape, recording what he observed, questioning his findings, corresponding with professional scientists and documenting his work in his guidebooks, a few scientific papers and in his letters. His background was very humble, his education the most basic, but his achievements were seminal in the earliest phase of the study of Lakeland geology. John Bolton (1790-1873) John Bolton was the amateur worker who, through meticulous site investigations and diligent fossil recording, first put on record much of the geology of Furness and South Cumbria. He was born in Furness in 1790 and spent his formative years there, but was forced to leave the district as a young man to earn a living as a journeyman weaver, particularly in Yorkshire. He returned to Swarthmoor in High Furness in 1851, after which he took up his interest in local geology and started writing about the district. His best-known publication, Geological fragments collected principally from rambles among the rocks of Furness and Cartmel, published late in his life in 1869, from its very title, summarizes his approach. Many of his fossil specimens are now housed in national collections. Some of his site descriptions are invaluable today as they pre-date much of the mining activity in Furness, and his contemporary accounts of events such as the Rampside earthquake of 1865 (Bolton, 1869, pp. 253259) are valuable geological and historical documents. John Ruthven (1793-1868) Little is known of the early life of John Ruthven. He was born in Kirkby Stephen in 1793, but later moved
to Kendal where he took up the trade of a cobbler. His interest in geology developed when he made the acquaintance of a number of local members of the newly formed Kendal Natural History Society in the l830s, notably Adam Sedgwick. Ruthven made two significant contributions as an amateur in Lake District geology. First, he became a renowned collector of fossils, working for professionals like Sedgwick and Murchison and, second, he was one of the first to draw a geological map of the Lake District in 1855. Searching for fossils is a time-consuming occupation, a role the amateur can often play and one that Ruthven accomplished very effectively. His map (Ruthven, 1855), which, by modern standards, was not very accurate, was instrumental in popularizing geology and rested heavily on Ruthven's local knowledge. John Postlethwaite (1840-1925) Postlethwaite was the foremost expert on the geology of the mines and mining activity in the Lake District in the first part of the twentieth century. He came from a mining family and developed his geological interests in childhood. After working in the mines of the Keswick area for a number of years after leaving school, he moved to join the newly opened Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway (CK & P) which enabled him to retain his base in the Lake District and pursue his geological investigations of the region. His book, Mines and Mining in the English Lake District (published in three editions 1877, 1889 and the most widely-read third edition in 1913), became the standard work in the field for decades after. In true amateur fashion he became inspired and encouraged by several eminent professional geologists and was able to use his time and local knowledge to become the eyes and ears in the area for such Geological Survey officers as Clifton Ward and John Goodchild. His work on locating and describing trilobites and graptolites from the Skiddaw Group rocks received national recognition, and some detailed work on some of the intrusive rocks of the northern Lake District was possible because, as an amateur, he could spend time and access the sites very easily from his home in Keswick. Charles Edmonds (1885-1964) and Edgar Shackleton (1903-1991) The final two amateur workers, Edmonds and Shackleton, were friends, collaborators and contemporary workers in the period after the Second World War. Both came to geology via working-class backgrounds but were driven by a love of the subject and a passion for the fells and landscape of Cumbria. Edmonds was a man of many parts. A Cum brian by birth, he earned his living as a trade union organizer. Apart from geology, he spent his own time as a Labour Party County Councillor, as a Justice of the Peace and was, for several years, Chairman of Cumberland County Council Education Committee. Edmonds,
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particularly inspired by the resident surveyors of the Geological Survey from the Whitehaven office in the 1920s became an acknowledged authority on the Carboniferous Limestone Series in West Cumbria. Shackleton, on the other hand, was a Lancastrian, drawn to the Lake District for its climbing. He worked as a local representative with Hoover Ltd in West Cumberland, was drafted into ordnance work at Drigg during the Second World War, after which he joined the United Steel Company at Workington. Shackleton, inspired by Edmonds, became the popularizer of Lakeland geology in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Shackleton probably contributed little new knowledge on the geology of Cumbria. He was not an original researcher, but he knew the ground well, was familiar with the literature and, most importantly, was able to communicate his enthusiasm for the subject in his direct, bluff, Lancastrian way to young and old, to visitors and locals. His legacy lives on today. Although his books (Shackleton, 1966, 1975) are long out-ofprint, his rock and mineral collections are still on display at various places in the county, notably at The Florence Mine Visitor Centre, near Egremont. Both Edmonds and Shackleton were instrumental in generating interest in local geology, particularly in West Cumbria and in setting up the West Cumberland Geology Group that led eventually to the founding of the Cumberland Geological Society in 1962. The family of Charles Edmonds, on his death in 1964, donated his quite extensive collection of geological books and papers to the Cumberland Geological Society. These still form a valuable core of the Society Library, available for local use in the Whitehaven Public Library. The Charles Edmonds Memorial Fund was also set up by public subscription and, to this day, provides the Charles Edmonds Prize, awarded every two years to geologists for work on Cumbrian geology. 4. DISCUSSION Analysis of the life and work of the six men reveals a number of threads that help our understanding of the role that amateurs can play in geology and the factors behind their success. Education All six qualify for amateur status from the standpoint of coming from humble backgrounds, having minimal qualifications and being self-taught in geology. Secondary school experience, as we know it, was hardly available to Otley, Bolton, Ruthven and Postlethwaite. University geology barely existed. Similarly, for Edmonds and Shackleton the chance of higher education for men from working-class backgrounds was not really possible. It is notable, however, that both of them were associated with the Workers Educational Movement, both as pupil and teacher. For all six men, earning a living was the dominating force in their lives; geology always had to take second place.
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Childhood experience Childhood experience was important in setting Bolton, Postlethwaite and Edmonds on the geological road. Bolton records collecting fossils as a young child around his home on the Carboniferous Limestone area of Urswick in Furness in the period around 1800 (at the same time as William Smith was collecting in Somerset). In particular, he describes how rich pickings were obtained from the debris from a well dug behind his village school in Urswick. From a very early age, Postlethwaite was taken by his father, a mine manager at Force Crag Mine near Keswick, to see the mines and befriend the mine lads (many little more than his own age) and to collect specimens. Similarly, Edmonds. who hailed from Bigrigg, an iron mining centre in West Cumbria, was surrounded by the industry as a child and worked in the mines for a short time as a young man. Local knowledge It is an obvious, but very relevant point. that all these
amateurs were working on their home ground and, hence, developed invaluable local knowledge. Five of the six were native Cumbrians who lived all their lives within a short radius. Shackleton was an incorner, who was drawn to the area by climbing as a young man and spent most of his adult life there. All of them spent long lives collecting, observing and recording - 50, 60 or even 70 years, in fact. The value of local knowledge must not be underestimated and was a major factor in the influence of these amateurs. Supplementary income Several of these six men supplemented their income from geological activities. It is difficult to measure the importance of this for individuals. For Otley and Ruthven it may have been quite significant. Otley is remembered most for his guidebooks to the Lake District. They really began in 18I8 when he published his topographical map of the district. He used this to accompany the first edition of the guide, A concise description of the English Lakes and adjacent mountains, in 1823. This contained his essay on the geology of the district. It cost 4 shillings and 6 pence and sold 600 copies. Eventually it was revised and ran to eight editions in the period up to 1849, selling over 8000 copies in total. Available records from Ruthven's life indicate he had a substantial sideline supplying rock, fossil and mineral specimens to order for collectors and academics nationwide. He was commissioned by Sedgwick to search and collect for him, notably in the northern Lake District on the Skiddaw Group rocks where there are records, for example, of Ruthven spending weeks in the summer camping on the fells searching for fossils. We do not know whether monetary gain was important to Bolton, Postlethwaite,
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and Shackleton, all of whom published books that became good sellers. Postlethwaite's Mines and Mining in the English Lake District remained in print for several decades and Shackleton's two guides Lakeland Geology (1966) and Geological Excursions in Lakeland (1975) captured the popular, and, importantly, the visitor market, from 1966 to around 1980. There were undoubtedly returns from all of these. For Edmonds, on the other hand, geology was a love and a passion. He never became involved in writing for the commercial market. The inspiration of the Lake District landscape
For all six, a love of the Lake District and a particular love of walking and climbing the fells impinged directly on their geological activities. Otley was a well known local guide and leader of visitors to see the wonders of the district, from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Shackleton came to the Lake District to climb and, in his early years, worked practically full-time as a local guide. Much of Bolton's geology was done on his 'rambles', which he pursued over many years. Contact with professionals
The influence and inspiration provided by contact with professional geologists and academics accounts for a great deal in the success of these six amateurs. Professionals provided academic stimulation, channels for exchange of ideas, encouragement, direction and, in many cases, access to scientific facilities. Links with the professionals enabled their work to be verified, made more scientifically secure and brought to the attention of the geological 'establishment'. From the earliest years of Otley's work on Lakeland geology, he corresponded with the 'great and the good' in the scientific community. He wrote regularly to George Airy, the then Astronomer Royal; to John Phillips the Museum Curator at York; and to the chemist John Dalton who helped, for example, by analysing gases and vegetation material which Otley collected from the floating island in Derwentwater. More particularly, Otley had an almost 30-year long close professional relationship with Adam Sedgwick. It was Otley who first introduced Sedgwick to the northern Lake District, first guiding him round the district in summer excursions in 1823 and 1824 and feeding his local knowledge unselfishly to Sedgwick. It was Otley who, as early as 1820, had seen that the Lower Palaeozoic inlier of the central Lake District was made up of three distinct groups of rock, later explained in detail by Sedgwick. Otley only gained national recognition through Sedgwick. Sedgwick (1831) acknowledged the help he had received from Otley and, in 1836, in a paper to the Geological Society of London entitled 'Introduction to the General structure of the Cumbrian Mountains', he says ' ... we owe our first accurate knowledge of these subdivisions to Mr
Jonathan Otley of Keswick, who not merely described them in general terms but gave their geographical distribution with a very near approach to accuracy' (Sedgwick, 1836, p. 49). Both Bolton and Ruthven were also friends of Sedgwick. Both collected specimens for the great man and acted as his local assistants. Bolton named his house in the village of Swarthmoor in Furness, 'Sedgwick Cottage'. He was clearly inspired by the man and Sedgwick recognized the value of Bolton's meticulous site records. Ruthven likewise was highly regarded by Sedgwick, taking him on excursions to Wales in 1846 and 1851 and to Scotland in 1848. Sedgwick (1845, p. 445) described him as a 'famous fossil collector, once cobbler ... now a geologist, whose fame will last longer than the stoutest shoe that ever came off his ancient last'. Two years later Sedgwick wrote to Harkness, I advise you to go to Kendal and call on John Ruthven, the well known collector of northern fossils (Palaeozoic); he knows the country well and as far as I know is the only person to have found fossils in the Skiddaw Slates' (Adams, 1984). Sedgwick clearly used Ruthven to collect for him. In 1847 he asked Ruthven to go to the Keswick area to search for fossil remains. Ruthven spent some time in a tent at White Stones on Skiddaw that summer hunting for fossils. The work of Postlethwaite was greatly enhanced by his friendship first with Clifton Ward and later with John Goodchild, both Survey geologists resident in the northern Lake District after 1869. The young energetic Ward was a near neighbour of Postlethwaite in Keswick and the two collaborated particularly on the mines and mineral deposits of the area. Postlethwaite's first-hand practical knowledge of the mines and his detailed local knowledge of the exposures and of the mining community were invaluable to Ward. Much of Postlethwaite's knowledge fed through to Ward's Geological Survey Memoir The Geology of the Northern Part of the English Lake District published in 1876. Ward's field-notebooks (Ward, l870~1874), still preserved in the British Geological Survey archives at Keyworth, record much detailed material that he gleaned from Postlethwaite. Postlethwaite was also inspired by Goodchild to pursue studies of the graptolite and trilobites of the Skiddaw Group. He spent many hours in the field searching for specimens and he acknowledges Goodchild's help in identifying some of them. Jointly their work put on record details of some of the most important finds of these species, many of which are now in the Natural History Museum, London and the Fitzwilliam collection in Cambridge. Postlethwaite went on to build on the work of Ward by more detailed studies of many of the small intrusions of the northern Lake District, linking up with another academic, T. G. Bonney, who completed the chemical analysis of his specimens and acknowledged his work. Postlethwaite clearly established his credibility with the academic community and, by the time one of his final papers with T. G. Bonney, 'The Cleaved
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Ashes and Breccias of the Volcanic Series of Borrowdale' (Postlethwaite, 1891) had been published, Postlethwaite had become a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. No clearer example of the professional-amateur link can be found than the relationship between Edmonds and Shackleton and the staff of the Geological Survey. The decision after World War I to establish a Regional Office of the Survey in Whitehaven in November 1920 was a landmark for Cumbrian geology. Along with Manchester, Newcastle and York, Whitehaven was chosen as one of four new centres to hasten the revision of the maps of the English coal fields. Not only did the establishment of this office focus professional attention on the geology of the West Cumbrian coal field and to the haematite and other economic resources, it raised the profile of geology in the whole area and in the community. The office became a meeting point for people with geological interests. The Survey geologists, led initially by Bernard Smith and later by Tom Eastwood, kept open-house for interested amateurs. Many a time Charles Edmonds and his son James were there talking geology. Interestingly, his son later joined the Survey as a professional geologist. Edgar Shackleton teamed up with Edmonds and, inspired by the legacy left by the Survey workers in West Cumbria, led local excursions. They brought together a small group of amateurs who became the West Cumberland Geology Group and later transformed this into the Cumberland Geological Society. Shackleton frequently recounted Edmond's encyclopaedic knowledge of every quarry from Millom to Alston Moor to which he had travelled by train, bus, bicycle or on foot. Edmonds began his observations around 1910, first on the Carboniferous Limestones in West Cumbria but extending eventually across the county. He had long discussions with Dr Arthur Vaughan and his co-workers at the University of Bristol, who had established a zonation of the limestones in the Avon Gorge. His work, collaborating also with Professor Edmund Garwood at University College, London, enabled a correlation to be established between West Cumbria, the Pennines and the Carboniferous elsewhere in Britain. His key paper (Edmonds, 1922) lacked the detailed photographs and maps of modern work, but his appendices listing the fossil finds of individual formations, together with the age ranges of the rugose corals present and a detailed list of the exposures, were invaluable contributions. Edmonds detailed work on the limestones of West Cumbria was heavily used by the Survey later and is firmly acknowledged in the Memoir work on the Whitehaven and Workington areas. Local societies
Many of these amateurs linked up with professionals through local scientific societies. As early as 1835 the Kendal Natural History and Scientific Society had
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been founded with Adam Sedgwick becoming its President in 1838. It was there that Sedgwick met John Ruthven. In a similar way the founding of the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society in 1870 brought together Postlethwaite, Ward and Goodchild. All these three men were also strongly associated with the Cumberland and Westmorland Association for the Advancement of Science and Literature whose members met regularly at various venues in the county after 1876. Perhaps, even more importantly for these amateurs, several of these societies published Proceedings and scientific papers, providing a direct incentive and opening-up an avenue to wider recognition. Much of Postlethwaite's work, in particular, was published by the Cumberland and Westmorland Association. In later years, Edmonds and Shackleton were the 'founding fathers' of the Cumberland Geological Society in the early 1960s, and this gave Shackleton, in particular, an outlet for his writing, a platform for his talks and a chance to spread his local field knowledge with local excursions. The Cumberland Geological Society and the Westmorland Geological Society, founded later in the 1970s, have done sterling work over the years as institutional bases for 'amateur' geology in the county. In recent years members of the societies have extended their 'amateur' expertise into the field of geological conservation, with the establishment and lively activity of The Cumbria Rigs Group and the newly established Cumbria Geoforum. Publications
The fact that all these six amateurs were able to publish their work was of key importance in their recognition. Most of them found local outlets first, through local publishers or local society proceedings. All of them can be categorized as 'popularizers' of geology. They seemed keen to convey their local knowledge and experience back to the non-specialist, popular market and, in particular, to the visitors and tourists to the Lake District. Otley, the earliest of these amateurs, was writing primarily as a guide-book author in the early nineteenth century, encouraging the visitor to explore the wonders of the Lake District and to observe some of the geological and other scientific aspects of the landscape. Apart from the rocks his guides contained material on the botany, natural history and meteorology. Ruthven's geological map (1855) came in a neat linen envelope and was designed to be carried round by the visitor. It was also included in a neat folded format in Harriet Martineau's well-known guide book, A Description of the English Lakes, published in 1858. Postlethwaite's Mines and Mining in the English Lake District was a popular, non-specialist guide. In the preface to the second edition (1889, p. ii), he writes ' ... I trust that it may be of some service, not only to those who are interested in mining, but also to the annually increasing body of tourists who visit the Lake District in search of health and recreation, and at the same time
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to become more fully acquainted with its mineral resources ' . Shackleton's two book s (1966 and 1975) were unashamedly aimed at the beginner and amateur. His Lakeland Geology was subtitled ' Where to Go. What to See'. In his introduction Ip , 9), he says' ... Over the years I have spent much time in leading geological excursions and in teaching the subject to ord inar y people' . He wrote in excursion-gu ide format and in straightforward easy-to-re ad langu age.
Outsiders As well as being 'amateurs' under the definition already discussed, all six men remained 'o utsiders' of the geological establishment. In spite of their undoubted success and recognition by the establishment in various obvious ways, none of them joined it by renouncing their employment status. none gained paid status as profe ssional geologists and none of them moved from their Cumbrian bases . The early amateurs Otley, Bolton and Ruthven had few of the more recent opportunities for establishment recognit ion open to them . All three were recognized in print with frequent citations of their wo rk and public acknowledgements of their contributions by such establishment figures as Sedgwick. Otley was asked to speak twice at the Manchester Literary and Philos ophical Society (Otley, 18l9a. b), beyond that, however. public recognition was limited. For the three later amateurs oth er means had become available for the geological establishment to recognize their contributions. Both Postlethwaite and Edmonds had some of their work publ ished in wha t tod ay would be regarded as major cited research journals (Quart erly Journal 0/ the Geological Society and Geological Magazine) . Th e Geological Society of London honoured all three with award s, Postlethwaite and Edmonds with the Lyell Medal and Shackleton with the R. H. Worth Prize. Edm ond s gained lasting recognit ion for a palaeontologist by having two Carboniferous corals named after him - Nemistium edmondsi and Orionastraea edmondsi from specimens he found at Eskett and Clints quarries near Egremont. Edmonds also received an Honorary MSc degree from the University of Durham. All were involved in 'establi shment' events and clearly mingled with the geological community at the height of their careers. Postlethwaite acted as a supplementary guide for a visit to the Lake District by the Geologists' Association in 1900 (Pro ceedings 0/ the Geologist's Association, 16, pp. 531-532). Edm ond s read a paper at the International Geological Congr ess in 1936 and was a leader on the Geologi sts' Association long
excur sion to West Cumbria in 1925 (Smith et al., 1925). Shackleton served on the Region al Comm ittee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and was a regular extra-mural lecturer for the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
5. CONCLUSIONS All these six am ateurs made their mark in their da y. None received national recognition o r notoriety. but, locally, Lakeland geology would not have progressed in the same way without their contributions. Th ey were all able to build up local expertise in ar eas that they could cope with - sectors of geology that would be regarded as 'low cost'. In essence, they all became acclaimed field geologists, drawn by a love for the subject and committed to scientific enqui ry. These six were by no means the only amateurs on the scene in the early days of Lakeland geology . The eminent Victorian, John Ruskin, must be regarded as an early Lakeland geological 'amateur'. He found rocks. minerals and fossils to be of philo sophical and aesthetic interest. His or iginal collection may have had some 3000 specimens. man y of which are still to be seen at his Lakeland home . Brant wood at Coniston. which is now open to the public and devoted to an appreciation of his life and work s. Ru skin 's secretary. W. G . Collingwood was equally involved on the amat eur scene. His well known book, The Lake Counties. has man y geological references and he clearl y felt it necessary to include a special article on the district' s geology (although admittedly written by a profe ssional). Jo seph Harrison Fr yer. who lived in Keswick, assisted several notable visiting geologists. notably Bakewell, Sedgwick and Buckland and was also involved in the compilation of earl y maps of the district. Lastly. mention must also be made of 1. F. N . Green , a man of very independent mind who researched indefatigably on a variety of Lakel and geological topi cs in the early twentieth century, challenged the geological establishment (largely unsucces sfully), but made his mark (Bennett, 2001). There is much left to research and many others yet to be investigated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Richa rd J . Howarth and Pro fessor David R. Oldro yd for the extremely constructive and valuable comments they made on the original draft of this paper.
REFERENCES Ada~ns.' D.W. 1984.. Adam Sedgwick and his Kendal Dl s~lples . Proceedings of !Iz~ Westmorland Geological
Society. 3(4), 36--38. (The ongmal letter from Sedgwick to Ha~kne~s in l 847 is in the S~d g~ick pap ers, Cambridge University Libr ar y; a cop y exists 111 the Co unty Library.
Kend al. Th e Ad am s' paper reviews the Sedgwick correspondence with Harkness, Ruthven and others.) Bennet t. M. 2001. John Frederick Norm an Green (1875-1 949). In (Smith. R.A.; ed .) The Rock Men. Cumberland Ge ological Society, Keswick, 152-1 54.
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Bolton, J. 1978. Geological fragments collected principally from Rambles among the rocks of Furness and Cartmel. D. Atkinson and Whittaker and Co., Ulverston and London. (Reprinted by Michael Moon, Whitehaven.) Collingwood, W.G. 1932. The Lake Counties. Dent, London. (Revised edn. published by Frederick Warne, London, containing special article on The Building of the Lake District by Bernard Smith, pp. 228-241.) Edmonds, e. 1922. The Carboniferous series of West Cumberland. Geological Magazine. 59, 74-83, 117-131. Marr, J.E. 1916. The Geology of the Lake District. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Martineau, H. 1974. A Description of the English Lakes. Simpkim Marshall & Co., Windermere. (Reprinted by EP Publishing Ltd, East Ardsley, Wakefield.) Otley, J. 1818. The District ofthe Lakes. A topographical map. (Sold originally in linen-mounted format in a pouch designed for the pocket. Later mounted inside the front cover of the various editions of the Otley guide-book from 1823 onwards. The scale of the map was approximately one inch to four miles.) Otley, J. 1819a. Account of the Floating Island in Derwent Lake, Keswick. Memoir of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Ser. 2, 3, 64. Otley, J. 1819b. Account of the Black Lead Mine in Borrowdale. Memoir of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Ser. 2, 3, 168. Otley, J. 1820. Remarks on the Succession of rocks in the District of the Lakes, Lonsdale Magazine. 1, 433-438. (Also published in Philosophical Magazine, 56, 257-261 and subsequently in Otley, 1823.) Otley, J. 1823. A concise description of the English lakes and adjacent mountains. Simpkin Marshall & Co, London. (This was the first edition, it was progressively enlarged and went to eight editions up to 1849.) Postlethwaite, J. 1877. Mines and Minerals of the Lake District. published privately, Keswick. (Originally read as a paper to the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society on January 19, 1874, Copies of this first edition are rare.) Postlethwaite, J. 1889. Mines and Mining in the (English) Lake District. Samuel Moxon, Leeds. Postlethwaite, J. 1891. The Cleaved Ashes and Breccias of the Volcanic Series of Borrowdale. (With an Appendix by T. G. Bonney, On the structure of some Volcanic Ash from the Borrowdale Series, 53-54.) Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Association for the Advancement of Science & Literature, 16,41-53. Postlethwaite, J. 1975. Mines and Mining in the English Lake District. W.H. Moss, Whitehaven. (Reprinted by Michael Moon, Beckermet, Cumbria.)
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Ruthven, J. 1855. The scale of the map was approximately one inch to three and a half miles. Geological Map ofthe English Lakes and adjoining country. geologically coloured (with the map was a Description of the Geological Map of the Lake District to which is added a list of the fossils and the localities where found). E. Stanford and John Garnett, London and Windermere. (There is much debate and further necessary research to be done about early geological maps of the Lake District. The Ruthven map was not the earliest, but it was certainly one of the most accessible and widely available. J.H. Fryer, Jonathan Otley and Adam Sedgwick also produced maps of various kinds of the district. There were county maps of Cumberland and Westmorland by William Smith pre-Ruthven too.) Sedgwick, A. 1831. Address to the Geological Society, February 18th, 1831. Proceedings of the Geological Society of London. 1(20),281-316. Sedgwick, A. 1836. Introduction to the General Structure of the Cum brian Mountains; with a description of the Great Dislocations by which they have been separated from the neighbouring Carboniferous Chains. Transactions of the Geological Society, 4(ser. II), 47-68. Sedgwick, A. 1845. On the Comparative Classification of the Fossiliferous Strata of North Wales with corresponding deposits of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire. and Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 4, 576-584 & Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 1, 442-450. Shackleton, E.H. 1966. Lakeland Geology. Dalesman Publishing Co. Ltd., Clapham, Yorkshire. Shackleton, E.H. 1975. Geological Excursions in Lakeland. Dalesman Publishing Co. Ltd, Clapham, Yorkshire. Smith, B., Dixon, E.E.L., Eastwood, T., Edmonds, e. & Hollingworth, S.E. 1925. A sketch of the geology of the Whitehaven District. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 36, 37-75. (A limited edition of this paper was issued in advance of the publication of the material in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association in booklet form. G.M. Davies, Edward Stanford, London.) Smith, R.A. (ed.) 2001. The Rock Men: Pioneers of Lakeland Geology. Cumberland Geological Society, Keswick. Ward, J.e. 1870-1874, Unpublished field notebooks of James Clifton Ward for his field survey of the Northern Lake District, Keswick, British Geological Survey archives, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth. Ward, J.e. 1876. The Geology of the Northern Part of the English Lake District. Memoir of the Geological Survey of England and Wales.
Manuscript received 15 July 2002; revised typescript accepted 11 April 2003
1. INTRODUCTION
For over two hundred years amateur workers, undaunted by a region of great geological complexity but inspired by a landscape of great beauty, have demonstrated an ability to make significant contributions to the study of the geology of the English Lake District. Working alongside professionals and academics, a number of men, often from quite humble backgrounds, have strived tirelessly on aspects of the subject. carving out a personal niche and making their own mark on the history of geological discovery in the region. By examining the work of six men who have been particularly influential, it is possible to see some of the reasons for their success and to analyse the ways amateurs have been able to operate.
2. AMATEURS 'Amateur' can be a confusing term. All the six men discussed here clearly fall within the simple definition of an amateur as one who had a love or fondness of geology and cultivated it as a pastime. Implied within that definition is that they were not 'professionals' as they lacked academic training in the subject leading to qualifications and that they did not use their geological expertise as a means of earning their main income. The term 'amateur' is, however, often used in a pejorative context, implying that something 'amateurish' is of second-rate quality. Examination of the work of these This work was first presented orally at a joint meeting of the Geological Society of London History of Geology Group and the Geologists' Association, The Amateur in British Geology, held at the Geological Society, Burlington House, London, 14-15 March. 2002. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 114, 355-361.
particular six men, and of the ways they operated and what they achieved, will be seen to refute this interpretation. Similarly, the extent to which they were 'outsiders', beyond the geological establishment, has to be considered. 3. SIX MEN The six 'amateurs' examined here span over 150 years of the story of geological discovery in the Lake District from the early nineteenth century to the post-war period of the mid-twentieth century. Detailed studies of the life and work of all these men is well documented (Smith, 2001). The focus here must be on their role as amateurs. Jonathan Otley (1766-1856) Jonathan Otley was born into a very humble family in October 1766 at Loughrigg, near Grasmere in south Lakeland. Up to the age of 25 he worked with his father making wooden sieves and baskets but, in 1791, he moved north to Keswick and established himself in a small town centre business as a watch and clock repairer. This was to become his lifelong profession and his cottage workshop also became the base for his interest in local geology and from where he built a reputation as a local amateur naturalist and an authority on the Lake District. J. E. Marr (1916) gave Otley the title of 'Father of Lakeland Geology'. Otley was the true amateur pioneer, the local man who walked the ground, came to know it like the back of his own hand, but had the amazing ability so early in the nineteenth century to see the broader picture of this structurally complex region. Otley was the first person 0016-7878/03 $15.00
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to write an account of the geology of the Lake District (Otley, 1820), and the first person to see that •... the greater part of the central region of the Lake Mountains is occupied by three distinct groups of stratified rocks of a slaty texture'. These he called the Clayslate, Greenstone and the Greywacke - remarkably perceptive descriptions of the three familiar groups of rocks we know make up the Lower Palaeozoic inlier of the Lake District and we now term the Skiddaw Group, the Borrowdale Volcanic Group and the Windermere Supergroup. Perhaps, even more perceptive, and arguably his greatest achievement, was his exposition of the relationships between bedding, cleavage and jointing in Lake District rocks. These relationships were probably known to quarrymen in the first instance and transmitted by them to Otley, who was renowned for his local contacts and his astute local observations. It was Otley, however, who first committed them to paper for the geological community. Even today, the fundamental differences between these properties and their structural implications are not easy to grasp and in many field situations in Lakeland they have to be established before the geological story can be revealed. Otley spent a long bachelor life of 90 years pursuing his amateur obsession with the Lakeland landscape, recording what he observed, questioning his findings, corresponding with professional scientists and documenting his work in his guidebooks, a few scientific papers and in his letters. His background was very humble, his education the most basic, but his achievements were seminal in the earliest phase of the study of Lakeland geology. John Bolton (1790-1873) John Bolton was the amateur worker who, through meticulous site investigations and diligent fossil recording, first put on record much of the geology of Furness and South Cumbria. He was born in Furness in 1790 and spent his formative years there, but was forced to leave the district as a young man to earn a living as a journeyman weaver, particularly in Yorkshire. He returned to Swarthmoor in High Furness in 1851, after which he took up his interest in local geology and started writing about the district. His best-known publication, Geological fragments collected principally from rambles among the rocks of Furness and Cartmel, published late in his life in 1869, from its very title, summarizes his approach. Many of his fossil specimens are now housed in national collections. Some of his site descriptions are invaluable today as they pre-date much of the mining activity in Furness, and his contemporary accounts of events such as the Rampside earthquake of 1865 (Bolton, 1869, pp. 253259) are valuable geological and historical documents. John Ruthven (1793-1868) Little is known of the early life of John Ruthven. He was born in Kirkby Stephen in 1793, but later moved
to Kendal where he took up the trade of a cobbler. His interest in geology developed when he made the acquaintance of a number of local members of the newly formed Kendal Natural History Society in the l830s, notably Adam Sedgwick. Ruthven made two significant contributions as an amateur in Lake District geology. First, he became a renowned collector of fossils, working for professionals like Sedgwick and Murchison and, second, he was one of the first to draw a geological map of the Lake District in 1855. Searching for fossils is a time-consuming occupation, a role the amateur can often play and one that Ruthven accomplished very effectively. His map (Ruthven, 1855), which, by modern standards, was not very accurate, was instrumental in popularizing geology and rested heavily on Ruthven's local knowledge. John Postlethwaite (1840-1925) Postlethwaite was the foremost expert on the geology of the mines and mining activity in the Lake District in the first part of the twentieth century. He came from a mining family and developed his geological interests in childhood. After working in the mines of the Keswick area for a number of years after leaving school, he moved to join the newly opened Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway (CK & P) which enabled him to retain his base in the Lake District and pursue his geological investigations of the region. His book, Mines and Mining in the English Lake District (published in three editions 1877, 1889 and the most widely-read third edition in 1913), became the standard work in the field for decades after. In true amateur fashion he became inspired and encouraged by several eminent professional geologists and was able to use his time and local knowledge to become the eyes and ears in the area for such Geological Survey officers as Clifton Ward and John Goodchild. His work on locating and describing trilobites and graptolites from the Skiddaw Group rocks received national recognition, and some detailed work on some of the intrusive rocks of the northern Lake District was possible because, as an amateur, he could spend time and access the sites very easily from his home in Keswick. Charles Edmonds (1885-1964) and Edgar Shackleton (1903-1991) The final two amateur workers, Edmonds and Shackleton, were friends, collaborators and contemporary workers in the period after the Second World War. Both came to geology via working-class backgrounds but were driven by a love of the subject and a passion for the fells and landscape of Cumbria. Edmonds was a man of many parts. A Cum brian by birth, he earned his living as a trade union organizer. Apart from geology, he spent his own time as a Labour Party County Councillor, as a Justice of the Peace and was, for several years, Chairman of Cumberland County Council Education Committee. Edmonds,
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particularly inspired by the resident surveyors of the Geological Survey from the Whitehaven office in the 1920s became an acknowledged authority on the Carboniferous Limestone Series in West Cumbria. Shackleton, on the other hand, was a Lancastrian, drawn to the Lake District for its climbing. He worked as a local representative with Hoover Ltd in West Cumberland, was drafted into ordnance work at Drigg during the Second World War, after which he joined the United Steel Company at Workington. Shackleton, inspired by Edmonds, became the popularizer of Lakeland geology in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Shackleton probably contributed little new knowledge on the geology of Cumbria. He was not an original researcher, but he knew the ground well, was familiar with the literature and, most importantly, was able to communicate his enthusiasm for the subject in his direct, bluff, Lancastrian way to young and old, to visitors and locals. His legacy lives on today. Although his books (Shackleton, 1966, 1975) are long out-ofprint, his rock and mineral collections are still on display at various places in the county, notably at The Florence Mine Visitor Centre, near Egremont. Both Edmonds and Shackleton were instrumental in generating interest in local geology, particularly in West Cumbria and in setting up the West Cumberland Geology Group that led eventually to the founding of the Cumberland Geological Society in 1962. The family of Charles Edmonds, on his death in 1964, donated his quite extensive collection of geological books and papers to the Cumberland Geological Society. These still form a valuable core of the Society Library, available for local use in the Whitehaven Public Library. The Charles Edmonds Memorial Fund was also set up by public subscription and, to this day, provides the Charles Edmonds Prize, awarded every two years to geologists for work on Cumbrian geology. 4. DISCUSSION Analysis of the life and work of the six men reveals a number of threads that help our understanding of the role that amateurs can play in geology and the factors behind their success. Education All six qualify for amateur status from the standpoint of coming from humble backgrounds, having minimal qualifications and being self-taught in geology. Secondary school experience, as we know it, was hardly available to Otley, Bolton, Ruthven and Postlethwaite. University geology barely existed. Similarly, for Edmonds and Shackleton the chance of higher education for men from working-class backgrounds was not really possible. It is notable, however, that both of them were associated with the Workers Educational Movement, both as pupil and teacher. For all six men, earning a living was the dominating force in their lives; geology always had to take second place.
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Childhood experience Childhood experience was important in setting Bolton, Postlethwaite and Edmonds on the geological road. Bolton records collecting fossils as a young child around his home on the Carboniferous Limestone area of Urswick in Furness in the period around 1800 (at the same time as William Smith was collecting in Somerset). In particular, he describes how rich pickings were obtained from the debris from a well dug behind his village school in Urswick. From a very early age, Postlethwaite was taken by his father, a mine manager at Force Crag Mine near Keswick, to see the mines and befriend the mine lads (many little more than his own age) and to collect specimens. Similarly, Edmonds. who hailed from Bigrigg, an iron mining centre in West Cumbria, was surrounded by the industry as a child and worked in the mines for a short time as a young man. Local knowledge It is an obvious, but very relevant point. that all these
amateurs were working on their home ground and, hence, developed invaluable local knowledge. Five of the six were native Cumbrians who lived all their lives within a short radius. Shackleton was an incorner, who was drawn to the area by climbing as a young man and spent most of his adult life there. All of them spent long lives collecting, observing and recording - 50, 60 or even 70 years, in fact. The value of local knowledge must not be underestimated and was a major factor in the influence of these amateurs. Supplementary income Several of these six men supplemented their income from geological activities. It is difficult to measure the importance of this for individuals. For Otley and Ruthven it may have been quite significant. Otley is remembered most for his guidebooks to the Lake District. They really began in 18I8 when he published his topographical map of the district. He used this to accompany the first edition of the guide, A concise description of the English Lakes and adjacent mountains, in 1823. This contained his essay on the geology of the district. It cost 4 shillings and 6 pence and sold 600 copies. Eventually it was revised and ran to eight editions in the period up to 1849, selling over 8000 copies in total. Available records from Ruthven's life indicate he had a substantial sideline supplying rock, fossil and mineral specimens to order for collectors and academics nationwide. He was commissioned by Sedgwick to search and collect for him, notably in the northern Lake District on the Skiddaw Group rocks where there are records, for example, of Ruthven spending weeks in the summer camping on the fells searching for fossils. We do not know whether monetary gain was important to Bolton, Postlethwaite,
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and Shackleton, all of whom published books that became good sellers. Postlethwaite's Mines and Mining in the English Lake District remained in print for several decades and Shackleton's two guides Lakeland Geology (1966) and Geological Excursions in Lakeland (1975) captured the popular, and, importantly, the visitor market, from 1966 to around 1980. There were undoubtedly returns from all of these. For Edmonds, on the other hand, geology was a love and a passion. He never became involved in writing for the commercial market. The inspiration of the Lake District landscape
For all six, a love of the Lake District and a particular love of walking and climbing the fells impinged directly on their geological activities. Otley was a well known local guide and leader of visitors to see the wonders of the district, from the beginning of the nineteenth century. Shackleton came to the Lake District to climb and, in his early years, worked practically full-time as a local guide. Much of Bolton's geology was done on his 'rambles', which he pursued over many years. Contact with professionals
The influence and inspiration provided by contact with professional geologists and academics accounts for a great deal in the success of these six amateurs. Professionals provided academic stimulation, channels for exchange of ideas, encouragement, direction and, in many cases, access to scientific facilities. Links with the professionals enabled their work to be verified, made more scientifically secure and brought to the attention of the geological 'establishment'. From the earliest years of Otley's work on Lakeland geology, he corresponded with the 'great and the good' in the scientific community. He wrote regularly to George Airy, the then Astronomer Royal; to John Phillips the Museum Curator at York; and to the chemist John Dalton who helped, for example, by analysing gases and vegetation material which Otley collected from the floating island in Derwentwater. More particularly, Otley had an almost 30-year long close professional relationship with Adam Sedgwick. It was Otley who first introduced Sedgwick to the northern Lake District, first guiding him round the district in summer excursions in 1823 and 1824 and feeding his local knowledge unselfishly to Sedgwick. It was Otley who, as early as 1820, had seen that the Lower Palaeozoic inlier of the central Lake District was made up of three distinct groups of rock, later explained in detail by Sedgwick. Otley only gained national recognition through Sedgwick. Sedgwick (1831) acknowledged the help he had received from Otley and, in 1836, in a paper to the Geological Society of London entitled 'Introduction to the General structure of the Cumbrian Mountains', he says ' ... we owe our first accurate knowledge of these subdivisions to Mr
Jonathan Otley of Keswick, who not merely described them in general terms but gave their geographical distribution with a very near approach to accuracy' (Sedgwick, 1836, p. 49). Both Bolton and Ruthven were also friends of Sedgwick. Both collected specimens for the great man and acted as his local assistants. Bolton named his house in the village of Swarthmoor in Furness, 'Sedgwick Cottage'. He was clearly inspired by the man and Sedgwick recognized the value of Bolton's meticulous site records. Ruthven likewise was highly regarded by Sedgwick, taking him on excursions to Wales in 1846 and 1851 and to Scotland in 1848. Sedgwick (1845, p. 445) described him as a 'famous fossil collector, once cobbler ... now a geologist, whose fame will last longer than the stoutest shoe that ever came off his ancient last'. Two years later Sedgwick wrote to Harkness, I advise you to go to Kendal and call on John Ruthven, the well known collector of northern fossils (Palaeozoic); he knows the country well and as far as I know is the only person to have found fossils in the Skiddaw Slates' (Adams, 1984). Sedgwick clearly used Ruthven to collect for him. In 1847 he asked Ruthven to go to the Keswick area to search for fossil remains. Ruthven spent some time in a tent at White Stones on Skiddaw that summer hunting for fossils. The work of Postlethwaite was greatly enhanced by his friendship first with Clifton Ward and later with John Goodchild, both Survey geologists resident in the northern Lake District after 1869. The young energetic Ward was a near neighbour of Postlethwaite in Keswick and the two collaborated particularly on the mines and mineral deposits of the area. Postlethwaite's first-hand practical knowledge of the mines and his detailed local knowledge of the exposures and of the mining community were invaluable to Ward. Much of Postlethwaite's knowledge fed through to Ward's Geological Survey Memoir The Geology of the Northern Part of the English Lake District published in 1876. Ward's field-notebooks (Ward, l870~1874), still preserved in the British Geological Survey archives at Keyworth, record much detailed material that he gleaned from Postlethwaite. Postlethwaite was also inspired by Goodchild to pursue studies of the graptolite and trilobites of the Skiddaw Group. He spent many hours in the field searching for specimens and he acknowledges Goodchild's help in identifying some of them. Jointly their work put on record details of some of the most important finds of these species, many of which are now in the Natural History Museum, London and the Fitzwilliam collection in Cambridge. Postlethwaite went on to build on the work of Ward by more detailed studies of many of the small intrusions of the northern Lake District, linking up with another academic, T. G. Bonney, who completed the chemical analysis of his specimens and acknowledged his work. Postlethwaite clearly established his credibility with the academic community and, by the time one of his final papers with T. G. Bonney, 'The Cleaved
THE AMATEUR IN LAKE DISTRICT GEOLOGY
Ashes and Breccias of the Volcanic Series of Borrowdale' (Postlethwaite, 1891) had been published, Postlethwaite had become a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. No clearer example of the professional-amateur link can be found than the relationship between Edmonds and Shackleton and the staff of the Geological Survey. The decision after World War I to establish a Regional Office of the Survey in Whitehaven in November 1920 was a landmark for Cumbrian geology. Along with Manchester, Newcastle and York, Whitehaven was chosen as one of four new centres to hasten the revision of the maps of the English coal fields. Not only did the establishment of this office focus professional attention on the geology of the West Cumbrian coal field and to the haematite and other economic resources, it raised the profile of geology in the whole area and in the community. The office became a meeting point for people with geological interests. The Survey geologists, led initially by Bernard Smith and later by Tom Eastwood, kept open-house for interested amateurs. Many a time Charles Edmonds and his son James were there talking geology. Interestingly, his son later joined the Survey as a professional geologist. Edgar Shackleton teamed up with Edmonds and, inspired by the legacy left by the Survey workers in West Cumbria, led local excursions. They brought together a small group of amateurs who became the West Cumberland Geology Group and later transformed this into the Cumberland Geological Society. Shackleton frequently recounted Edmond's encyclopaedic knowledge of every quarry from Millom to Alston Moor to which he had travelled by train, bus, bicycle or on foot. Edmonds began his observations around 1910, first on the Carboniferous Limestones in West Cumbria but extending eventually across the county. He had long discussions with Dr Arthur Vaughan and his co-workers at the University of Bristol, who had established a zonation of the limestones in the Avon Gorge. His work, collaborating also with Professor Edmund Garwood at University College, London, enabled a correlation to be established between West Cumbria, the Pennines and the Carboniferous elsewhere in Britain. His key paper (Edmonds, 1922) lacked the detailed photographs and maps of modern work, but his appendices listing the fossil finds of individual formations, together with the age ranges of the rugose corals present and a detailed list of the exposures, were invaluable contributions. Edmonds detailed work on the limestones of West Cumbria was heavily used by the Survey later and is firmly acknowledged in the Memoir work on the Whitehaven and Workington areas. Local societies
Many of these amateurs linked up with professionals through local scientific societies. As early as 1835 the Kendal Natural History and Scientific Society had
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been founded with Adam Sedgwick becoming its President in 1838. It was there that Sedgwick met John Ruthven. In a similar way the founding of the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society in 1870 brought together Postlethwaite, Ward and Goodchild. All these three men were also strongly associated with the Cumberland and Westmorland Association for the Advancement of Science and Literature whose members met regularly at various venues in the county after 1876. Perhaps, even more importantly for these amateurs, several of these societies published Proceedings and scientific papers, providing a direct incentive and opening-up an avenue to wider recognition. Much of Postlethwaite's work, in particular, was published by the Cumberland and Westmorland Association. In later years, Edmonds and Shackleton were the 'founding fathers' of the Cumberland Geological Society in the early 1960s, and this gave Shackleton, in particular, an outlet for his writing, a platform for his talks and a chance to spread his local field knowledge with local excursions. The Cumberland Geological Society and the Westmorland Geological Society, founded later in the 1970s, have done sterling work over the years as institutional bases for 'amateur' geology in the county. In recent years members of the societies have extended their 'amateur' expertise into the field of geological conservation, with the establishment and lively activity of The Cumbria Rigs Group and the newly established Cumbria Geoforum. Publications
The fact that all these six amateurs were able to publish their work was of key importance in their recognition. Most of them found local outlets first, through local publishers or local society proceedings. All of them can be categorized as 'popularizers' of geology. They seemed keen to convey their local knowledge and experience back to the non-specialist, popular market and, in particular, to the visitors and tourists to the Lake District. Otley, the earliest of these amateurs, was writing primarily as a guide-book author in the early nineteenth century, encouraging the visitor to explore the wonders of the Lake District and to observe some of the geological and other scientific aspects of the landscape. Apart from the rocks his guides contained material on the botany, natural history and meteorology. Ruthven's geological map (1855) came in a neat linen envelope and was designed to be carried round by the visitor. It was also included in a neat folded format in Harriet Martineau's well-known guide book, A Description of the English Lakes, published in 1858. Postlethwaite's Mines and Mining in the English Lake District was a popular, non-specialist guide. In the preface to the second edition (1889, p. ii), he writes ' ... I trust that it may be of some service, not only to those who are interested in mining, but also to the annually increasing body of tourists who visit the Lake District in search of health and recreation, and at the same time
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to become more fully acquainted with its mineral resources ' . Shackleton's two book s (1966 and 1975) were unashamedly aimed at the beginner and amateur. His Lakeland Geology was subtitled ' Where to Go. What to See'. In his introduction Ip , 9), he says' ... Over the years I have spent much time in leading geological excursions and in teaching the subject to ord inar y people' . He wrote in excursion-gu ide format and in straightforward easy-to-re ad langu age.
Outsiders As well as being 'amateurs' under the definition already discussed, all six men remained 'o utsiders' of the geological establishment. In spite of their undoubted success and recognition by the establishment in various obvious ways, none of them joined it by renouncing their employment status. none gained paid status as profe ssional geologists and none of them moved from their Cumbrian bases . The early amateurs Otley, Bolton and Ruthven had few of the more recent opportunities for establishment recognit ion open to them . All three were recognized in print with frequent citations of their wo rk and public acknowledgements of their contributions by such establishment figures as Sedgwick. Otley was asked to speak twice at the Manchester Literary and Philos ophical Society (Otley, 18l9a. b), beyond that, however. public recognition was limited. For the three later amateurs oth er means had become available for the geological establishment to recognize their contributions. Both Postlethwaite and Edmonds had some of their work publ ished in wha t tod ay would be regarded as major cited research journals (Quart erly Journal 0/ the Geological Society and Geological Magazine) . Th e Geological Society of London honoured all three with award s, Postlethwaite and Edmonds with the Lyell Medal and Shackleton with the R. H. Worth Prize. Edm ond s gained lasting recognit ion for a palaeontologist by having two Carboniferous corals named after him - Nemistium edmondsi and Orionastraea edmondsi from specimens he found at Eskett and Clints quarries near Egremont. Edmonds also received an Honorary MSc degree from the University of Durham. All were involved in 'establi shment' events and clearly mingled with the geological community at the height of their careers. Postlethwaite acted as a supplementary guide for a visit to the Lake District by the Geologists' Association in 1900 (Pro ceedings 0/ the Geologist's Association, 16, pp. 531-532). Edm ond s read a paper at the International Geological Congr ess in 1936 and was a leader on the Geologi sts' Association long
excur sion to West Cumbria in 1925 (Smith et al., 1925). Shackleton served on the Region al Comm ittee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and was a regular extra-mural lecturer for the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
5. CONCLUSIONS All these six am ateurs made their mark in their da y. None received national recognition o r notoriety. but, locally, Lakeland geology would not have progressed in the same way without their contributions. Th ey were all able to build up local expertise in ar eas that they could cope with - sectors of geology that would be regarded as 'low cost'. In essence, they all became acclaimed field geologists, drawn by a love for the subject and committed to scientific enqui ry. These six were by no means the only amateurs on the scene in the early days of Lakeland geology . The eminent Victorian, John Ruskin, must be regarded as an early Lakeland geological 'amateur'. He found rocks. minerals and fossils to be of philo sophical and aesthetic interest. His or iginal collection may have had some 3000 specimens. man y of which are still to be seen at his Lakeland home . Brant wood at Coniston. which is now open to the public and devoted to an appreciation of his life and work s. Ru skin 's secretary. W. G . Collingwood was equally involved on the amat eur scene. His well known book, The Lake Counties. has man y geological references and he clearl y felt it necessary to include a special article on the district' s geology (although admittedly written by a profe ssional). Jo seph Harrison Fr yer. who lived in Keswick, assisted several notable visiting geologists. notably Bakewell, Sedgwick and Buckland and was also involved in the compilation of earl y maps of the district. Lastly. mention must also be made of 1. F. N . Green , a man of very independent mind who researched indefatigably on a variety of Lakel and geological topi cs in the early twentieth century, challenged the geological establishment (largely unsucces sfully), but made his mark (Bennett, 2001). There is much left to research and many others yet to be investigated.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Professor Richa rd J . Howarth and Pro fessor David R. Oldro yd for the extremely constructive and valuable comments they made on the original draft of this paper.
REFERENCES Ada~ns.' D.W. 1984.. Adam Sedgwick and his Kendal Dl s~lples . Proceedings of !Iz~ Westmorland Geological
Society. 3(4), 36--38. (The ongmal letter from Sedgwick to Ha~kne~s in l 847 is in the S~d g~ick pap ers, Cambridge University Libr ar y; a cop y exists 111 the Co unty Library.
Kend al. Th e Ad am s' paper reviews the Sedgwick correspondence with Harkness, Ruthven and others.) Bennet t. M. 2001. John Frederick Norm an Green (1875-1 949). In (Smith. R.A.; ed .) The Rock Men. Cumberland Ge ological Society, Keswick, 152-1 54.
THE AMATEUR IN LAKE DISTRICT GEOLOGY
Bolton, J. 1978. Geological fragments collected principally from Rambles among the rocks of Furness and Cartmel. D. Atkinson and Whittaker and Co., Ulverston and London. (Reprinted by Michael Moon, Whitehaven.) Collingwood, W.G. 1932. The Lake Counties. Dent, London. (Revised edn. published by Frederick Warne, London, containing special article on The Building of the Lake District by Bernard Smith, pp. 228-241.) Edmonds, e. 1922. The Carboniferous series of West Cumberland. Geological Magazine. 59, 74-83, 117-131. Marr, J.E. 1916. The Geology of the Lake District. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Martineau, H. 1974. A Description of the English Lakes. Simpkim Marshall & Co., Windermere. (Reprinted by EP Publishing Ltd, East Ardsley, Wakefield.) Otley, J. 1818. The District ofthe Lakes. A topographical map. (Sold originally in linen-mounted format in a pouch designed for the pocket. Later mounted inside the front cover of the various editions of the Otley guide-book from 1823 onwards. The scale of the map was approximately one inch to four miles.) Otley, J. 1819a. Account of the Floating Island in Derwent Lake, Keswick. Memoir of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Ser. 2, 3, 64. Otley, J. 1819b. Account of the Black Lead Mine in Borrowdale. Memoir of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. Ser. 2, 3, 168. Otley, J. 1820. Remarks on the Succession of rocks in the District of the Lakes, Lonsdale Magazine. 1, 433-438. (Also published in Philosophical Magazine, 56, 257-261 and subsequently in Otley, 1823.) Otley, J. 1823. A concise description of the English lakes and adjacent mountains. Simpkin Marshall & Co, London. (This was the first edition, it was progressively enlarged and went to eight editions up to 1849.) Postlethwaite, J. 1877. Mines and Minerals of the Lake District. published privately, Keswick. (Originally read as a paper to the Keswick Literary and Scientific Society on January 19, 1874, Copies of this first edition are rare.) Postlethwaite, J. 1889. Mines and Mining in the (English) Lake District. Samuel Moxon, Leeds. Postlethwaite, J. 1891. The Cleaved Ashes and Breccias of the Volcanic Series of Borrowdale. (With an Appendix by T. G. Bonney, On the structure of some Volcanic Ash from the Borrowdale Series, 53-54.) Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Association for the Advancement of Science & Literature, 16,41-53. Postlethwaite, J. 1975. Mines and Mining in the English Lake District. W.H. Moss, Whitehaven. (Reprinted by Michael Moon, Beckermet, Cumbria.)
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Ruthven, J. 1855. The scale of the map was approximately one inch to three and a half miles. Geological Map ofthe English Lakes and adjoining country. geologically coloured (with the map was a Description of the Geological Map of the Lake District to which is added a list of the fossils and the localities where found). E. Stanford and John Garnett, London and Windermere. (There is much debate and further necessary research to be done about early geological maps of the Lake District. The Ruthven map was not the earliest, but it was certainly one of the most accessible and widely available. J.H. Fryer, Jonathan Otley and Adam Sedgwick also produced maps of various kinds of the district. There were county maps of Cumberland and Westmorland by William Smith pre-Ruthven too.) Sedgwick, A. 1831. Address to the Geological Society, February 18th, 1831. Proceedings of the Geological Society of London. 1(20),281-316. Sedgwick, A. 1836. Introduction to the General Structure of the Cum brian Mountains; with a description of the Great Dislocations by which they have been separated from the neighbouring Carboniferous Chains. Transactions of the Geological Society, 4(ser. II), 47-68. Sedgwick, A. 1845. On the Comparative Classification of the Fossiliferous Strata of North Wales with corresponding deposits of Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire. and Proceedings of the Geological Society of London, 4, 576-584 & Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society. 1, 442-450. Shackleton, E.H. 1966. Lakeland Geology. Dalesman Publishing Co. Ltd., Clapham, Yorkshire. Shackleton, E.H. 1975. Geological Excursions in Lakeland. Dalesman Publishing Co. Ltd, Clapham, Yorkshire. Smith, B., Dixon, E.E.L., Eastwood, T., Edmonds, e. & Hollingworth, S.E. 1925. A sketch of the geology of the Whitehaven District. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. 36, 37-75. (A limited edition of this paper was issued in advance of the publication of the material in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association in booklet form. G.M. Davies, Edward Stanford, London.) Smith, R.A. (ed.) 2001. The Rock Men: Pioneers of Lakeland Geology. Cumberland Geological Society, Keswick. Ward, J.e. 1870-1874, Unpublished field notebooks of James Clifton Ward for his field survey of the Northern Lake District, Keswick, British Geological Survey archives, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth. Ward, J.e. 1876. The Geology of the Northern Part of the English Lake District. Memoir of the Geological Survey of England and Wales.
Manuscript received 15 July 2002; revised typescript accepted 11 April 2003