The Group was formally affiliated to the Geologists’ Association on 7th May 2020
It has been set up to study the Geology and Palaeontology of Peterborough and surrounding areas, to promote educate and help further scientific knowledge. It is a successor to the Stamford and District Geological Society which has a long history of collecting in the area around Peterborough as well as running a programme of evening talks.
The initial aim of the group is to carry on with the programme of field trips organised by the SDGS and which have been very productive over the years. Many specimens of scientific significance have been found and are now in museum collections. The most recent of these is the pliosaur discovered and excavated by SDGS members which is now in the collection of the North Lincolnshire Museum in Scunthorpe.
As COVID-19 restrictions are lifting we have been able to start to develop a programme of field trips. As things stand at the moment numbers may be restricted, but we will try to give priority to new members or those who have been unable to go on previous trips. You can find details of our field trip programme using the 'Events' tab on the left. For non-members information is rather limited, but members can see much more detail on the localities, and on finds from previous trips.
Health and safety requirements are strict on sites which have active quarrying operations, and we have written a document setting out our own set of guidelines (the tab 'Risk Assessment' on the left) to cover this. It may seem unnecessarily bureaucratic, but it all helps to promote the group as well-organised, safety conscious and ethical in our approach. This can help a lot when approaching quarry owners and operatives with a view to gaining access to sites.
A longer-term ambition is to organise a programme of talks and presentations open to both members and non-members to explore the many different aspects of the sciences of geology and palaeontology.
The group has been set up with a commitment to ethical collecting practices