Pictured – handing over the journals at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Science store at the AG Brighton building. After 19 years of giving a home to Thomas Ruddy’s fascinating journals, and having transcribed most of the journals fully, and taken notes on the final three to cope with fading eyesight, the journals have at last found a home where they can be properly housed, conserved and consulted by researchers. Their destination could not be more appropriate, and I’m most grateful to the Archivist of the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge for her interest and encouragement over the years.
Thomas never visited Cambridge, but his mentor and collaborator over many years was Thomas McKenny Hughes, who in 1873 succeeded Adam Sedgwick as Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_McKenny_Hughes McKenny Hughes’ expeditions with Ruddy over many years are documented in this blog (see Category) He was often accompanied by his wife Mary Caroline, herself a very competent geologist. Her presence enabled other female geologists and enthusiasts to take part in expeditions led by Ruddy, who seemed particularly welcoming and concerned for the women who showed interest in his passion for geology.
Following Sedgwick’s death, McKenny Hughes began to consider and plan for a new museum which would also be a working research institution to honour his mentor, Sedgwick. His plan finally came to fruition with the opening of the building in 1904. From Wikipedia:
The building of the present Sedgwick Museum on Downing Street was supervised by McKenny Hughes. McKenny Hughes was particularly skilled in the art of persuasion and had no trouble negotiating and cajoling the University to consider erecting a new museum, as a permanent memorial to Adam Sedgwick. He raised over £95,000 through public subscription towards the construction of the new Museum.
Recently a new facility has been opened at the Madingly Rise Site in Cambridge which works as the ‘back office’ of the Sedgwick, and it is here to the AG Brighton Building that I was able to take the remaining journals and a few other items of interest. Sandra, the Archivist gave a fascinating tour of the many and varied items stored there, including some relating to the Hughes’s.
One of the items I was able to deposit was a magnificent example of Ruddy’s geological draftsmanship. This now fragile document was probably created when Ruddy displayed some of his Bala Fossils to members of the International Geological Convention in 1888 (see related post).
Playing the ‘Degrees of Separation’ Game. Otherwise known as ‘Lloyd George Knew My Father’. I enjoyed musing on this. Adam Sedgwick – Thomas McK Hughes (1) -Thomas Ruddy (2) – Revd. Henry Ruddy (3) – Revd. Denys Ruddy (4) – Revd. Wendy Carey [me](5). Honoured, I’m sure!
Thomas Ruddy’s Journals can be consulted by application to the Archivist at the Museum by bona fide researchers, Catalogued as RDDY001.001 -RDDY001.008
The Natural History Museum of Pretoria, South Africa, established 1895. Image used under Wikimedia Commons
Now in his 60’s Thomas was not this year engaged on any new geological projects. However, his settled status as an expert in his field and the provision of his display of fossils at Palé resulted in interest and contacts which reached beyond the British Isles. It is often not clear how these international links were established.
On July 6th Thomas received a box of specimens from the ‘Curator of Pretoria’ Mr. Tweddill; ‘magnetic iron ore, semi opal, gold ore, nephrite, staurolite, serpentine, scheelite, mostly from Swaziland. Also fossil gum, garnets, iron pyrites and specimen rocks from De Beer’s mines in Kimberley, also a beautiful stone hatchet made from a variety of jade which took a high polish. Sent via Mr Barr, a friend in the mining business all is specimens labelled with locality and date.’ Import and export conditions obviously didn’t apply at this date. Unfortunately, I have no idea where these specimens may have gone after Thomas’ death.
On Wednesday the 15th July there was a visit from Mrs and Miss Wheelwright, mother and daughter, to see the fossils. …. The young lady is a fair geologist and has been working up the Oolite at Bath, where they live. Miss W. has been reading for Bala birds, but all was new to her. ….. I gave her a few [birds eggs] I had, much to her delight. She is also a good botanist. Throughout the Journals it is interesting to see how many women geologists Thomas encountered, including encouraging the Robertson daughters from Palé Hall in the pursuit. It is encouraging to note that Thomas regarded them with an admirable degree of equality and seriousness, perhaps not always present in some scientific circles of the time.
On Monday the 3rd August Sir Henry asked Thomas to show the fossils to his guests Sir James and Lady Sawyer. Thomas and Sir James discussed at length the South African rock samples recently arrived. Sir James Sawyer (1844-1919) was a prominent Physician, knighted in 1885 for his medical work. He also had interest in agriculture and politics.
On October 31st‘Lieutenant Vaughan Wynn of Rûg was here; he wished to see the fossils, because he said my name was quoted at the military school when he was going through a course of geology. He was delighted to see the collection and could see the value of it, for he has given the subject matter study.’
On Saturday the 21st. Mr Cope, President of the Liverpool Geological Society gave me a call when passing in the afternoon. Mr Cope is working at the Greenstone and ash rocks of the district; petrology is his chief work, so that he is not much skilled in fossils. He was much pleased to see my collection, and was surprised at the extent of it and the perfection of the specimens.
Meanwhile, the family heard the sad news of the death of Thomas’ brother in law William Pamplin Williams at the end of July, at the early age of 54. In May the whole family were vaccinated against smallpox as there were cases in the village. The vaccination made Thomas ill with severe flu like symptoms and a sore arm slow to heal.
Henry, the eldest son by Thomas’ second marriage received his degree in maths from Aberystwyth and began studies at Jesus College Oxford. In December Thomas received news that Henry rowed for his college and was successful.
I begin with an apology to any readers still accessing this blog detailing the interesting life of a Victorian amateur geologist, Thomas Ruddy and his family. Like many other activities and projects, it was cut short by the onset of Covid. Whilst lockdown might have seemed the ideal time to continue to transcribe the journals and add to the blog, it didn’t happen like that.
However, I have a new determination to complete as far as I can, the work I took up when the Pamplin/Ruddy papers came so unexpectedly into my life in 2004. As I begin again with a degree of renewed energy and enthusiasm, it is good to look back at what has been achieved in securing the most interesting and valuable papers etc in various museums.
The journals of William Pamplin the elder (1768-1844) grandfather of Thomas’ second wife were accepted by the Garden Museum at Lambeth together with some other papers, where they have been on display. More recently, the letters of Harriett Dench, who married William, written whilst she was in south London and he was Gardener to Richard Crawshay of Cyfarftha were added.
I had several interesting exchanges with archivists at Cyfarftha Castle Museum regarding the two drawings made by Pamplin of Crawshay’s iron works. it is likely that these were drawn for Harriett, but censored by the imperious Crawshay on the grounds of potential industrial espionage.
Thomas’s award of the Kingsley medal of the Chester Society for Natural History and the accompanying letters were returned to their original home, the Grosvenor Museum, Chester.
Much material regarding William Pamplin the younger, Thomas’ great friend and later his uncle by marriage, was shared with a fellow researcher, and together with some letters and photographs still in my care will ultimately join the rest of William Pamplin’s papers in the National Museum of Wales. A pair of articles about Ruddy and Pamplin were published in the Journal of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust in 2018.
William Pamplin, National Museum of Wales, used with permission.
The passages in Thomas’ journal concerning the visit of Queen Victoria to Palé were shared with the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, resulting in my being given personal access to Queen Victoria’s own journals there.
My greatest delight, was of course the acceptance of Thomas Ruddy’s journals by the Sedgwick Museum Cambridge. Thomas never visited Cambridge, although some of his Ordovician and Silurian fossils made it into the Sedgwick via his collaborator and friend, Professor Thomas McKenny Hughes, Sedgwick’s successor and instigator of the Museum in Sedgwick’s honour. Three of the journals with online transcriptions available are already there, others are ready to go.
Delightedly handling one of Thomas’ specimens at the Sedgwick in 2018
In addition, I have been in touch with members of the Ruddy and Pamplin families with much mutual assistance and shared information, and with researchers, geologists and people who have found things of interest. The National Museum of Wales, The Royal Archives, The Natural History Museum and the Sedgwick, Cyfarthfa and Garden Museums and the Geological Curators Group have been helpful. It has been a fascinating and rewarding 18 years.
So, I hope to continue the story of Thomas and his family as soon as possible. Thank you for your continued interest if you are sticking with this blog.
Thomas Mellard Reade Liverpool University Library. No copyright infringement intended
Thomas was always keen to engage with a new interest, often when encouraged by a friend who was researching a different area of geology or topography from Thomas’ own Silurian interest. In 1892 he had assisted A.C. Nicholson of Oswestry, Shropshire, in details of Nicholson’s paper on glacial deposits, thus moving on many millions of years in geological time. Now, in 1898 a new interest appears, spurred by his friend Mellard Reade -the research of hilltop perhistoric fortifications, a topic that would continue to absorb Ruddy for several years following.
Saturday the 23rd [July] I left for Bala at 2.10 where I was met by my friend Mr Mellard Reade and his stepdaughter, Miss Taylor to take me to Cerrig-y-Druidion to be their guest until Monday afternoon.On arrival at Penybryn, their lodgings, we had a comfortable tea, which I much enjoyed. Penybryn is situated on the bank a short way from the Saracens Head inn. There is a Methodist chapel and a few houses between Penybryn and the Saracen with the brook which falls into the Ceirw river. After tea Mr Reade and I went to see the ancient encampment of Penygaer, locally called Penymount.
After some research, I estimate this to be the encampment now known as Caer Caeadog, SH967478.
Caer Caradog, photographed by Eirian Evans, via Geograph
Thomas gives a detailed description: The camp is of nearly circular form; about three and a half acres in extent and is surrounded by a deep trench, 6 feet in depth; the excavated shale and earth thrown up to make an embankment on the inner edge of the trench. The solid shale 7 yards wide is left to form an entrance over the trench on the east side; another entrance being left on the west side. The ground slopes moderately steep on the south east to west; there is but little slope from the north west to the east Mr Reade stepped the ground and I measured it with my yardstick; we made it 178 yards east to west by 143 yards north to south. The surface is glassy and moderately even. I could not see any water near. Part of the trench is through shale rock. I think there must have been a wall round it. There is now a stone wall through the middle of it north to south and walls are everywhere near it. It overlooks an old road, 150 yards off.
We had supper on our return and spent the rest of the evening happily together. I went to sleep at the Saracens Head because there was no room for me at the farmhouse of Penybryn.
The Saracen’s Head, now closed.
The following day, Sunday the 24th, Ruddy and Reade went for a walk on the hill of Rhos Gwern Nannau. It was a little cooler on the top, but the sun was very trying and I felt very thirsty. We had an extensive views from the top; West of us were Aran and the Areigs, North the Snowdonian mountains. There were interesting glacial terraces on the side of the hill one above another with great depth of drift. The boulders were of the Arenig type.
After tea they walked through the village, making geological and botanical observations as they went.. The road we followed was evidently the one used before the Holyhead road was made, all along the road in the wall and on the roadside were large and small boulders of conglomerate which puzzled us much; I have never seen such course conglomerate anywhere else in Wales. I first thought it might be a nodular ash rock which Ramsey describes in Vol III Geological Survey Page 93; but the boulders of the conglomerate were too plentiful to be from inconsiderable patches of ash rock, and they varied in composition from rather fine water worn pebbles to pebbles the size of eggs.
I found theTeesdalia plentifully on a wall beyond the village on the Denbigh road, and the birdsfoot (Ornithopus) in several places. Lipidium Smithii crow-wheat Hypericum humifusa, and Bog Asphodel on the way. After supper, we had much to talk about until bedtime. The walk was very enjoyable.
On Monday the 25th the two men continued their expeditions in the local area, taking note of the geology at every turn. Just on the south side of the stream there is gravel mound of much interest; this is Mr Reade wished me to see. It is composed of layers of fine sand and gravel of glacial origin. The top of the mound is 900 feet above sea level, and the mound is 35 feet in height. There are several others of the same sort, and one at Tynyfelin on the Glasfryn side. I found the water-worn pebbles large and small of Bala shale, Arenig ashes conglomerate etc. There were several large Arenig ash boulders on the side of the road crossing the Meadows.
We returned to be in time for dinner, and after dinner we all left in the trap for Corwen. We had a very pleasant drive of 10 miles along the Holyhead Road all the way and got to Corwen at 4 o’clock; then had tea and after some shopping I was driven to the station in time for the 5 o’clock train where my kind friends took leave of me and returned to Cerrig y Druidion.
Arenig Ash rock, photo Earthwise, British Geological Survey. No copyright infringement intended.
Thomas rarely, if ever, left his family home overnight. This short trip with a trusted geological friend was a rare opportunity for such enjoyment. Little did he know the tragedy that he would find infolding at home.
I have now been transcribing and researching Thomas’ journals for more than 15 years. It has been possible to keep going because of the sheer variety and interest that his jottings present. I usually concentrate these posts on a single issue, but perhaps it is time to record some edited extracts from a six month period to demonstrate the range of interests and events he chose to record.
NEWSPAPER COLUMNISTFriday, March 1. Mr Woodall very kindly sent me gratis a volume of Bye-Gones for the years 1893–4. He has now sent me three volumes, representing six years. All my own contributions to the Oswestry Advertiser are reprinted in Bye-Gones. I am very pleased to have the copies.
WEATHER REPORTERMarch Wednesday the sixth. The ice still unbroken on Bala Lake and the reservoir. The snow is now confined to hollows, sides of roads and fences where it is of great depth in many places.Saturday the 16th. We walked to Bodwenni Gate. It was very pleasant, very clear road almost all the way and the birds singing. Great snow wreaths in many places.
FATHER Palm Sunday (the seventh) Henry, Carrie and little Alfred with me over Palé hill. It was fine and sunny. Alfred walked well and was pleased to go. Saw the Ring Ouzel. Good Friday. The whole family of us over Palé hill, and very enjoyable it was. Great snow wreaths on the hills, and a yard deep at the little farm of Bwlchysafen at an altitude of 1054 feet.
GEOLOGIST On Wednesday the 17th. I had a visit from Mr Lake of Cambridge University and his friend Mr Groom from Herefordshire. They had luncheon and tea with us and spent most of the time inspecting my fossils. Both are keen geologists and we had a pleasant time together. They enjoyed the visit and left by the 4.6 train.
Fossil material collected by Thomas from the collection in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge.
FRIEND Thomas had befriended Thomas Mellard Reade as a fellow geologist, (see previous post) but in bereavement Reade chose to stay near to his friend Ruddy. Monday the 29th Frances and I met my friend Mr. Mellard Reade and his stepdaughter, Miss Taylor at the station. They came to spend a week at the Derfel to recruit their health, because Mrs Reade died the previous week. They were pleased to see us and we walked with them as far as the village. Wednesday, 1 May. I went over Palé hill with Mr Reade. We had an interesting ramble. Thursday the second. Mr Reade, Miss Taylor and I went to Sarnau, then on to Caeranucha and home by Bethel lane. It was very fine all the way. Saturday the 4th. I went to Sirior with Mr Reade. We examined some rather interesting glacial deposits and boulders. I had tea him at the Derfel where he lodges. Monday the 6th. Mr Reade and Miss Taylor returned home. They had very fine weather and much enjoyed their visit.
EMPLOYEEMonday the sixth [May]. Lady Robertson was safely delivered of her fourth daughter at 7:30 am. Both going on well.
Monday the 20th. Sir Henry and Col Burton [ Sir Henry’s brother in law] wished to see my collection of birds’ eggs. Col Burton knows much about them. He said my collection is very good and of much interest.
The Staircase Hall, Palé
NEIGHBOUR. Saturday the 25th. I went after tea as far as Garnedd to see the old farmer. I found him in a very weak state and not likely to live long. He was very pleased to see me, and I was very sorry to see him in such a weak state. We have been dealing in potatoes now for over 20 years.
LOCAL EVENTSTuesday the 28th Frances and I at Corwen where we spent most of the day after sale of furniture at Colomendy where the late Dowager Mrs Price of Rhiwlas lived for over 20 years. The articles were rather ancient, for the old lady was very saving body. Colomendy is a curious old place and house and gardens are much out of repair. It was very warm. I bid for a carpet and got it, and finished with that. Mr Owen of the White Lion Hotel kindly left it at Bryntirion here for me. We came home by the last train.
HUSBAND From their Geologically themed honeymoon onwards Frances Harriet seems to have been content to share her husband’s hobbies. Saturday the eighth. Frances and I went to Bala in the afternoon. We went along the side of the lake to Fachdeiliog boathouse. I searched for a sedge warbler’s nest there, but only found an empty whitethroat’s. I picked up two or three flint flakes by the lake on my return.
GUIDE. Thomas was always willing to act as guide to anyone who sought his instruction. Wednesday the 12th The Revd James Gracie came here on his bicycle from Bala College in the afternoon. I took him around the gardens, and after tea I guided him onto the top of Palé hill. The mountains were very clear, so I was able to show him Snowdon, Moelwyn, etc. I also showed him Moel Fammau. He was much pleased with the views, for he never saw Snowdon before. After supper he returned on his bicycle at 9 o’clock.
EXPERT Thomas was widely consulted as a horticultural expert. Thursday the 13th. I went by request to Bala College to see the grounds and give advice about the trees and shrubs. Principal Edwards, Prof Williams, and Mr Gracie went around with me. The Principal and Mr Williams were very nice and chatty all the time. Mr. Gracie came to the station to see me off.
PARENT Francis took the children in the evening to Bala to be photographed in a group.
CHESTER SOCIETY FOR NATURAL SCIENCEWednesday the 26th. Frances and Henry went to Arenig station to see Mrs Evans Jones. I was to have gone too, to act as one of the leaders to the members of the Chester Society of Natural Science, but as the excavation was a failure, I stayed at home. It was hot and hazy all day with thunder far away; not a good day for top of Arenig.
ORNITHOLOGISTSaturday the 29th.[June] Henry and I went to see the young cuckoo for the last time; it was almost ready to fly. Sunday the 30th. Henry and I along the railway as far as Garth Goch. We found the nest of a shrike with three eggs and a whinchats with five eggs, all fresh.
Sunday the seventh. We all went in the evening to see the swans and their cygnet on the river near Dolygadfa. The cygnet is much grown. It got onto its mother’s back for a time. We came home by the village.
POLITICAL COMMENTATOR. The General Election is now over, and the result has been a surprise to all concerned. The Conservatives have made a clean sweep of the Liberals, for they got into power with a majority of 152. There has not been such an election for many years. Many of the Liberal leaders have been defeated; even Sir W Harcourt, Mr Morley, Mr Shaw Lefevre, etc. The Welsh Radicals are quite dejected over it. They thought to disestablish the Church in Wales, but now it seems afar.
GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH. Monday the fifth. Bank holiday. My old friend Mr A.C.Nicholson of Oswestry and his brother paid us visit. We had them to luncheon and tea etc. I have been for some time arranging and naming parcels of fossil material from Gloppa, Old Oswestry and Sweeny for him and also for him and Mr. Cobbold of Church Stretton. The Church Stretton material consists of fossil Beds 1 to 2 inches each in thickness which have been found in an igneous rock; this igneous rock has been for a time passed off as Precambrian by two or three geologists. I find the fossils to belong to the base of the Caradoc series and the igneous rock to be a vassicular ash. I have named the fossils and made a report of the whole.
The Nicholsons and I spent most of our time in the fruit room packing the specimens to take home and examining and discussing my fossils. We spent a very interesting afternoon together. The fossils from Sweeny near Oswestry are from Boulder Clay; the fossils being of Llandeilo age. They occur in a black shale, rather soft and I found the Lingulella lepis common in it. This fossil has not been found south of the Berwyns, so that it is of much interest. My friends left by the 8.30
A page from Thomas’ Commonplace book – from the handwriting, written in older age.
St Nicholas Church Blundellsands, the area laid out by Thomas Mellard Reade
Although the major all-consuming interest in Geology which had marked Thomas’ early and middle years had somewhat given way to family concerns, and an ever widening interest in a number of natural history and historical/archaeological topics, in 1894, his fifty second year, Thomas continued to increase his circle of friendships with amateur geologists. His collection of fossils seems to have continued to be on permanent display in the ‘Fruit Room’, and callers both local and from further away visited to view them. Such visitors were usually also treated to a viewing of Thomas’ other collections, dried botanical species, birds’ eggs (alas!), coins and archaeological artefacts, many of which were brought to him by interested local to be added to the collections. Sir Henry Robertson seems to have been pleased to bring his guests to view the unusual and unexpected display.
There is little or no mention in the journals of the 1990’s of the Chester Society for Natural Science and its President, Professor Thomas McKenny Hughes, the researches around the identification of the Silurian strata of the Bala having been largely resolved, and the Society and its related Scientific Associations locally having moved on in their interests. Some of the members of the Chester Society who had most encouraged Thomas were elderly. His particular friend, George Shrubsole had died in July 1893.
However, it is clear that Thomas was in correspondence with a number of amateur geologists, probably because he had access to the Journal of the Geological Association – although he does not mention this point. I have already referred to his friendship with and assistance to A.C. Nicholson of Oswestry, whose paper on glacial drift inspired Thomas’ own researches in the local area.
In February 1894 we read for the first time of his meeting with Mr. Mellard Reade: Monday the 12th I had a visit from Mr. Mellard Reade of Blundellsands near Liverpool. Are he was accompanied by his son Mr. Alleyn Reade. They have been staying at the White Lion Bala since Friday evening. I have known Mr Reade for some years by his papers on Glacial Geology but this is the first time for me to meet him to speak to. Both got here by 9.35 train, and got here soon after. We first had a chat about geology and geologist friends, and then went to the fruit room to see my fossils which he so much desired to see. After seeing the fossils for some time we went to Brynselwrn to see the glacial striae and sections of the gravel terraces on the railway and at Glandwynant. We saw a large moraine below Palé Mill and got here again by a quarter to one.
Thomas Mellard Reade was an interesting character with multiple interests and abilities. He seems to have stood at the intersect between the professional and amateur status. As an engineer and architect he designed and planned the area of Blundellsands, part of the Crosby area (see the photograph of the church above, which was consecrated in 1874). It is notable that Mellard Reade shared the interest of Ruddy himself and Ruddy’s other geologist friend, A. C. Nicholson in glacial boulder drift. Nicholson investigation and published paper concentrates on an area of Shropshire; Mellard Reades’s on Lancashire and Cheshire, whilst Ruddy’s incomplete and unpublished researches would have filled in an adjoining westerly area.
Thomas Mellard Reade – Photograph from his papers held at Liverpool University
An abstract of Reade’s obituary from the publication Nature gives a summary of Reade’s interests and accomplishments.
By April 1894 we can see that the friendship between Reade and Ruddy was deepening beyond their mutual geological interests, as Reade asks Ruddy to assist his family visiting the area: Thursday the 26th. We had Mrs Reade and her daughter Miss Taylor to tea. They are staying at the Derfel with another daughter of Mrs Reade – Miss Mary Reade. Mr. Reade is my geologist friend from Blundellsands; he wrote to me to say that he would be pleased if I would call on his daughters at the Derfel and assist them in any way I could. Mrs Reade came afterwards. Miss Reade devoted all her time to sketching so that she did not come to tea. I showed them the gardens and fossils after tea and we had a short walk in the grounds. Mrs Reade said that her husband would be angry with her if she did not come to see the fossils. Mr. Reade married a widow and there are eight children in all. They are nice people.
By the next month, Mr. Reade was visiting in pursuit of Thomas’s local glacial geology, bringing his son:
I spent the evening with Mr Reade and his son. We chatted about glacial geology and Boulders etc. We planned to have a day in the Hirnant valley on the following day.
I met Mr Reade and his son at the station and we went to Bala by the 9.10 train. We had a waggonette at the White Lion Hotel to take us to the head of the Hirnant Valley. We found boulders in abundance at Rhosygwaliau, mostly from Arenig. Found one Aran boulder at Penygarth, where we found some of the striae (glacial) between the lake and PenyGarth to be W by S, those on the Rhosygwaliau side were W by 10° N. Altitude at Penygarth 700 feet.
We found a stray Arenig boulder here and there until we got to Aberhirnant, but not one after that all the way to the county boundary and beyond on the Vyrnwy side. I found three or four fossiliferous stones immediately on each side of the county boundary. They are from the Bala Limestone and must have been carried by land ice, either from Craig yr Ogof or Pen-cefn-coch. Both places on the high ground along the county boundary to the west of the head of the Hirnant. The absence of boulders was a curious fact, and it was what I thought it would be the case after my experience up the side of another feeder of the Hirnant – Nant cwm hesgen.
Altitude above sea level at the county boundary, 1660 feet by barometer, and at Aberhirnant 775 ft. It was 1015 feet where are the road crosses the stream at Moel Dinas, opposite Cwm yr aethnen. [ SH 95228 30015 -Ed.]
The Hirnant Valley
Mr Reade was to continue in friendship with Thomas over the following years, sharing both geological interests and family concerns.
In the second half of 1892 it suddenly becomes obvious from the journal entries that Thomas has begun a completely new field of geological study, still rooted in the landscape of mid Wales that surrounded his home. It had been some time since he had led any fieldwork expeditions concentrating on the fossils of the Silurian period, a task he had often undertaken in the company of the Cambridge Professor Thomas McKenny Hughes, and on which he had written a paper for the Journal of the Geological Society published in 1879. ‘On the Upper part of the Cambrian (Sedgwick) and Base of the Silurian in North Wales’. Many people still called at his home to view his fossil collection, but the arrival in succession of five children with his second wife Frances make the focus of his attention increasingly domestic during the 1890s.
However, in August 1892 a new interest and body of knowledge suddenly and surreptitiously makes and appearance while he is mentoring two young ladies who with their mother were staying in the area:
20th August:I showed the Misses Nevins the glacial markings at Penygarth in the strophomena expansa zone and also at Gelli Grin. Indeed we were very successful at the latter place. I got a well preserved eye of an Asaphus [trilobite – Ed.] and what very much resembles Cythere aldensis. We all enjoyed the ramble and then Misses Nevins were highly pleased with their fossils, and the scenery. We got home at the dusk.
In transferring his interest from Cambrian and Silurian fossils to the influence of the action of Ice Age on the landscape, Ruddy was turning his attention from a period about 450 million years ago, the Silurian, to only about 1 to 2 million years in the past, a period of intensive study and much debate in the mid and late 19th century, the period of ‘recent’, in geological terms, glaciation. The great geologists Charles Lyell and Roderick Murchison were involved, arguing in effect against theories of the way landscapes were changed and shaped by the action go progressing and retreating glaciers.
In brief, the study which Ruddy began in a small notebook, now very much degraded by time (shown above) was to examine boulders left in the landscape and which were of a different age or rock formation from the underlying rock. and had been picked up or broken off by advancing glaciers, and then deposited some distance away from their origin as the glaciers retreated and deposited mixtures of boulders, smaller rocks and other deposits, including some displaced fossils in the landscape, this deposit known as glacial till.
The study of glaciation had not originally been centred on Wales and the border counties – it had originally been investigated in Scotland, and the contrasting landscape of East Anglia, particularly Norfolk.
As in many other places in Ruddy’s Journal, we become aware of pre-existing friendships and correspondences which are only mentioned at a later date, as on 7th September 1892:
Wednesday the 7th My correspondent, Mr A C Nicholson of Bronderw, Oswestry came to see me. He arrived by the 4.20 fast train. He had tea with us here and then I took him to the fruit room to see the fossils. Although he knew about them by report, he was very much surprised when he saw them spread out. We had a good look at them, and spent the rest of the evening chatting about geology, until suppertime. I went with him to his lodgings at Shopisaf after.
Thursday the 8th Mr. Nicholson went by first train to Llandrillo, then up the Berwyns to get the ash and greenstone rocks. He went over Chlochnant, Carnedd-y-ci, and to the top of Cader Berwyn, then along the ridge to Milltir Gerrig, on the Llangynog road. There I met him at 4:30 o’clock. He was very tired, but was pleased to have got specimens of the rocks on the way. He had long wish to see the same rocks. I showed him the Little Ash on the roadside Milltir Gerrig, then the felstone, and found Orthis alternata and other fossils. I found a Bellerephon in the rubbly shale between the felstone and Little Ash. The species is new to me and of much interest.
Mr Nicholson’s expedition
Mr Nicholson gave me the altitude above sea level at the well near the felstone on the roadside as 1500 feet. There are freshwater limpets in the rill at that altitude. The altitude at the stone on the boundary, dividing this county from Montgomery, was 1650 feet. We got to my house at about 8:30 o’clock. We thoroughly enjoyed a good feed, and particularly enjoyed a piece of fresh Dee salmon which Sir Henry kindly sent us.
Friday the ninth Mr. Nicholson came over at half past nine and looked over my fossils until dinner time. He had dinner with us, and after dinner I went to show him the Hirnant beds at Bwlch Hannerob and then the Tarannon and Wenlock shales.
After tea we packed his specimens I gave him, also fragments of fossiliferous Silurian rocks which he found in the glacial deposit with marine shells at Gloppa, Oswestry, and which he sent to me some time ago to name for him.
Mr. Nicholson had published a paper ‘ High-Level glacial gravels, Gloppa, Cyrn-y-bwlch, near Oswestry’ in the quarterly journal of the Geological Society in February 1892. His was one of the early investigations into the glacial geology of the Mid Wales and Shropshire area; the paucity of such investigation was noted ten years earlier, in 1882, Walter Keeping, who began his geological career at the Woodwardian museum in Cambridge, predecessor to the Sedgwick, and then became Professor of Natural Science at Aberystwyth, until 1880 when he became Keeper of the Yorkshire Museum, in his article The Glacial Geology of Central Wales in the Geological Magazine.
Gloppa, near Oswestry. Contorted glacial drift, sands and gravels.Contemporary photograph. British Geological Survey website.
Wednesday the 14th I received a handsome book as a gift from Mr Nicholson, entitled “Island Life” by Alfred Russell Wallace. It will be of great service to me as it is up-to-date in scientific research.
Mr. Nicholson’s visit obviously inspired Ruddy to begin in earnest his examination of his local landscape in the light of the new understandings of glaciation and its effects on the landscape.
Saturday the 17th [September 1892] I left here at mid day for the head of the Llangynog Valley. I got to the stone marking the boundary of the counties at 1:50 o’clock. I went to see the little patch of ash rock and could see that it rested conformably on sandy shales. The ash is about 10 feet thick, and is about 40 feet under the limestone outcrop, the same as it is at Gelli Grin. I once found a specimen of the Orthis flabellulum in the shales under the ash in the shales where they are quarried for mending the roads, but I failed to see anything this time. I also searched loads of the shale along the side of the road, but could not find a fossil.
I next crossed over the moor to the old phosphate mine to try and find Arenig boulders on the way or in the bed of the brooks near the mine. I could not find one after I left Brynselwrn ffrith. I found some angular blocks of the local ash, and an abundance of blocks of Denbigh grits; these are evidently from the base of the Wenlock at Bwlch-y-dwr. I found the local ash at the little stream where the old Bala and Llangynog road crossed it. I traced it up the hill towards the county boundary. Neither of these patches of ash are marked on the map.
I also found the upper end of the greenstone near the ash, and followed it down the brook to the road leading to the mine. Most of it keeps crumbling away into course sand all rather fragments. It runs as a dike with a rounded bosses diverging a little from the line. I found a few fossils at the old mine; the only thing of interest being at badly preserved Trochonema triponcata. I found a few specimens of one minute snail; Helix rupestris. The place where I found the Helix is about 1550 feet above sea level.
I next went to see massive shales in the brook some distance lower than the mine. The shales dip towards the bed of the brook and large masses have become detached and lie in the bed of the book like square pieces of masonry. Lower down there is a pretty cascade falling into a deep pool, which is almost shut in by walls of rock. I next crossed over to the little stream where I followed the greenstone again up the bed of the brook. It runs like a dyke with diverging round bosses, and has a sort of false bedding in some places. The dyke is about 15 feet in thickness and crumbles away into course sand and crumbles away into course sand and rotten pieces.
? Site of the Waterfall above
Copyright Eirian Evans, Creative Commons. Waterfall in Coed Llystyn
I have never seen any of the ashes or greenstones in N Wales crumble away in the same as the Trwyn Swch greenstone It is plainly an intrusive mass, and the shales resting upon it are much disturbed at the junction. In one place the greenstone is very hard and compact, and falls away from the rocky wall in square blocks.
I carried off specimens of the greenstone, but failed to find any fossils in the shales all along the ravine. I searched for fossils on the roadside Milltir Gerrig. I found good specimens of Orthis alternata in the usual place, but nothing lower in the beds. I could not get time for beds higher in the series. I left at 6:35 o’clock, and got home at 8:20. I had a beautiful day and much enjoyed it.
Examples of investigations of this new interest continue through the following years of the journal, and A. C. Nicholson visited again in August 1895.
A map of the direction of glacial drift across the British Isles pasted into the front of Ruddy’s notebook.
‘Science under difficulties’ was the name given by Thomas to an expedition he undertook with his son Henry on the evening of the 30th September 1893. Henry was then 10 years and 11 months old. It was past mid afternoon before the pair set out, and they returned just before 8.00 pm, soaked through, and in the dark. It was a journey of, in my estimation, at least ten miles.
Saturday the 30th Henry and I left home at a 3:45 o’clock for Cae Howel lane. We had heavy showers on the way, but went on to the gate leading to Maeshir at Bwlch y Fenni. It cleared off when there and had every appearance of keeping fine and as I wished to hunt for boulders on the Aberhirnant side, we pushed on along the mountain road leading to Llangynog over Trwmysarn. I imagine Thomas’ main purpose was his new research on Glacial Drift.
Thomas’ notebook on boulder dispersion
Thomas describes the journey: We found one Arenig boulder near Cae Howel at an altitude above the sea of 1200 feet and again a boulder of the Aran ash where the road gets close to the brook of Nant-cwm-hesgen. That was all the boulders we found in our ramble. There were none in the bed of the upper part of the Brook all along the roadside all the way to the county boundary at Trwn-y-sarn.
It got almost dark at the county boundary and rained cruelly with a breeze of wind. We crossed themoorland on the south side of the hill called Moel-cwm-sarn-llwyd. It was a rough and tumble walk all the way to the Berwyn Road from Bala to Llangynog. We had to pick our way over bogs, through wet heather or rushes in semi- darkness until we got down to Palé Mountain stables, and most thankful we were to reach them in safety. It rained heavily all the way.
When we got to the road we were drenched from the knees downwards and our boots full of water. It didn’t rain much all the way home, but it was weary journey. It was science under difficulties. Henry followed without a murmur all through the worst part of it, and was glad he was with me. We got home a few minutes before 8 o’clock, and after a change of clothes and a wash we felt quite comfortable and enjoyed our supper. Neither of us will forget our experience over the rough bit of mountain between the two roads. Luckily we had waterproof coats.
Thomas instructed the children of his second family well in natural history. He probably had more leisure to do this with the five children born to Frances Harriet, and she too, encouraged by her expert botanist uncle, William Pamplin, was enthusiastic about outdoor pursuits. Only two of their children, the second family, married, and only Henry Ernest had a single child, a son Denys, the inheritor of Thomas’ journals before me.
Henry Ernest, a clergyman, inherited his father’s love of natural science, concentrating on astronomy, an interest which he passed on to Denys. Here they are in about 1940 in the garden of Braunston Rectory with their very impressive telescope.
The images in this post are taken from a report in the Wrexham newspaper The Leader, on 13th February 2019 by Jamie Bowman. No copyright infringement is intended.
Volunteers working on restoration of the Minera Works, 2019
Thomas’ employer Henry Breyer Robertson owned or part owned a number of industrial, mining and rail enterprises over a wide area. Thomas’ sons Thomas Alexander and William were given clerical employment in the Plas Power works. H. B. Robertson’s uncle, Mr Dean, obviously had influence in the Minera Lime works, in the same area. In 1892 Mr Dean invited Thomas to view a newly discovered cave at the works.
Wednesday the 27th I left here by the first train for Minera. On arriving at Plas Power station I first went to see Tom who was in bed with the measles since Saturday. Mr Dean kindly had his trap in waiting for me to take me to Minera. He asked me to go to see the recently discovered cave there, from which he sent me the stalagmites. He said he would send the trap to meet me. I was sorry Tom was laid up, and he was very sorry too, for he would have liked to help me in any way. I was much interested in what I observed all the way to Minera. I passed near a coal pit, and the village. I saw Minera Church; a nice one it is. Minera Hall was close to the roadside; a moderate sized place.
I got to the Lime Works at twenty minutes to eleven o’clock. On getting to the Office, Mr. Lewis the Secretary, and his clerk, Mr. Wilkins got ready to go over the works with me. They first took me to the stone crushing mill: here the limestone is prepared for road metalling and for glass works. It was a noisy and dusty place, but of much interest. I next inspected the lime kilns: there are two large buildings on the Hoffmann principle. The buildings are in the form of a long square with the circular ends. The chambers in which the limestone is burned, are arched over all round the sides of the buildings and the doors are bricked up until the operation is over. The fire never dies out but it keeps travelling from one chamber to another all the year round; small coal (slack) is introduced into the chambers by means of iron tubes so as to feed the fire. There is a huge chimney to one of the kilns; it is 225 feet in height, by 15 feet in diameter. The kilns cost the company £20,000 to construct, but they can turn out an unlimited quantity of burnt lime.
Our next move was to the cave; it was not very inviting, but like an man of science, I wished to explore it. Mr Lewis got me leggings to cover my legs, and coat to cover my body, so as to keep me clean. I doffed my own coat, and with a lighted candle, I followed Mr Mr Lewis and Mister Wilkins into the cave. I had to lie on my right side and drag myself down slope, with scarcely enough room for me to wriggle through. After a few yards of this, I got to a wide passage where I could stand nearly upright. I was then conducted into a large chamber, long and wide and with a lofty roof. Numerous stalactites were hanging from the roof; they were long tubes of transparent calcite. Pillars of stalagmites word dotting the floor, and most of the floor was covered with thick stalagmitic crust. The floor was uneven and slippery, being here and there composed of soft red earth.
I was next taken to another large chamber, but to get to it I had to clamber on my hands and knees over the wet clay floor. In addition to the usual stalactites and stalagmites, the walls of this chamber one much encrusted with stalactites which oozed from the rock. We returned to the entrance to the first chamber and turned to the right where we got to a large chamber by again crawling over the wet rough floor. This was very uneven, the floor sloped much, and was nearly all covered with a thick stalagmitic crust. From this we went up an narrow flue-like passage on hands and knees into a large space with very lofty roof and the floor much encumbered with fragments of rock. There were a good pillars of stalagmites, and a tiny stream flowed over a gravelly bed on one side. The cylindrical tubes of calcite fell from the roof in hundreds in each of the chambers and got firmly fixed in the stalagmitic floor. It was a rough place to explore and our heads received many hard knocks, but the air was nice and cool. There is a great depth of stalagmite and clay all over the floor of the cave, and the whole bears the impress of great antiquity so that if properly explored, important scientific results might be attained. The entrance is too difficult at present, and it would be expensive to widen it. It was quite accidentally discovered when some rock was taken away.
The Minera site is now owned by the North Wales Wildlife Trust to be used as a nature reserve.
The consistent themes running through Thomas’ journals through the years as Head Gardener at Palé are his own family’s events, the developments in the Robertson family, his employers at Palé and, like a golden thread running through it all, his passionate interest in geology.
Geology had, for a few years in the late 1880s and early 1890s, become less featured in the journal’s pages. I suggest that was for reasons related to all three themes suggested above; his growing family of young children with Frances, together with the older family of his first wife Mary, who were starting out in the world of work, demanded his attention; the death of Henry Robertson, and the succession, marriage and knighthood of his still relatively young son Sir Henry Beyer Robertson needed his attention at Palé. 1889 saw the momentous visit of Queen Victoria, requiring intensive preparations and recovery.
The late 1880s also saw the end of sustained interest from Professor Thomas McKenny Hughes. The Bala region and its key importance in defining the detail and sequence of Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian had been thoroughly researched, with much practical help from Thomas. Hughes had interests to pursue with his Cambridge Professorship, the ongoing project to fund and build the Sedgwick Museum, and his international contacts resolving ongoing geological questions. The geologists of the Chester Society for Natural Science had been conducted by Ruddy over the key sites, as had members of several other Scientific Societies. In May they again visited, and Professor Hughes (‘the President’) was in the party.
Wednesday the 25th I went by the first train to Chirk to meet a Chester party for whom I promised to act as one of their guides for the day. On arriving at share I met my party. The President, Mr. Walker, the Vice President, Mr. Shepheard, and the Hon. Secretary, Mr G.R. Griffith were there with about 30 members, including a good sprinkling of ladies. The above gentlemen were very pleased to see me, as they were in a fix, the other Guides having failed to come with the train. There were open tram cars ready to take us on the tramway to the New Inn at Glyn Ceiriog.
Members of the Building Committee for the Grosvenor Museum. Messrs Griffiths and Shepheard in the front row.
On arriving at the New Inn, we were met by the vicar of the parish, the Rev R Jennings, and Mr Rooper. The latter owns a large slate quarry and a stone quarry short distance from theNew Inn. All of us went with Mr Rooper to see his slate quarry. He very kindly acted as our guide over the works and explain the working of the elaborate machinery erected for sawing and dressing the slates, and for other useful purposes. I found some specimens of the Graptolithes priodon, but nothing else.
After leaving the slate quarry, I acted the Guide and conducted most of the members over the Bala beds on the famous Myndd Ffronfrys. We found some good corals and brachiopods, one or two univalves, and some fragments of trilobites.
In 1892 there is evidence of Thomas Ruddy’s continuing interest in geology, and his flexibility in relating to others as mentor and tutor, as assisting colleague, and as a student ever pressing on in his geological understanding.
Mentor
Thomas was always eager to pass on his knowledge to others, and particularly in the context of practical geology. A notable feature of his mentoring skills was his readiness and enthusiasm for helping women students. This was in some contrast to the exclusively masculine ranks of the Chester Society for Natural Science at the time. Thomas had given attention to the adult daughters of his employer Henry Robertson, see 1887-8 The Fossil years
Geologists late 19th century. Note two women at the front, one of whom may be Mary Caroline Hughes. Prof. Hughes at the far right.
Thomas mentions the lady geologists who were present on his expeditions with the various Scientific Associations for whom he acted as guide, often commenting on their interest and expertise in geology, and giving them help and advice.
In August 1892 a mother and her two daughters, Mrs. Nevins and the Misses Frances and Lettice Nevins came to lodge in Llandderfel village for most of the month. At the end of their visit writes a little about them. The two young ladies were serious geologists, and the family was acquainted with a very famous geologist, Murchison.
Mrs Nevins told us she was an Irish lady, and her husband had some knowledge of geology, and was acquainted with Sir R. Murchison. They are certainly well bred ladies. They went on Monday to see Chester and went to the Grosvenor Museum. I gave them a letter of introduction to Mr Newstead the curator. They said he acted most kindly to them. Last Friday the three of them went to the top of the Arenig.
They relied heavily on Thomas’ advice and guidance throughout their stay: Wednesday the 3rd (August). Mrs Nevins and her two daughters Miss Francis M and Miss Lettice came heree with Mr Thomas of the shop, with whom they lodge. They asked to see my fossils, and as Miss Frances had been studying geology, she took particular interest in them. Miss Nevins also wished me to mark fossil localities on the Ordnance map for her.
Saturday the 20th. Frances, Henry and I went with the Misses Nevins to Bala by the 2.25 train. From the station we went to the lake at the lower end, and from there on to Gelli Grin. I found the impression of Bellerophon on a heap of shingle at the lake.
I showed the Misses Nevins the glacial markings at Penygarth in the strophomena expansa zone and also at Gelli Grin. Indeed we were very successful at the latter place. I got a well preserved eye of an Asaphus [trilobite – Ed.] And what very much resembles Cythere aldensis. We all enjoyed the ramble and the Misses Nevins were highly pleased with their fossils, and the scenery.
The 22nd The Misses Nevins here in the evening to have their fossils named.
Tuesday the 30th Mrs. and the Misses Nevins here. They brought back some books I lent then, and were much obliged to me for all my kindness to them. They were very refined and good-natured ladies, and highly intelligent, and eager to learn anything I could tell them. Miss Nevins told me I was the best tutor she had had to teach her practical geology.
Adviser
On the 7th -8th September 1892 a fellow geologist with whom Thomas had been corresponding visited.
Wednesday the 7th my correspondent, Mr A.C. Nicholson of Bronderw, Oswestry came to see me. He arrived by the 4.20 fast train. He had tea with us here and then I took him to the fruit room to see the fossils. Although he knew about them by report, he was very much surprised when he saw them spread out.
On the 8th September, Thomas joined Nicholson for part of a lengthy walk and they returned to Thomas’ home. After tea we packed his specimens I gave him, also fragments of fossiliferous Silurian rocks which he found in the glacial deposit with marine shells at Gloppa, Oswestry, and which he sent to me some time ago to name for him.
More of Mr. Nicholson in a later post. He had just published an article on the rocks around Gloppa in the February 1892 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.
Student
Perhaps the most important record, late in 1892 was evidence that Thomas himself was embarking on a new phase of geological research, documented in the journal and in a smalltattered notebook found amongst the trunk’s contents.
“Boulder and Glacial Drift Dispersion Written by Thomas Ruddy of Llandderfel”
Thomas Ruddy (1842-1912) 