Palaeo Manchester

I had an enquiry yesterday from Roy Starkey, the President of the Russell Society wanting to know if we had any ‘Buxton Diamonds’?

He explained they were actually small perfectly formed quartz crystals that were washed out of the soil around Buxton, Derbyshire back in the 1700 and 1800s.

After a bit of searching I found some:

'Buxton Diamonds' for 1873

It seems that they come from a place called Diamond Hill, here mentioned in an 1868 National Gazetteer article. They are probably recrystallised in the limestone.

It’s always really exciting to find such beautiful specimens in the collection. Roy Starkey’s research is ongoing, so I’ll let you know what else he finds.

Filed under: Collections development, Curator's Diary, Research | Tagged: Carboniferous, geology, manchester, The Manchester Museum |