April 2021 Speaker
Once again due to COVID restrictions this meeting was organised as a Zoom meeting by our Chairman Maurice. The meeting began with the AGM which Maurice (our retiring chairman) presented to us all for our information and comments/agreement before signing them. He was pleased to welcome Roy, Mike and Mary as new members of the committee for 2021-22. He also thanked Hugh for his input over the years, who is also retiring from the committee. Fortunately because of the restrictions we have had over the past years with COVID, the current committee members are willing to stay for the coming year to support the new committee members as they take up their new positions. The next AGM will be scheduled for 4th April 2022.
Maurice then liaised with our speaker by Zoom Ian Mercer from Broomfield u3a on The Geology of Essex. Ian and his wife Ros are both retired University Geologist Lecturers and have continued to share their knowledge and practical explorations around the East of England since their retirement.
Ian’s explanation with PowerPoint photos of how our world developed from millions of years ago. He explained how volcanic eruptions split the land into the continents we know today. He also gave us an insight into the different underground mixtures of the flint, clay, sand, mud and gravel we find around our county and around the rest of our country today.
Another interesting topic he explained was how the flint and slate became broken up over the millions of years ago and many interesting pebbles were formed, a lot of these were incorporated into the very old churches built a few centuries ago.
Ian is producing a book at present about Essex Rocks which he hopes to publish in 2022.