Leek Playday

Leek: Brough Park and wild times!

Wednesday 7th August

National Playday

A flurry of fossils and creativity at Leek Play Day! Lots of interest the trilobites, ammonites, belemnites and brachiopods from those who came to play. Stories were shared, tales of visits to Dorset and Whitby, where fossils had been spotted on the beaches.

Our very own coral sea, the ancient local landscape, has many treasures to offer to those who go seeking. 

One visitor told us of an ammonite in the stone near Waterhouses, another mentioned an ammonite in the nearby mobile museum bus! Lots of drawing, cutting and sticking resulted in creatures from the carboniferous and seascapes featuring the coral reef teeming with life. 

Report by Sarah Males: artist on the spot!

(Nearly 350 people visited the Ancient Landscapes stall!)

Wandering through Winnat's!

Tuesday 6th August

Winnat's Pass Walk

A report on our adventurous adventurers!

Hunting for Fossils!

A small band of explorers set off from Castleton Visitor Centre on a mission to find fossils in our ancient landscape. 

Winnat's Pass is a spectacular limestone gorge, full of caves and scree, providing the ideal location for rock and fossil hunting. As we walked up to the Pass, Jenny Gerrans from the National Trust pointed out Mam Tor, the mother mountain with a face of shivering shale overlaying the limestone. The remains of a bronze and early iron age hill fort can be seen in the landscape around the Tor and we thought this would be a good place to see right across the valley.

We soon reached the first of many little caves in the Pass. Little but big enough for us to get inside and some of us could even stand up! Very exciting, although rather dark. We found pieces of fossil in the stones around the cave entrance, then started to investigate the scree. 

One of our party found an age worn pound coin, not quite old enough to be a real fossil. 

Report by Sarah Males, artist, cave grubber and appreciator of fossils

Monsters from the limestone!

Images from a lovely day in Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Drawing, very loosely, from the animals of the ancient seas that gave us the limestone of the Peaks, we were making animal puppets

work began with drawings

this eurypterid will emerge from the page later

detail!

NEXT EVENTS AT END OF THIS BLOG

improvising

Annie, one of our artists, hard at work

a good way of involving everyone

next stage for that eurypterid

a spectacular Dunklosteus!

taking a trilobite for a walk

trilobite family

there were several large trilobites

a sort of cuttlefish eating a jellyfish

the eurypterid leaves!

Join us on one of the next Ancient Landscape events!

Winnat's Pass Walk

Date: Tuesday 6th August 2013

Meeting point: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, Castleton, Hope Valley S33 8WP

Times: 2 - 4pm

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: - car parking charges may apply

What's happening?

With National Trust Rangers, we will explore the geology of this dramatic gorge, meeting the millstone grit that eventually covered the limestone of the White Peak. A Stone and Water artist will help the group explore creatively: composing instant poems, making up wild stories about the cliffs and caves of the Pass.

This walk will last 2 hours, has some steep slopes and will not remain on paved surfaces. Strong footwear essential and clothing to suit the weather

Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Date: Wednesday 7th  August 2013

Venue: Brough Park, Leek (beside the Leek Leisure Centre)

Times: 11 - 3

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll be making personal finger-puppet trilobites and pet ammonites and models of ancient seasides…