The story of Charnia and the British Association Festival of Science

Sunday September 8th and Monday 9th 2002

Andrew Swift

This was a historic two days for the Section, which are unlikely to be repeated. Of course, everyone knows the story of the 16 year old Leicester schoolboy Roger Mason and his incredible discovery of the first British Precambrian fossil, later named Charnia, in a Charnwood Forest quarry in 1957. Well, you do, don’t you? No? Alright then, one more time!

Roger and two friends decided to cycle from their Leicester homes one day in May 1957 to the quarry for some very primitive (and probably very unsafe) rock climbing on the steep inclined slabs, which are in fact bedding planes. I have no recent pictures of the locality, but there is a marvelous photo in the New Walk Museum collections probably taken in 1882, which is reproduced below.

The discovery locality quarry in about 1882. The first Charnia was found slightly below the level of the man’s head on the higher of the two bedding planes to his right. (Picture © Leicester New Walk Museum)

As one of the boys was climbing, he spotted a strange impression on a bedding surface, with a very leaf-like appearance. He called to Roger, who was holding the rope, to come down and have a look. Thus, and it might be news to most of you, Roger was not the very first one to see the fossil. But he was aware enough to act on the find. Anyway, on with the story. Roger, who had already conceived a strong liking for geology and fossils immediately realised that it must be a fossil. But, then again, he knew that ancient Precambrian rocks such as those in Charnwood weren’t supposed to contain fossils – or were they? There was only one way to find out, and that was to contact a proper geologist to come and have a look. Roger’s father knew Trevor Ford from extra-mural teaching classes which they both taught, so he was contacted at the Geology Department and asked to take a look.

Trevor was, frankly, sceptical, and said so all the way to the quarry when they set off to see the ‘fossil’ a few days later. But he was in for a big shock, and he immediately realised that Roger was right – it was a fossil, and an extremely important one. For it was known that these particular Charnian rocks were probably at least 580 million years old, and almost nothing was known in 1957 about fossils in rocks of this age. Yes, similar fossils had been known from Australia for a few years, but no-one thought they were Precambrian in age. This find in Leicestershire in rocks of known Precambrian age established without doubt that life was in existence at that time, and that is why the fossil was so important, as well as being the oldest fossil in Britain known at that time.

Quarrymen extracting the slabs containing the two holotypes from the discovery locality in 1957. (Picture © Leicester New Walk Museum)

Roger’s story hit the local, and national, news and has passed into geological legend. Trevor rushed into print with a description and gave the fossil the name Charnia masoni, thus confirming the coup for Leicestershire. He went on to discover similar specimens in Bradgate Park. Trevor was then, as he is now, a leading light in the Geology Section, and that’s where our connection with Charnia and the other Charnwood fossils began, and has remained strong ever since, as well of course as the fact that the fossils are from Leicestershire. The type specimen of Charnia, and the holotype of Charniodiscus from the same locality, were removed from the quarry on January 22nd 1958 (see photo of the extraction in progress) to New Walk Museum for their own safety – and not a moment too soon as it was realised that crude attempts had been made to chisel out the Charnia specimen. The specimens still hold pride of place in the main geology gallery at New Walk Museum to this day.

The field trip party in Bradgate Park on September 8th. Roger Mason is pictured sitting, centre, (grey jacket) with Helen Boynton standing directly behind (blue coat). (Picture © 2002 Andrew Swift)

All that was 45 years ago, and memories were dimming when the British Association decided that their annual week-long meeting, the Festival of Science, would be held at Leicester University in September 2002. The Geology Department was asked for ideas for themes and talks, and Head of Department Professor Richard Aldridge thought that it would be appropriate to celebrate Leicester’s part in the story of early life by making this a theme for a half day’s programme of talks. And, even more exciting, what a good idea it would be to get hold of Roger Mason and ask him to lead a field trip to the scene of his discovery.

This might not have been so easy under normal circumstances, because Roger spends much time lecturing in China (as a metamorphic geologist these days!), but it chanced that he would be in the UK at the right time. Trevor Ford was summoned to do a talk, and Helen Boynton, who played (and is still playing) a major role in unravelling the story of the Charnwood fossils as well as having a wonderful eye for finding them, was invited to co-lead the field trip with Roger. Thus, the three main protagonists in the discovery and description of the world-famous biota of Charnwood were brought together.

Trevor Ford, Helen Boynton and Roger Mason at the New Walk Museum on September 9th with the stars of the show. No, not Mark Evans and myself! (Picture © 2002 Andrew Swift)

I was very proud to be invited to coordinate the field trip and get the Section fully involved, and in the end eighteen of our members and a further ten from the British Association were privileged to be in attendance on that historic field trip on September 8th. The sun shone, the views were marvellous, and Roger, still as fit as ever at 61 (note the neat transposition of the figures of his age when he first found Charnia), and Helen led the trip with great enthusiasm and authority. It unfortunately wasn’t possible to visit the actual quarry, which is hard of access these days, but we saw the main Bradgate sites and also the impressive but extremely enigmatic forms Helen found near Shepshed. And finally we went to Ratby churchyard to see the Teichichnus-type trace fossils in the Swithland Slate gravestones – are they really Cambrian? Answers on a postcard!

But that wasn’t all. Mark Evans, Section C Vice-chairman and geology curator at the Museum, had the bright idea to reunite Trevor, Roger and Helen with the original specimens in the Museum on Monday morning September 9th. This was duly arranged, a press release written and the Leicester Mercury turned up to record the event for posterity. I shadowed the photographer and took several shots for our archives, one of which is included here. The story, although rather truncated, appeared in the Leicester Mercury for Saturday September 14th, together with a photograph of Roger cuddling Charnia. On the afternoon of the 9th at the University as part of the BA meeting four talks were given with an ‘Earliest multicellular animals’ theme and all four, by Roger, Trevor, Dima Grazhdankin from Cambridge University and Dr Steve Temperley from Leicester’s Geology Department, were of great interest and were delivered with real enthusiasm, as good talks should be. September 9th was a busy day for Roger and Trevor, as they were also interviewed in the morning on Radio Leicester’s Breakfast Programme. All in all, a very memorable couple of days!