A public open day held at Rock Edge nature reserve in Headington, Oxford, will be the first of several aimed at getting people interested in geological conservation, writes Elizabeth Edwards. Oxfordshire Geology Trust has won cash from the Heritage Lottery Fund to organise events across the county.

“The objective is to invite people who may never have done geological conservation work before to become involved in doing hands-on physical work and as a result learn about the geology and the history of a site,” said Denise Dane, the trust’s project officer.

The grant will enable the trust to hold one public open day during this and the next two years and eight sessions for volunteer groups and individuals.

The event at Rock Edge, pictured left, included panning for gold, pictured right, and making plaster-cast fossils.

“Visitors could handle actual fossils and could bring along finds of their own for experts to identify. On these occasions you see some very good specimens which people have collected from time to time. It was as interesting for us as it was for them,” said Mrs Dane.

She added: “Rock Edge is an ideal site for the public open day. There has been quarrying there since the 1300s. The whole area is like a massive quarry that over the centuries has been infilled and built upon.”

A similar site nearby, Magdalen Quarry, which takes its name from the fact that it was once owned by Magdalen College, may be used for a future open day.

Volunteer groups helped prepare Rock Edge for the open day. Among them was a team of seven from Mid Counties Co-operative businesses across Oxfordshire.

Members of Wallingford Green Gym also spent a day at Rock Edge during the preparation work. Wychwood Project volunteers and members of other Green Gym groups in various areas of Oxfordshire have also been involved at various sites, as have people from the Du Puis day centre in Banbury.

As these community groups go about their work, they are also learning at first hand about the history and social significance of a site. “We want to raise awareness of our history and get people out there learning and doing,” said Mrs Dane. “It is also a healthy thing to do.

“If people realise what is there around them and they have some appreciation of it, they will want to maintain it. People take a pride in their local environment and if a place is well looked after they will seek to keep it that way.

“A main aim of the trust is to conserve sites of geological significance for the future. Scientific knowledge, history and education are all important aspects. These sites need to be preserved and this can only be done now. If they are left for years and years they will disappear.”

Areas where groups have been or will be working include Ditchley and possibly Kirtlington. Another is at Dry Sandford, where it is part of the reserve of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust whose own volunteers will be involved in the work there.

Anybody who would like to contact the Oxfordshire Geology Trust for details of future open days and volunteering events can contact Mrs Dane on (01367) 243260, by email at: contact@oxfordshiregt.org, or at the website: www.oxfordshiregt.org