Appendix 2

Selected historical information from the archives 1994-2003.

1994

The Society organised the official re-opening of Rifle Butts SSSI on the morning of 19^th March after the construction of the shelter.  In the afternoon there was a joint meeting with the Yorkshire Geological Society at the Grammar School Museum, with lectures on geoconservation topics. There was a visit to Rifle Butts the week before to clean the exposure.

The retiring President Judith Bryce was leaving the area to take up a professorial role at the University of Bristol and was given leaving presents by members of the Society.

Beverley Borough Council had accepted the nominated RIGS sites and incorporated them into its Structure Plan. Hull museums purchased a filing cabinet to house the East Yorkshire RIGS records with funds donated by the Society.

It was agreed that the money remaining after paying for the construction of the Rifle Butts shelter should be kept for maintenance of the site and an account established with the Officers as signatories. £45 was donated to the YWT for the printing of an information leaflet about the site.

Mike Horne organised a Microscopy Evening at the University with the help of Jim Darmody and Dick Middleton. Festive refreshments were provided during the interval at the December meeting, when Lynden Emery showed videos of New Zealand geology.

New members were Pete Montgomery of Lisset, Julie Relf of Cottingham, Donald Hunt of Helmsley, Heather Rayfield of Hull Museums, Elaine Benton of Bridlington, John Toffolo, Miss M Frost of Withernsea and Alan and Pat Staniforth of Thornton Dale. Wilf Whitaker was the new member on the Committee.

1995

In January the Society agreed to pay for the annual postage for 50 copies of Down to Earth published by Geosupplies in Sheffield. This magazine was distributed free of charge to members at meeting, but members were asked to donate 20p towards the new postage charge when they collected their copy. After several years of trying to find a more economical Public Liability Insurance the Society obtained it through the umbrella policy of the Geologists’ Association for affiliated societies.

The Committee decided that the Society should create some internet pages and also discussed asking members if they would like a long-distance weekend field trip to the Isle of Wight, Dorset or the Cotswolds.

The East Yorkshire RIGS Group agreed that four sites should be taken off the list because they had existing permissions for landfill and three of them were nearly full. Four joint HGS and EYRIGS Group field trips were included in the Summer Programme to inspect some of the sites. Twenty six of the 37 original sites were visited and six new sites had been added to the list.

Lynden Emery stood down from the YGS Council. Mavis May had taken on the organising of the YGS Annual Dinner. Their December meeting was commemorating the 200^th Anniversary of the Wold Newton Meteorite.

New members were Paul Forster of Guisborough, Martin Chambers of Preston, Gordon Binns and family of Hull, Rob Widders of South Ferriby, Stephen Whitaker of Hull and Barrie Heaton of Little Weighton. Ken Bailey was the new member of the Committee.

1996

The HGS contributed to a Yorkshire Geology Week in July organised by the YGS, including a Roadshow. However Hull Museums had introduced an admission fee so it was agreed that there would be free admission to the Roadshow in the Town Docks Museum.

Patrick Boylan delivered the last Kenneth Fenton Memorial Lecture at the AGM and Ken’s widow Phil attended the meeting. The topic was “Human Remains as Sacred Objects”. The joint meeting with the YGS in October about “Recent Research in Eastern Yorkshire” was very successful and the HGS presented Janet Binns with a small gift to show our appreciation for the catering she and her family had provided.

New members included Lorraine Graham of Cottingham, Jack Doyle of Hertfordshire, Keith Dawson of Anlaby, Arnold Webb of Hull,  Ian Caldwell of Ferriby, Michael Goltz of Grimsby, Gordon Ostler of Hull and Ken Walker of Hull. Chris Blackhurst was the new member on the Committee, Chris had joined as a family member with Gordon Binns in 1995.

1997

The Member’s Evening was held at the Grammar School Museum which was otherwise closed for the winter. The guest speaker could not attende the AGM so Felix Whitham and Mike Horne presented short talks. There was a field meeting on the North York Moors Railway led by Lynden Emery and the train was hauled by the famous Sir Nigel Gresley locomotive. A new geology display opened at the Hull and East Riding Museum and the HGS was invited to a preview evening by Heather Rayfield.  HGS members had been consulted in the planning stage and Felix Whitham loaned some specimens. Although the display was intended to be there for ten years it still has not changed.

New members included Phil Wood of Market Rasen, Polly Kirk of Barton on Humber, Ray Lee of Leeds, Paul Taylor of London, Mary Gill of Hull and Karl Humphrey of Aldbrough. Ron Harrison and Mavis May stood down from the Committee and the new Committee member was Gordon Binns. The Secretary commented at the AGM that there was now an all male Committee and worried that geology should not be seen to be a “lad’s hobby”.

1998

Heather Rayfield who had created the Geology display at the Hull and East Riding Museum left and was replaced by Matt Stevens.

The Society adopted a Data Protection Policy although the HGS did not have to register under the new law.

The Society received some windfall shares from the demutualisation of the building society that our Rifle Butts investment, and a new Conservation Fund was created at the AGM. Later that year the Charity Commission informed the Society that the Conservation Fund should not have separate trustees, so this was rectified at the following AGM.

The Society sent a delegate to the first UKRIGS national Annual Conference.

Eric Robinson had written to the HGS urging us to write an urban geology trail leaflet. Honorary member Ansell Dunham passed away, shortly after his retirement as a Professor at Leicester University. He had bequeathed some books to the Society and these were donated to Hull Museums.

New members included Sue Wardell of Hull, Paul Hildreth of Brigg, J Grant of Flamborough, Martin Longshaw of Grimsby, A F Clapham of Lincoln ,Rosemary Langton of Hull,  Frank Andrews of Middlesbrough and Nigel Whittington of Hull.  Bob Head was the new member on the Committee and Ken Bailey resigned from the Committee.

1999

At the AGM it was agreed that Nigel Whittington’s website should be adopted as the Society’s official website and that he should be editor of our website. It was agreed that we should publish articles from Humberside Geologist on the website once they had been edited and Nigel asked the Computer Centre at the University to scan past numbers of the journal. Humberside Geologist number 12 was published with an editorial by David Hill. The AGM agreed that the Society should have a Safety Policy. The Secretary was asked to keep members up to date with Society news via e-mail.

New members elected to the Society included Stan Lumb of Bradford, Lawrence Sherrington of Glasshouses, Trish Hugill of Bridlington, John Coish of Kirkella and Matt Stevens of Hull Museums. Paul Hildreth was the new member of the Committee. Honorary member Mark Piasecki and Peter Graves died.

2000

The safety policy was drafted by David Hill and Mike Horne and approved at the AGM. It was also agreed that field trip leaders should complete a written risk assessment, Mike Stanley and Mike Horne designed the form. A standing sub-committee of editors was elected for the first time at the AGM.

Humberside Geologist number 13 was published with sponsorship from Singleton Birch, arranged by Paul Hildreth. Gordon Binns produced and sold a HGS Calendar and donated the profits to the Society.

A new RIGS Group was launched for the Ryedale and Scarborough area. The East Yorkshire RIGS Group was planning to designate some educational sites in Hull.

New members included Paul Richards of Hull, Stuart Jones of Hull, Ian Broadwell of Skirlaugh, Tony Hibbert of Cottingham and Yvette Grindley of Southampton. Nigel Whittington was the new member on the Committee as the first Website Editor. Mick Stanley, Bob Head and Jim Darmody resigned from the Committee. Honorary member Lewis Penny and Margaret de Boer (the wife of George de Boer) passed away.

2001

The Treasurer started to reclaim the tax paid by members on their subscriptions and donations as Gift Aid so there was no need to increase the subscription rates. Gordon Binns produced some HGS Logo transfers for members to iron on to tee shirts and he also asked member to contribute images for his 2002 HGS calendar. Nigel Whittington and Ian Heppenstall represented the Society at meetings of the newly formed Humber Management Scheme Advisory Group.

Two memorial meetings were held: a lecture by Steve Temperley as a tribute to Mark Piasecki and joint meeting with the YGS on “the Pleistocene World” as a tribute to Lewis Penny.

The Society was becoming concerned about the stability of the exposure at Rifle Butts SSSI. The planned visit to inspect the site had to be postponed because the site was closed because of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the area. The foot and mouth outbreak also limited our summer field meetings and meant that an invitation to adopt the geological exposure at Kiplingcotes Nature Reserve was delayed.

New members included Mr & Mrs Astrop of Hull, Ian and Mary Heppenstall and William Cooper of Retford. Barrie Heaton was the new member on the Committee. Nigel Whittington was elected as the first Publicity Officer, previously that role had been undertaken by the Secretary. Honorary member Ted Wright and Cyril Dutton passed away. Lynden Emery retired from the Committee because he was moving to Somerset and Felix Whitham resigned as Treasurer and handed over the role to Barrie Heaton.

2002

In January 2002 the Brynmor Jones Library (BJL) at the University of Hull informed the Society that they planned to remove 80% of the geology books and offered to return any donated by the Society, including the Society’s Library that had been transferred there if we could provide a list of the books within five weeks, which we could not do. Huw Griffiths represented the Geography Department on the Library Management Committee and agreed to liaise between the HGS and the Library. The BJL eventually agreed to donate any of the books removed to the Society and members of the Society visited the Library to select and collect the books that were then stored at the home of Stuart Jones. A library Sub-Committee was formed. Stuart sorted the books into categories and Paul Richards created a catalogue. Sadly Huw Griffiths died shortly after this.

The postponed Rifle Butts site inspection took place in March and whilst it was agreed that there had been movement behind the exposed face, the shelter itself had not been affected. Stuart Jones volunteered to repaint the lower parts of the structure but the whole structure was repainted by the YWT. The visit to Kiplingcotes Nature Reserve produced some suggestions for the geoconservation, and at a later site meeting the YWT representative agreed to include active geoconservation and access for geologists into the site management plan.

Some members started a research project investigating the Quaternary deposits of Flamborough Head.

New members were Colin Clark of Hull, Angela Kelham of Market Rasen, Patricia Williamson of Bridlington, Derek Gobbett of Wetwang, Harold Tabiner of Hull and Mike Scrimshaw of Hull. Stuart Jones was the new member of the Committee and he was asked to act as the Society’s Librarian.

2003

The catalogue of the HGS Library was produced as a CD-ROM by Paul Richards and the sub-committee had created rules for the loan of books to members and University staff and students. It was agreed that the books in the Library should not be insured but the Librarian could claim reasonable expenses from the Treasurer. The Brynmor Jones Library had cancelled the Society’s long established publication exchange with the United States Geological Survey.

It was agreed that Research Groups could be established by members of the Society on condition that they did not incur any expenses but could apply for grants from the Society for specific purposes and that meetings were advertised and open to all members thus covered by the Public Liability Insurance. The Society was concerned that the hedge in front of the exposure at Rifle Butts had been removed as it protected the exposure from rain from the south and obscured it from view from the road.

The joint meeting with the YGS was a tribute to the late Michael House, with John Neale giving the introductory talk. Members recorded the exposure of palaeo-karst features in Sands Top Quarry at Newbald before the pit was filled by the owners and the early results were displayed at the Michael House tribute meeting. Members also carried out a geological survey of the North Cave Wetlands later in the year.

New members included Nicholas Townley of Newark, John Clark of Keelby, Tim Langdale-Smith of Market Rasen, Allen Parker of Bonby and Stuart Bingley of Grimsby. Lynden Emery was elected as an Honorary Member of the Society. The new member of the Committee was Paul Richards.

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