Following on from the fascinating talk on the Brigham Smelter last week, members may be interested in the CATMHS Open Event on Saturday 7th December at Force Cafe, Ambleside, on the Mining History of the Lake District.

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Wednesday, 13 November, 2024 starts at 19:30
Zoom event will open 10 minutes prior to start time. Please attend via the link below
The Brigham Smelter in Keswick - Is this the Most Important Historic Industrial Site in Britain?
Speaker: Mark Hatton, (Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society)
Zoom meeting. Opens 19:20, 10 minutes before the scheduled event start time
In the year that William Shakespeare was born, men arrived in Keswick at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth I, to establish a Copper Mining & Smelting operation. These men came from Germany in 1564 bringingย technology far more advanced than had been seen in England before. They were granted patents to protect their technologyย & a monopoly to protect their business model. But the really radical thing was how much capital they had at their disposal and how that capital had been raised. Was this combination of technology, legal protection & large scale privateย capitalย the birth of Modernity in the British Isles and the beginning of the age of Capitalism ? This richly illustratedย talk looks at the evidence and leaves the audience to draw their own conclusion.
We would like to make members aware of a new book publication by Ian Jackson. The Rocks at the Edge of the Empire is about the influence of geology on the Romans and their northern frontier.
Proceeds from the book are going to The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne (www.newcastle-antiquaries.org.uk).
If you would like to order a copy please follow the following link: https://www.northern-heritage.co.uk/product/search/rocks-at-the-edge-of-empire. If you enter this code: NCLA15 it will discount the retail book price (ยฃ12.00) by 15% until 31 December 2024.
If you are in the region there are three launch events taking place:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/books-on-tyne-2024-the-newcastle-book-festival-tickets-1008421605167
Is now available in the Members Area, please navigate to 2024 lectures in the menu on the right side after logging in.
Wednesday, 9 October, 2024 starts at 19:30
Crosthwaite Parish Rooms
Main Street
Keswick
CA12 5NN

Outline: This talk examines how the concept of global glaciation in Late Precambrian (Neoproterozoic) time has evolved over the past century and more, culminating in the controversial theory of “Snowball Earth”. We take a brief look at the fieldwork we undertook in Svalbard and East Greenland in the 1970s and 1980s and then again in the 2010s. However, mostly we focus on our recent field investigations, led by Tony Spencer, on the remarkably well-preserved glacial strata on the Garvellach Islands and the Isle of Islay in western Scotland, and offer some insights into what might be appropriate modern analogues of that ancient glaciation. This work is currently being worked up for a Memoir of the Geological Society.
The presenter: Mike Hambrey is Emeritus Professor of Glaciology at Aberystwyth University, and resident of Threlkeld. He has published extensively on the topic of Neoproterozoic glaciation, particularly in the Arctic, but also has research interests in contemporary glaciology. His latest book, “Our Frozen Planet” is due to be published on 23rd October, and is a photographic journey through the world of snow and ice, with emphasis on climate change.
Please register your interest to attend via the link below
Exploring the evidence for Snowball Earth in Scotland and the North Atlantic region: a tale of Late Precambrian ice ages