On Saturday 7 September my colleague Dr Tim Ewin and I travelled down (rather early in the morning) to Lyndhurst in Hampshire, where we were participating in the Hampshire Fossil and Mineral show. On arriving with Barry, the department’s trusty Baryonyx, we joined forces with the final member of our team, Dr Martin Munt.

Tim Ewin adding the finishing touches to our stand, under the watchful gaze of Barry.

The Hampshire Fossil and Mineral show poster.

Alongside Barry we had a selection of lovely new acquisitions, which Tim has collected from trips to Oklahoma and New York State. I was telling people about our planned trip to Morocco and what we hoped to collect while there (come back soon for blog posts on this from me and Emma Bernard).

The show itself had lots of stalls selling some beautiful fossils and minerals. There were also people selling books, and I bought myself a slightly battered copy of “A manual of mollusca” by Samuel Pickworth Woodward from 1880!

Some of the stalls selling beautiful minerals and fossils.

Alongside us there were stands from other museums and local councils, including Dinosaur Isle on the Isle of Wight and Christine Taylor from Hampshire County Council who had a wonderful patchwork quilt showing the geology of Hampshire!

Martin New and Alex Peaker from Dinosaur Isle showing off their fossils.

Christine's stunning Hampshire geology quilt (complete with fossils in pockets!).

After speaking to lots of people about all sorts of fossils and doing some identification we packed Barry back up and drove home to London.