The 'Geologist'

Although I took geology at university to degree level I was never 'a geologist', because I never practised the art in the field as a means to a living. Many of my student contemporaries did - North Sea oil was coming on stream and there were plenty of jobs both offshore and abroad if you wanted them. However, I did teach the subject, both in England and in Jamaica, to A level, and I loved it.

One of the essentials in becoming 'a geologist' was fieldwork. Despite this I have no photographs of me on any of the many field trips I attended while at Keele but I do recall being told before the first one that a practical geologist's most important tool was a 'geological' hammer. My first hammer was the standard hammer of its day: it had a hickory handle, square-sectioned steel head with wedge end for splitting the rocks. Later, when I had a bit more money, I replaced it with this one, which was American and has stayed with me ever since.

The other essential piece of equipment was a hand lens. Most of the ones my fellow-students bought boasted a single glass lens while the one I obtained was second hand, with three plastic lenses.

Although its magnification was small, it was surprising what a difference it made but one had to learn how to use it. The first thing was that the lens had to be held close against the eyeball and the specimen brought up to it - which is how a jeweller uses a lens.

I am very proud of the fact that I have managed to keep my original hand lens because they are so easily lost when one is tramping round the great outdoors in all sorts of weather and in all sorts of odd places, constantly stopping to look at a bit of rock or a fossil or a crystal. However, as can be guessed from its dusty state, I haven't used it in years.

Later, other equipment became essential so, for example, in my last yers of teaching everyone had to wear a plastic hat. As well as knowing the sites to which I took the students - usually quarries - I needed all sorts of other skills, like negotiating skills to persuade very reluctant construction companies to let us in to their quarries, and passing tests which qualified me to drive a minibus with trailer. The field trips took ages to organise but I cannot recall one which I didn't thoroughly enjoy; and this was probably the best, with my last upper sixth class at The Plume School when we went to Shropshire, the year before I left teaching.