England
Cambridgeshire

Sedgwick Museum of Geology

The museum holds over 1 million samples of rocks, fossils, minerals, soft sediments, building and decorative stones. The collection is available to both students and visitors to the museum, and a special research room is available to aid visiting researchers.

The Watson Collection, on the museum's ground floor, houses the Museum's decorative and building stones, covering not only England, but materials used throughout the world. This collection is a valuable resource for architects, and those involved in retoring historic buildings.

A special exhibit entitled "Life in the Jurassic Sea." traces dinosaur and other sealife in the Jurassic period, while the Burgess Shale exhibit looks at the fossil remains of plant life found in the Canadian Rockies. The mineral collection has over 40,000 specimens, making it one of the largest in the UK. Notable strengths of the mineral collection are the Cornish and Cumbrian minerals.

The Hume Collection, named after Sir Abraham Hume (1749-1838), features both cut and uncut diamonds. Other exhibits display colour in minerals, and give special atterntion to Calcite, jade, and gemstones.

Address
The Sedgwick Museum
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Cambridge
Downing Street
Cambridge
Cambridgeshire
CB2 3EQ
Telephone: (01223) 333456
(01223) 333400 (answer phone)
Fax: (01223) 333450
web site

email:
General enquiries sedgmus@esc.cam.ac.uk
Enquiries about the Fossil Collection mgd2@esc.cam.ac.uk
Enquiries about the Rock and Mineral Collections sal11@esc.cam.ac.uk
Enquiries about school visits and Science Week annette@esc.cam.ac.uk

Cambridgeshire links

Text © David Ross and Britain Express 2001