On Wednesday 2rd April 2025,
Brian Kerr’s presentation “It’s a Hole – A big, big Hole: The Extraction Industry and the Bedfordshire Landscape”. Brian will be explaining how the geology of Bedfordshire has provided resources for a variety of extraction industries over a long period, the best known being the brick clay workings of the Marston Vale. Additionally, there are other less well-known mining and quarry operations mining coprolites, Fullers Earth and industrial sand from the landscape.
This has left Bedfordshire with a residue of abandoned mining sites which are now important as brown field development areas, nature reserves, and leisure facilities. His talk includes the hard rock quarrying of chalk and sandstone; the sand and quarrying industry based in Leighton Buzzard; and other extraction sites.
Tea / coffee / biscuits will be available at 7.45pm; and the Speaker usually starts at 8pm.