Geology Museums of Britain: Folkestone Museum, Kent
Jon Trevelyan (UK)
Recently, I spent a few days on my own down at one of my favourite fossil hunting sites – Copt Point and East Wear Bay in Folkestone. As readers probably know, the Gault Clay at Folkestone is a marine sedimentary deposit from the Lower Cretaceous (Albian) period, consisting mainly of dark grey to blue-grey silty clay, with occasional layers of silt and sand (or put another way: take your wellies if you visit after rain). It contains abundant and often very beautiful fossils, including ammonites, bivalves, and belemnites (see, for example, Fossils of the Gault Clay by Dr Neale Monks).
And of course, it is those fossils that make up some of the best exhibits at Folkestone Museum, which I also chose to visit before heading down to the mud and clay at the beach.
However, Folkestone Museum’s fossil exhibits showcase all of the rich geological history of the region – not just Gault specimens from Folkestone Warren and East Wear Bay, but also the nearby chalk cliffs and the Lower.
History
Folkestone Museum’s origins trace back to 1857, when local tradesmen purchased fossil enthusiast Samuel Joseph Mackie’s extensive collection for £33. This collection was then donated to the Town Council, leading to the establishment of a temporary museum in Tontine Street.
In 1868, the Folkestone Natural History Society, led by Henry Ullyett, advocated for a permanent museum. This culminated in 1888 with the museum’s relocation to the newly built library on Grace Hill. The museum remained at Grace Hill until 2007, when unfortunately, public interest in the museum declined and it was de-registered from the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. This decision led to the integration of some collections into the local studies library service.
But fortunately, a pressure group formed to persuade the town council to re-open the museum, which then used its town hall for the exhibits (Fig. 1). After significant refurbishment, the museum re-opened in May 2017. The artefacts, which had been kept in storage by the county council since the closing of the former museum site, were then gifted back to the town council and museum.
The museum itself is relatively small, so can easily be seen in an hour or two; and it’s a modern design and the exhibits are clearly exhibited. Unsurprisingly, not all of it is to do with geology (Fig. 2).
For instance, there is much on the local archaeology, for example, exhibiting Neolithic stone axes and bronze age ceramic pots (Fig. 3).
And there is the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon woman found in 1906 during road construction on Dover Hill, where a cemetery containing 36 graves was unearthed (Fig. 4).
There are also Roman remains (Fig. 5) – for example, there was a Roman fort above where the Gault fossils can be found at Copt Point.
Fossil exhibits
However, as I said, I went for the fossils and there are some great exhibits (Fig. 6), including a dinosaur footprint from the lower greensand (Fig. 7).
This is quite significant as it changes our view of the conditions that existed when these sediments were laid down. Clearly, at least for some of the time, these must have included beaches across which dinosaurs walked, perhaps scavenging for food. There is als0 a great example of a worm burrow (Fig. 8), showing what else there was under the dinosaurs’ feet.
The Gault fossils include all the usual suspects (Figs. 9 and 10), together with fishes (Fig. 11), lobsters (Fig. 12), a turtle and an ichthyosaur (Fig. 13).
However, perhaps my favourite was a glorious heteromorph ammonite. I’ve found many fragments of such ammonites at Folkestone, but this was extraordinary (Fig. 14).
And, as you would expect, it is the ammonites that shine in the museum (Figs. 15 – 17).
The museum’s fossils the Chalk include ammonites (Fig. 18), gastropods (Fig. 19) shark vertebrae (Fig. 20), and much more besides.
There are also fossils from elsewhere, but (for me at least) these are not as interesting as those with a more local provenance (Figs. 21 – 23).
John Griffiths
There is also a considerable amount on a local collector, John Griffths (1829–1911), who was a renowned fossil collector and often referred to as ‘The Warren Wanderer’. In fact, he played a pivotal role in the establishment of Folkestone’s first museum in 1858 and contributed significantly to its fossil collections. In addition to collecting, Griffiths crafted and sold ‘fossil puddings’, which were cemented assemblages of tiny ammonites and other fossil shells, marketed as seaside souvenirs (Fig. 24).
I would certainly recommend a visit to this museum. It’s free and well worth the effort.
| Details |
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| Address: 1-2 Guildhall St Folkestone CT20 1DY Phone: 01303 257946 |
Further reading
Book review: Fossils of Folkestone, Kent, by Philip Hadland
Ammonites and Other Cephalopods of the Lower Cretaceous (Gault Clay and Folkestone Beds) of the South East of England: A Visual Guide to Identification, by Frederick Howard Clouter and Jim Craig
The Palaeontological Association Field Guide to Fossils: Fossils of the Gault Clay: No. 12, by Jeremy R. Young, Andrew S. Gal, and Andrew B. Smith)
Fossils of the Gault Clay by Dr Neale Monks (UK)
Marvellous microfossils (Part 1): Collecting microfossils from Folkestone by Joe Shimmin
Marvellous microfossils (Part 2): The fascination of microfossils from the Gault of Folkestone by Joe Shimmin
Jim Craig’s brilliant website, Gault Ammonite.