Find Dinosaur Bones around Lewes

In shop windows from Cliffe Corner up to by Gideon Mantell’s former house on the High Street there are eight pieces of iguanodon skeleton hiding in shop windows. Find the window and ask the shop to stamp the prize competition form. Enter the prize draw by taking the completed form to the Tourist Information Centre, Lewes High Street by 30 September. Clues will appear to help locate the more difficult to find pieces throughout the month. Look out for clues here and in the Tourist Office Fisher Street window. Happy Hunting! Or see below for answers … last chance to enter!

Clue Number Eight – Down at Cliffe Corner you will find bags full of tall tales!  Many different books for children exist on dinosaurs at http://bags-of-books.co.uk/

Gideon Mantell as a child in the early 1800s went to school at Dr Button’s Academy opposite Cliffe Church and was a star pupil there.

The tail of the Iguanodon provided balance as it walked or ran but it also could act as a powerful weapon swiping aside anything attacking it from behind. So along with its thumb spike it could try and defend itself from predators.

Clue Number Seven – Like the shoe shop but isn’t. But it is in the vicinity.  So could it be http://clarkesofsussex.co.uk/

The three-toed footprints of iguanodons have been found all over the world and in the past people may have thought they were made by dragons. For local sites you can look around Hastings http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/hastings_fossils.htm

Clue Number Six – Saddle up and ride off from here, let’s hope the saddle is big enough! The Bike Shop at 39a Friars Walk is opposite the site of the original Lewes Railway Station. Gideon Mantell used to visit Lewes by train and would alight here.

There were debates about whether the Iguanodon walked on four feet or two. The pelvis gives us clues of the angle that the hip bones joined the pelvis that it could run on two legs with powerful back leg muscles. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur#Distinguishing_anatomical_features for the detailed anatomy of dinosaurs.

Clue Number Five – Tickle his ribs… maybe just an ‘ickle bit more to find them! This shop is just up School Hill where Clothkits used to sit http://www.wickle.co.uk/

The finding and identifying of the iguanodon from small fragments like ribs or teeth is a story in itself but see here for more about the different types of Iguanodon. http://www.dinosaurisle.com/iguanodon.aspx

Clue Number Four – Sussex is where he was found but he wasn’t very interested in Stationary!  Easy clue to find due to the dinosaur balloon in the window.

The iguanodon needed to be able to reach up to trees to find his food to eat hence his long neck. He was a herbovore. His bones have been found in Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight. See here for where to find and see bones in Sussex.

Clue Number Three – Si says “Sounds like he would give you a spikey handshake coming up from the Station!”  Fittingly this clue can be found in Station Street that was known as St Mary’s Lane when Mantell was born and raised up in what is now number 23.

This claw can be seen in the Natural History Museum http://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/iguanodon.html. At first Mantell thought it was a spike on the end of the Iguanodon’s nose.

Clue Number Two – Down by the wishing well—Needlen’t be too difficult to find! Find the clue with Mr Birch now in the basement at the Needlemakers at http://www.skylarkshop.com/

This great gentle monster had muscle attachments to its jaw to show it was a plant eater. It had a bony beak instead of front teeth.

Clue Number One – These teeth are not as big as a Castle but close!  Lewes Castle and the Barbican Museum are near to where Gideon Mantell lived at 166 High Street and is where he was living when he found the very first Iguanodon tooth.He named it Iguanodon as it reminded him of the tooth of an Iguana.

Original drawing here of first teeth found around 1822 that gave rise to the idea of a giant reptile. The library at the Barbican House Museum has some orginal Mantell documents that can be viewed by appointment https://sussexpast.co.uk/research/library .

See here for more information on the finding of the tooth. The tooth is now in New Zealand as Mantell’s son lived there and it was sent to him for safekeeping after he died in 1852 http://blog.tepapa.govt.nz/2009/11/04/tales-from-te-papa-iguanodon-tooth/

 

Lewes Fossil Fest

September 24 and 25th 2016

Coming to Lewes will be a family event with Street Theatre telling the story of the finding of the Iguanodon. The town of Lewes played an important role in palaeontology, as it was the birthplace and home of Gideon Mantell who found and identified the first fossils, and gave the Iguanodon its name. This free hands-on community arts and earth science festival will provide a unique chance to bring this story to families and individuals in Mantell’s home town.

The Railway Land Wildlife Trust (RLWT) and Lewes District Council Ranger service are working with the LTP on creating this two day festival based in and around the Linklater Pavilion in the centre of the town see http://www.railwaylandproject.org/

The festival will consist of:

Saturday 24th September: a programme of arts, crafts and science based activities in the Linklater Pavilion. Working with local schools and educators activities, including building an Iguanodon model, exploring timelines, uncovering and identifying fossils are planned. The programme will include talks, walks and displays by professionals, together with an exhibition and souvenir brochure. Partners include the Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton & Hove Geological Society, the geologists’ Association, Lewes U3A Geology Group volunteers, RLWT volunteers, LDC ranger service volunteers. Fossil remains of the Iguanodon from the Booth Museum will be on display close up over the weekend http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/booth/what-to-see/bones/

Sunday 25th September: the street theatre Iguanodon Restaurant will be set up next to the Linklater, with additional stalls including fossils and other earth sciences and exhibition in the Pavilion. Two free showings of a street theatre play, about the finding, identifying and naming of the Iguanodon will be performed (12.00 noon & 2.30pm) This has had its inaugural showings at the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival by not for profit theatre company Emerald Ant CIC  https://emeraldant.com/ ; the 35ft model Iguanodon was created partly in Lewes.

 

The Crystal Palace dinosaurs

1854 was the date of the unveiling of model dinosaurs in the park in South London  where the Crystal Palace had recently been moved from Hyde Park. Gideon Mantell however had died in 1852. So what is the link?

In August 1852 Mantell was approached by the directors of the Crystal Palace Company to oversee the development of a geological display telling the story of the discoveries he had overseen for so long. The minutes showed they wished to “make enquiry of Dr Mantell as to what degree of completeness the collection could attain for a sum of 3,000 or 4,000 pounds”. Mantell was however in acute pain, and in fact dying, and so he declined the offer. “Very good for nothing… in fact I am all used up” he wrote. On 10 November he died, possibly from an overdose of the opiates he took to achieve some relief.

His previous antagonistic relationship with rival Richard Owen then worked its ways out. This has been documented in the book by Deborah Cadbury The Dinosaur Hunters: the True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World

Owen despite having been unmasked as the author of an obituary dismissing Mantell’s contribution to the knowledge of the time went on to not only inherit Mantell’s deformed spine for his collection at the Hunterian Museum but also to take over the development of the dinosaur park at Sidenham. Owen ignored Mantell’s, in fact correct, interpretation of the Iguanodon as having shorter fore limbs and designed a squat four legged scaly monster Igunaodon model.

On New Years Eve 1853 Owen hosted a celebratory meal inside a cast from this model and used it to promote the venture, as described here Dinner in the Iguanodon .

The famous “Dinner in the Iguanodon Model” was immortalised in this picture, published in Illustrated London News, 7 January 1854, p. 22.The names of Mantell, Buckland and Cuvier can be glimpsed high on the wall but Owen took the place at the head of the table.

To explore this debate and the respective roles of all of the men and women discoverers of our earliest land and sea creatures a piece of street art will be coming to Lewes in the summer. Not only was Lewes Mantell’s birthplace but also the location of where he  lived when he discovered and identified the original Iguanodon fossils. This event will be on Sunday 25 September 2016  and will be brought to life by the Iguanodon Restaurant street theatre shows presented by Emerald Ant CIC

If you would like to help plan this event, can help with fundraising or help develop the fossil festival programme to accompany this please email debby.matthews[at]yahoo.co.uk

 

 

Horsfield’s History & Antiquities of Lewes and its Vicinity

This illustrated book was published in 1824 by J Baxter and written by Rev Thomas Walker Horsfield who was the Minister of West Gate Chapel (1817-27) includes additional material from Gideon Mantell. Volume I includes an appendix of the Natural History of Lewes by Gideon Mantell FRS.There are descriptions of the bones, beads, pots and other antiquities found by Mantell in his searches around the hills of the town. Click on the link to view the book online as a Google facsimile

Contained within the 350 plus pages is a comprehensive history of the town as was known at the time in an extremely readable style. There are illustrated plates included in the book which are familiar to many people as pictures in their own right.  The only possible chapters now contested are the sections describing Lewes as a Roman garrison.

Gideon’s parents Thomas & Sarah Mantell

In 1776 Thomas Mantell, promounced Mantle, married Sarah Austin born 25 Nov 1755 from Peckam Kent and lived together in 16 St Mary’s Lane, Lewes. Thomas Mantell born 21 April 1750 signed himself in documents as a Cordwainer, or shoe maker. He did however also own various buildings in St Mary’s Lane, Fisher Street, St John’s Street and Lancaster Street as well as the Methodist chapel he had built in St Mary’s Lane by the time of his death on 11 July 1807. The first Thomas Mantell came to Lewes in the 1550s and took up important roles in the governing of the town such as Headborough in 1562 and Constable in 1572. The full family story is told in the 2008 book by Dennis Dean Gideon Mantell and the Discovery of Dinosaurs http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gideon-Mantell-Discovery-Dinosaurs-Dennis/dp/0521088178

Thomas and Sarah’s fifth child was Gideon Algernon born 3 February 1790 whose middle name reflected his father’s admiration for Algernon Sidney, a republican hero. Together living with Gideon and his parents were older sister Mary (their first child Sarah had died in infancy) and brothers Thomas and Samuel. Later they were joined by younger siblings Joshua, Jemima and, when Sarah was aged about forty five, her eighth child Kezia.

Thomas founded a Methodist chapel opposite the house on St Mary’s Lane in 1788 where Gideon was baptised by the Rev George Barnard on 8 September 1790. Thomas Mantell died in 1807 and was buried in his parish church, St John sub Castro graveyard along with other members of the Mantell family. In 1812 Gideon is recorded as back from London living with Sarah who was listed as owner of the family home, before taking up his medical practice with Dr Moore on the High Street around the corner. In December 1828 Sarah died age 73, Gideon wrote in his diary “my poor mother was interred this morning in a steined grave close to my father, who was buried 22 years since”.

Grave of Thomas and Sarah Mantell, Gideon’s parents

Gideon Mantell in the news

They’re Back a recent Guardian article on Dinosaurs made much of Richard Owen and his dinosaour park at Crystal Palace but seemed to have totally overlooked Mantell’s contribution to the story by his finding and naming of the Iguanodon. A letter in the Guardian 19 June 2015 has attempted to put this right  http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jun/18/monster-dinosaur-find-deserves-recognition

The long standing rivalry between Owen and Mantell was well described in Deborah Cadbury’s book Dinosaur Hunters: A True Story of Scientific Rivalry and the Discovery of the Prehistoric World. Fourth Estate; 2000 (reviewed here  http://www.theguardian.com/books/2000/oct/15/historybooks.scienceandnature).

Booth Museum of Natural History

If you are in Dyke Road in Brighton do not forget to visit the collection of fossils in the Booth Museum. There is a description of what you can see on their website http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/discover/collections/natural-sciences/fossil-collection-catalogue/ Here you can also read about the origins of the Booth Museum and how Mantell ended up in Brighton with his own museum collection of fossils and natural specimens.

Thanks to John A. Cooper BSc AMA FGS Keeper of Natural Sciences, Booth Museum of Natural History, 194 Dyke Road ,Brighton, BN1 5AA