Lewes Fossil Festival 2017

Georgian Dragon

This Harvey’s Brewery beer is a seasonal brew celebrating England’s Father of Palaeontology. In 1821, Lewes doctor and fossil collector Gideon Mantell’s understanding of fossilised Iguanodon teeth, discovered in a Sussex quarry, heralded the start of the classification of prehistoric reptiles. Ruby in colour with a fruity aroma and a sustained, lingering bitterness https://www.harveys.org.uk/beers/seasonal-ales/april-georgian-dragon/

Allergy Advice: Contains Barley
ABV: 4.7%
Tasting Note: Ruby Ale with Pioneer hops. A hint of fruitcake.

This beer comes out in time for St George’s Day on 23 April.

A Petition against Slavery

From a recent Lewes History Group Newsletter Dec 2016

The 30 January 1826 Sussex Advertiser included a petition against various aspects of slavery in the British Colonies signed by 79 householders of the borough of Lewes. The signatories included the non-conformist ministers of Westgate Chapel (Thomas W. Horsfield) and Tabernacle (Evan Jones), the Unitarian gentleman William Boys, Baptist attorney John Webb Woolgar, banker Thomas Whitfeld, surgeon Gideon Mantell, ironmonger Nehemiah Wimble of The Friars, printers William Lee and John Baxter, butcher Benjamin Morris, auctioneer Plumer Verrall, bookseller R. W. Lower, draper William Crosskey and shepherd-schoolmaster John Dudeney. Many of the signatories were non-conformist Liberals but Anglican Conservatives were also represented.

Gideon’s father Thomas Mantell was a Methodist and had the first Methodist chapel built in Lewes in St Mary’s Lane next to the current Chapel Hill Antiques. He was close to the fellow members of the non-conformist community of Lewes listed above but died age 57 in 1807. He would no doubt have approved of Gideon’s presence amongst these signatories.

More on  Gideon’s parents can be found here

More information about non-conformism in Lewes in the early 1800s, the time of Thomas Mantell, can be found here http://home.btconnect.com/christchurchlewes/CC2015/files/Tabernacle_vol1.pdf

The Visit to Lewes of King William IV

King William IV and Queen Adelaide paid a visit to Lewes in October 1830. Gideon Mantell was on hand to record the event, which he did in a small booklet that he published after the event. This 46 page booklet was entitled A Narrative of the Visit of their most Gracious Majesties William IV and Queen Adelaide, to the Ancient Borough of Lewes, on the 22d of October 1830. Published in London: Lupton Relfe, 1831.

A painting depicting the event has been hanging on the walls of Lewes Town Hall Assembly Room until the beginning of February 2017. It has been removed for professional cleaning and is due back in the summer 2017.See news item about it here

We can glimpse Mantell as one of the invited guests who attended the event and wno sat for a portait to be added to the crowd scene (depicted next to the uniformed man who was Sir T Downman and a child). He wrote in his diary

“All week employed as usual! Today sat (or rather stood) to Archer the painter who is employed on the picture intended to commemorate the King’s visit to Lewes.”

Mantell’s life and reputation

Key secondary texts on Mantells’ life, work and times are:

• Cadbury, Deborah. 1998. The dinosaur hunters: a story of scientific rivalry and the discovery of the prehistoric world. London: Fourth Estate
• Dean, Dennis R. A bibliography with supplementary essays. New York: Scholars, Facsimiles & Reprints, 1998. Includes Gideon Mantell Bicentenary address given at Falmer and Lewes 1990.
• Dean, Dennis R. Gideon Mantell and the discovery of dinosaurs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999
• McGowan, Christopher. The Dragon Seekers: how an extraordinary circle of fossilists discovered the dinosaurs and paved the way for Darwin. Cambridge: Perseus Publishing, 2001

Also see Spokes, Sydney 1927. Gideon Algernon Mantell LLD, FRCS, FRS, surgeon and geologist. London: John Bales & Danielson contains additonal materials such as letters and other correspondence.

A great deal has been written about the rivalry between Mantell and Richard Owen founder of the Natural History Museum in London. See Deborah Cadbury The Dinosaur Hunters and  Owen was widely assumed to have been behind an attempt to undermine Mantell’s reputation immediately after his premature death at the age of 62 in an anonymously published obituary.

There is a description of this relationship in the recently launched booklet entitled Gideon Mantell: A Remarkable Life  mantell-booklet-second-edition (published in October 2016 to tie in with the Lewes Fossil Festival  and slightly amended and updated here). This 16 page booklet written by local journalist and author John May outlines Mantell’s life and works and his contribution to knowledge of these fossilised giant ancient creatures. Most people know that Mantell found and identified the Iguanodon but do they know that he identified, named and described seven other dinosaurs as well?

To read more of what people wrote about Mantell immediately following his death see the number one of four in a series entitled Momento Mori Momento Mori One which were produced in 2002  by Anthony Brook of West Sussex Geological Society to mark the 150th anniversary of  his death.

A book by William Edmonds The Iguanodon Mystery published in 1979 by  Viking Children’s Books is now sadly out of print although available via Amazon.  Aimed at the younger reader this sets out the story of how Mantell identified the early iguanodon from fragments of fossilised bones and teeth and how the interpreations changed over the years.

Find Dinosaur Bones around Lewes!

As part of the Fossil Festival Sept 2016 in shop windows from Cliffe Corner up to by Gideon Mantell’s former house on the High Street there were eight pieces of iguanodon skeleton hiding in shop windows.Many thanks to the participating shops and entrants. The competition is now closed. See below for answers.

The Iguanodon’s tail 

• Clue – Down at Cliffe Corner you will find bags full of tall tales!
• Answer – 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 by Cliffe Corner 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.

The Iguanodon’s back legs

• Clue – Like the shoe shop but isn’t. But it is in the vicinity. 
• Answer – 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

The Iguanodon’s pelvis

• Clue – Saddle up and ride off from here, let’s hope the saddle is big enough!
• Answer – 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.

The Iguanodon’s rib cage

• Clue – Tickle his ribs… maybe just an ‘ickle bit more to find them!
• Answer – 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. Read more about what is now called the Mantellisaurus after Mantell here

Recently palaeontologist Gregory Paul has moved our smaller southern England variety of iguanodon to a new genera, leaving us with only one Iguanodon the larger Iguanodon bernissartensis and a new genera of Iguanodontid called Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis (named after Gideon Mantell) in its placehttp://www.dinosaurisle.com/iguanodon.aspx

The Iguanodon’s neck

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

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.

The Iguanodon’s claw

• Clue  – Si says “Sounds like he would give you a spikey handshake coming up from the Station!”
• Answer- Fittingly this clue can be found at Si’s Sounds 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.

The Iguanodon’s skull

• Clue  – Down by the wishing well—Needlen’t be too difficult to find!
• Answer – 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.

 

The iguanodon’s lower jaw and teeth

• Clue– These teeth are not as big as a Castle but close! 

Answer – 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

Lewes hosted a family event on the last weekend of September under blue and sunny skies. There were activities and a theatre show 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 provided 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 worked with the Lewes Town Partnership 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 consisted of:

Saturday 24th September: a programme of arts, crafts and science based activities in the Linklater Pavilion.The programme included talks, and displays by professionals, together with an exhibition and souvenir brochure. Partners included the Booth Museum of Natural History, Brighton & Hove Geological Society, the Geologists’ Association, Lewes U3A Geology Group volunteers, RLWT volunteers, LDC ranger service, Bag of Books, author Nicky Dee and her http://www.specialdinosaurs.com/. Fossil remains of the Iguanodon from the Booth Museum were on display close up over the weekend http://brightonmuseums.org.uk/booth/what-to-see/bones/

Sunday 25th September: the street theatre Iguanodon Restaurant was set up next to the Linklater, with additional stalls including fossils and other earth sciences and exhibition in the Linklater Pavilion. Two free showings of the street theatre play, about the finding, identifying and naming of the Iguanodon were performed (12.00 noon & 2.30pm) This 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.