SMCC > Collections > Geology > Charterhouse School Museum

Charterhouse School

Open: by appointment only
Size: 2000+ Specimens

Content:
British fossils with good collections in particular of SE England fossils: Lower Greensand, Chalk, Tertiaries, and in particular the (Folkestone) Gault. Notable amongst the non-local British material is a collection of Pleistocene mammal bones from the 'St.Asaph Caves' Clwyd, Old Red Sandstone fish (from Caithness), Carboniferous fossils, some fine Liassic fossils (incl. fish), plus Barton Bed and Hampshire Tertiary molluscs.

Foreign material includes Tertiary mammals from Argentina plus bones of the extinct moa Dinornis from New Zealand.

A fragmentary mineral collection includes a number of unusual minerals, and in addition there are drawers of rock specimens including specimens of volcanic lavas.

Approximately 15-20% of the collection is of local fossils, thus local geology is reasonably well represented. This includes Lower Greensand fossils (Atherfield Clay, Bargate Stone, and Perna Bed) from Littleton Brickworks, Compton and the Godalming By-pass excavations; local Gault; and Lower Tertiary Reading Beds and London Clay (Guildford-Godalming By-pass). In addition, there are collections of Quaternary (Pleistocene) mammal bone, presumed local, but less well documented.

Collectors:
Many are from the collections made by old boys of the school and are of late 19th.- early 20th.century date: Major N.S.Thornton (died 1918) [Folkestone Gault], Rev.William H.Webster, F.A.Lea [collected local LGS/Chalk fossils c.1932], George Staunton Barrow (c.1850), ? Rev.W.A.Shaw [local LGS fossils] etc.