Last weekend we were rock hunting on the north east coast of England, starting out at Runswick Bay on the Saturday, looking for fossils, and small flat shale pebbles for our upcoming Star Carr type pendant workshops.
We stayed near to Runswick Bay and that evening we headed to the Cod and Lobster for out tea. The following morning we set off to have a quick look around Whitby.
I suppose we are actually a ‘rock band’ as the thing that brought us together for this weekend was…rocks. From left to right, Laura, me, Stephen and Karen.
From Whitby it is approximately one hours drive to Barmston Beach, home of really nice tabular beach flint. According to my geology source (Stephen), this flint was carried over on glaciers from Scandinavia during the Pleistocene and deposited at Barmston when the glaciers melted. The flint was subsequently buried and is now being washed out by the encroaching sea.
Today, I am in Chester and I have brought about a dozen nodules with me for my teaching session this afternoon. I find these tabular pieces usually of good quality, unless they have been rolled a lot on the beach. They are also an ideal size for handaxe making, which coincidentally is this afternoon’s goal.