Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club
Encyclopedia
The Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (or simply the Woolhope Club) is a local society
devoted to the natural history
, geology
, archaeology
, and history
of Herefordshire
, England
. Founded in 1851, it has had many notable members and played an important early role in the history of mycology
in Britain.
, but took its name from the Woolhope Dome, an outcrop of Silurian
rocks around the village of Woolhope
to the south-east of the city. The club's first field meeting was held in the Woolhope area.
An ongoing series of Transactions has been published since 1856 and early issues suggest that the membership took an interest not only in geology, but in fossils, botany
, meteorology
, ichthyology
, and entomology
. In 1856, the botanist George Bentham
(who lived at Pontrilas
) was an honorary member, as were the geologists the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie
, William Henry Fitton
, Leonard Horner
, Sir Charles Lyell
, Sir Roderick Murchison
, Prof. John Phillips
, and the Rev. Prof. Adam Sedgwick
, the botanist John Lindley
, the naturalist Sir William Jardine, and the zoologist Prof. Robert E. Grant
. The geologist the Rev. William Samuel Symonds
was a founder member and president of the club in 1855.
In 1871, Sir James Rankin
, a wealthy member of the club, offered to pay for a "Public Library and Museum in connection with the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club". This building, with natural history carvings and gargoyles on its frontage and a purpose-built meeting room for the club, was duly erected in Hereford in 1873. It remains the city's public library and the club's headquarters.
and perry
, an early project of the club was to document and conserve local apple and pear cultivar
s. To this end, the club held annual exhibitions of local fruit, inviting leading pomologists
to help identify samples collected or submitted from local orchards. Under the enthusiastic direction of founder and past president of the club, Dr Henry Graves Bull, two local artists, his daughter Edith Elizabeth Bull and Alice Blanche Ellis, were engaged to paint watercolours of the fruit, whilst an honorary member, Dr Robert Hogg, vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society
, wrote text to accompany the paintings. The result was the Herefordshire Pomona
, a major publication for the club, issued in parts between 1878 and 1884, with over 400 paintings reproduced as hand-coloured lithographs.
The Herefordshire Pomona was an expensive work - and is now even more so, a copy being offered for $19,500 in 2009. Since the club wished the book to be of practical use, a revised but inexpensive version of the text, called The Apple and Pear as Vintage Fruits, was published in 1886. The Pomona itself is now available on CD.
species. This seems to have stimulated the interest of the club and in 1868, the October field meeting — announced as "a foray among the funguses" — was devoted to collecting fungi. The foray, led by the noted mycologist Worthington G. Smith
and local expert Edwin Lees, was followed by a special fungus dinner. The event proved popular and the "foray" was repeated annually till 1892.
These Woolhope fungus events became so well known that the word "foray" was widely adopted for mycological field meetings and remains the standard term today, not only in Britain but in North America and elsewhere. For a time, the club functioned as a precursor to the British Mycological Society
, bringing together a number of contemporary British mycologists, many of whom attended the forays and contributed papers to the Transactions. By 1882, honorary members included the mycologists Rev. Miles Joseph Berkeley
, C.E. Broome
, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
, William Phillips, C.B. Plowright, Worthington G. Smith, and Rev. J.E. Vize. Ordinary members included Rev. W.L.W. Eyre
.
, subsequently to become a president of the club. Watkins was a keen photographer and archaeologist. In June 1921, whilst mapping old sites near Blackwardine
, Watkins noticed some surprising alignments which suggested to him a series of prehistoric trackways marked by ancient landmarks some of which were still visible. Later that year, he delivered a talk to the club on "Early British Trackways" and after further researches published his thesis and his findings in The Old Straight Track
(1925). His book was not well received by academics, but Watkins' theory of ley lines gained followers and a resurgence of interest in the 1970s, when it acquired a mystic dimension which would have surprised Watkins himself.
Learned society
A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...
devoted to the natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, and history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
of Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Founded in 1851, it has had many notable members and played an important early role in the history of mycology
Mycology
Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans as a source for tinder, medicinals , food and entheogens, as well as their dangers, such as poisoning or...
in Britain.
Establishment
The Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club was founded in 1851 "for the practical study, in all its branches, of the Natural History of Herefordshire and the districts immediately adjacent." The club was and still is based in the city of HerefordHereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
, but took its name from the Woolhope Dome, an outcrop of Silurian
Silurian
The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician Period, about 443.7 ± 1.5 Mya , to the beginning of the Devonian Period, about 416.0 ± 2.8 Mya . As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the period's start and end are well identified, but the...
rocks around the village of Woolhope
Woolhope
- Location :Woolhope is located about 7 miles east of Hereford.- History :The manor of Woolhope in Herefordshire, along with three others, was given to the cathedral at Hereford before the Norman Conquest by the benefactresses Wulviva and Godiva, local Anglo-Saxon landowners before the Norman...
to the south-east of the city. The club's first field meeting was held in the Woolhope area.
An ongoing series of Transactions has been published since 1856 and early issues suggest that the membership took an interest not only in geology, but in fossils, botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
, meteorology
Meteorology
Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...
, ichthyology
Ichthyology
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. This includes skeletal fish , cartilaginous fish , and jawless fish...
, and entomology
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...
. In 1856, the botanist George Bentham
George Bentham
George Bentham CMG FRS was an English botanist, characterized by Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century".- Formative years :...
(who lived at Pontrilas
Pontrilas
Pontrilas is a village in south Herefordshire, England, half a mile from the border with Wales. It is in the parish of Kentchurch and lies midway between Hereford and Abergavenny....
) was an honorary member, as were the geologists the Rev. Peter Bellinger Brodie
Peter Bellinger Brodie
Peter Bellinger Brodie was an English geologist and churchman, the son of the conveyancer Peter Bellinger Brodie and nephew of Sir Benjamin C. Brodie. He was born in London in 1815...
, William Henry Fitton
William Henry Fitton
William Henry Fitton was an Irish geologist-Biography:Fitton was born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College in that city. He gained the senior scholarship in 1798, and graduated in the following year. At this time he began to take an interest in geology and to form a collection of fossils...
, Leonard Horner
Leonard Horner
Leonard Horner , Scottish geologist, brother of Francis Horner, was born in Edinburgh.Horner was a 'radical educational reformer' who was involved in the establishment of University College School....
, Sir Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by slow-moving forces still in operation...
, Sir Roderick Murchison
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet KCB DCL FRS FRSE FLS PRGS PBA MRIA was a Scottish geologist who first described and investigated the Silurian system.-Early life and work:...
, Prof. John Phillips
John Phillips (geologist)
John Phillips FRS was an English geologist.- Life and work :Philips was born at Marden in Wiltshire...
, and the Rev. Prof. Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick
Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...
, the botanist John Lindley
John Lindley
John Lindley FRS was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist.-Early years:Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley was a nurseryman and pomologist and ran a commercial nursery garden...
, the naturalist Sir William Jardine, and the zoologist Prof. Robert E. Grant
Robert Edmond Grant
Robert Edmond Grant MD FRCPEd FRS was born in Edinburgh and educated at Edinburgh University as a physician. He became one of the foremost biologists of the early 19th century at Edinburgh and subsequently the first Professor of Comparative Anatomy at University College London...
. The geologist the Rev. William Samuel Symonds
William Samuel Symonds
William Samuel Symonds , English geologist, was born in Hereford.He was educated at Cheltenham College and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1842. Having taken holy orders he was appointed curate of Offenham, near Evesham in 1843, and two years later he was presented to the...
was a founder member and president of the club in 1855.
In 1871, Sir James Rankin
Sir James Rankin, 1st Baronet
Sir James Rankin, 1st Baronet was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament for Leominster from 1880 to 1885, and from 1886 until the general election of 1906, losing the seat by only 28 votes to the Liberal candidate...
, a wealthy member of the club, offered to pay for a "Public Library and Museum in connection with the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club". This building, with natural history carvings and gargoyles on its frontage and a purpose-built meeting room for the club, was duly erected in Hereford in 1873. It remains the city's public library and the club's headquarters.
The Herefordshire Pomona
Since Herefordshire was and is renowned for its ciderCider
Cider or cyder is a fermented alcoholic beverage made from apple juice. Cider varies in alcohol content from 2% abv to 8.5% abv or more in traditional English ciders. In some regions, such as Germany and America, cider may be termed "apple wine"...
and perry
Perry
Perry is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented pears. Perry has been common for centuries in Britain, particularly in the Three Counties of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire, and in parts of south Wales; and France, especially Normandy and Anjou.In more recent years, commercial...
, an early project of the club was to document and conserve local apple and pear cultivar
Cultivar
A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...
s. To this end, the club held annual exhibitions of local fruit, inviting leading pomologists
Pomology
Pomology is a branch of botany that studies and cultivates pome fruit, particularly from the genera Malus, Prunus and Pyrus belonging to the Rosaceae. The term is sometimes applied more broadly, to the cultivation of any type of fruit...
to help identify samples collected or submitted from local orchards. Under the enthusiastic direction of founder and past president of the club, Dr Henry Graves Bull, two local artists, his daughter Edith Elizabeth Bull and Alice Blanche Ellis, were engaged to paint watercolours of the fruit, whilst an honorary member, Dr Robert Hogg, vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society
Royal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
, wrote text to accompany the paintings. The result was the Herefordshire Pomona
Herefordshire Pomona
The Herefordshire Pomona is a 19th century catalogue of the apples and pears that were grown in the county of Herefordshire in England. It was one of the first attempts to fully catalogue the existing varieties of English fruit and has been called "a classic of late Victorian natural history"...
, a major publication for the club, issued in parts between 1878 and 1884, with over 400 paintings reproduced as hand-coloured lithographs.
The Herefordshire Pomona was an expensive work - and is now even more so, a copy being offered for $19,500 in 2009. Since the club wished the book to be of practical use, a revised but inexpensive version of the text, called The Apple and Pear as Vintage Fruits, was published in 1886. The Pomona itself is now available on CD.
A Foray among the Funguses
Dr Henry Graves Bull also had an enthusiasm for fungi and in 1867 read a paper at a club meeting on some local, edibleEdible mushroom
Edible mushrooms are the fleshy and edible fruiting bodies of several species of fungi. Mushrooms belong to the macrofungi, because their fruiting structures are large enough to be seen with the naked eye. They can appear either below ground or above ground where they may be picked by hand...
species. This seems to have stimulated the interest of the club and in 1868, the October field meeting — announced as "a foray among the funguses" — was devoted to collecting fungi. The foray, led by the noted mycologist Worthington G. Smith
Worthington George Smith
Worthington George Smith was an English cartoonist and illustrator, archaeologist, plant pathologist, and mycologist.-Background and career:...
and local expert Edwin Lees, was followed by a special fungus dinner. The event proved popular and the "foray" was repeated annually till 1892.
These Woolhope fungus events became so well known that the word "foray" was widely adopted for mycological field meetings and remains the standard term today, not only in Britain but in North America and elsewhere. For a time, the club functioned as a precursor to the British Mycological Society
British Mycological Society
The British Mycological Society is a learned society established in 1896 to promote the study of fungi.-Formation:The Society was formed based on the efforts of two local societies, the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club of Hereford and the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union. The curator of the Hereford...
, bringing together a number of contemporary British mycologists, many of whom attended the forays and contributed papers to the Transactions. By 1882, honorary members included the mycologists Rev. Miles Joseph Berkeley
Miles Joseph Berkeley
Miles Joseph Berkeley was an English cryptogamist and clergyman, and one of the founders of the science of plant pathology....
, C.E. Broome
Christopher Edmund Broome
Christopher Edmund Broome was a British mycologist.-Background and education:C.E. Broome was born in Berkhamsted, the son of a solicitor. He was privately schooled in Kensington and in 1832 was sent to read for Holy Orders with the curate of Swaffham Prior in Cambridgeshire...
, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
Mordecai Cubitt Cooke
Mordecai Cubitt Cooke was an English botanist and mycologist.Cooke came from a mercantile family in Horning, Norfolk, and worked as an apprentice to a fabric merchant before becoming a clerk in a law firm, but his chief interest was in botany. He founded the Society of Amateur Botanists in 1862...
, William Phillips, C.B. Plowright, Worthington G. Smith, and Rev. J.E. Vize. Ordinary members included Rev. W.L.W. Eyre
William Leigh Williamson Eyre
William Leigh Williamson Eyre was an English mycologist and naturalist.-Background and education:W.L.W. Eyre was born in Padbury, Buckinghamshire. He was educated for the merchant navy and worked as a seaman until his religious convictions led him to enter Lichfield Theological College to study...
.
The Old Straight Track
An attendee at the 1891 fungus foray was Alfred WatkinsAlfred Watkins
Alfred Watkins was a businessman, self-taught amateur archaeologist and antiquarian who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation and noticed on the British landscape the apparent arrangement of straight lines positioned along ancient features, and...
, subsequently to become a president of the club. Watkins was a keen photographer and archaeologist. In June 1921, whilst mapping old sites near Blackwardine
Blackwardine
Blackwardine, Herefordshire, England is at , and in the parish of Humber.It is the site of a Romano-British settlement known as Black Caer Dun. A golden bracelet and ring have been found there as well as many human remains...
, Watkins noticed some surprising alignments which suggested to him a series of prehistoric trackways marked by ancient landmarks some of which were still visible. Later that year, he delivered a talk to the club on "Early British Trackways" and after further researches published his thesis and his findings in The Old Straight Track
The Old Straight Track
The Old Straight Track: Its Mounds, Beacons, Moats, Sites and Mark Stones is a book by Alfred Watkins, first published in 1925, describing the existence of alleged ley lines in Britain....
(1925). His book was not well received by academics, but Watkins' theory of ley lines gained followers and a resurgence of interest in the 1970s, when it acquired a mystic dimension which would have surprised Watkins himself.