Mary Anning Rocks Yorkshire’s Jurassic World!
She never visited the county during her lifetime but finally, on #FossilFriday July 14th 2023, Mary Anning will arrive in Yorkshire, as the maquette of her wonderful Lyme Regis statue comes to the Yorkshire Museum for a two-month stay.
I can’t tell you how pleased I am that Mary is coming to York. She’d have loved fossiling on the Yorkshire Coast, as I will explain in my free online talk – Fossils From Teesside to Spurn: Why Mary Anning Would Have Loved The Yorkshire Coast – on Thursday September 7th. Before then, I’m also celebrating her arrival with two free, family-friendly fossil events in York on Yorkshire Day, Tuesday August 1st.
They will be:
Many Rocking Annes!
At 10am on Tuesday August 1st I will be leading a free, 90-minute walk, telling stories of some of York’s trailblazing female Earth scientists. Mary Anning never came to York, but many other remarkable women who made significant contributions to geology and palaeontology certainly did. They weren’t all called Anne, but Anne Phillips, Anne Brontë, and Anna & Susanna Lister are just a few of Many Rocking Annes!
The walk is free, will start inside Micklegate Bar and finish at the Yorkshire Museum, and will last around 90 minutes There are only 20 tickets, though, so book yours here fast.
The Great York Fossil Hunt
Then, on the afternoon of Tuesday August 1st, I will be inviting people to go fossil-hunting on the historic streets of York. The first Great York Fossil Hunt took place in 2021 and it was jolly good fun, but in the two years since then I’ve found loads more urban fossils, so come along and join the hunt!
Meet on the steps of the Yorkshire Museum at 1pm and I will give you the Great York Fossil Hunt map and guide. It highlights some of the fossils you can see on York’s streets, and the places you might spot them. Go out and see what you can find, and then report back to Museum Gardens and tell us (or post pictures on social media with the hashtag #GreatYorkFossilHunt). Even better, pop into the Museum and tell Mary what you’ve found!
And if you can’t wait till Yorkshire Day, there’s an electronic version of it that you can download here:
If you don’t know all about the brilliant Mary Anning Rocks! campaign, please rectify that oversight immediately. And if you want to find out more about Mary’s visit to the Yorkshire Museum, head to their website here.
(And should you be generally interested in York walks that explore the city’s ancient, natural and scientific history, including many of its unsung figures, I heartily recommend York’s Hidden History.)
