Here we are at the 2017 Bakewell Show, and what a day it has been.
Having stayed overnight in town last night we started the day early in the main "gymnasium" hall and straight into the business of looking at minerals and meeting people.
The Main Hall During Set Up
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Our first port of call was Peter Briscoe at Steetley Minerals. Peter based near Retford in Nottinghamshire is both a serious collector of North Pennines minerals and very active collector and dealer.
Apart from catching up on new collection acquisitions and the remodelling of his mineral rooms, George went to work a put his hands some interesting recent finds from the Yorkshire.
Peter Briscoe's Yorkshire Minerals - plus a rogue Strontianite!
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For TVM we enjoy finding the things from lesser known British localities, especially where we have not worked on these before.
Midland Minerals Table Ready For Business
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The opportunities for finding new things at mineral shows in general has definitely diminished in recent years, and there has been much talk of new Health & Safety regimes closing or barring collecting activities in many areas.
Moving around the hall we spent a lot of time talking to David Walker Barker.
David is an artist, bottle collector and absolutely fanatical about fluorite and amethyst. I believe his artistic eye helps with his mineral selection and his specimens are generally superb.
Today we found a light assortment of Illinois fluorite, and I persuaded myself to buy a Brandberg sceptre amethyst. I have to say it is very nice but a little out of character!
His Weardale stuff is particularly great and George found one very good Eastgate yellow as well as another small pile of things.
As we were there Ed Loye showed up. Ed is an old friend; we first met up when were both starting out back on 2001. More recently he has been involved in Rare Earth mineral mining in Namibia
Ed Loye at David Walker Barker's Table
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Ralph Stufcliffe's Table Awash With Great Mostly English Minerals - But Where is Ralph?
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Taking the tour round the halls at Bakewell takes time and once we had got passed David's table the show was open and the place was rapidly filling up.
Second Hall Filling Up
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We next stopped at Mark College's table. Mark is also a seasoned collector and based in Derbyshire.
He always has a diverse range of Derbyshire and other pieces; having spent time collecting in Ireland years ago he usually has pieces from there. This year we found a decent Tynagh cerussite, and unusual fluorite and dolomite from Beckermet in Cumbria.
Continuing our journey we called in on Andy Castleton and the Norfolk team. Andy is a good friend and has a very good network for acquiring all kinds of interesting minerals.
At around 11 we finally made it into the smaller hall and in dire need of a cup of tea; however before we could do this looked in on Mike Merry. In addition to his usual spread of Cornwall and Devon minerals Mike was also offering specimens from Paul Lowe on behalf of his family.
These attracted great interest from collectors just about all day!
After a cup of tea and an immense "Millionaire's Shortbread" we encountered a true "new find"
Ed Coghlan has been over to Halkyn Mine in North Wales and has collected some pretty impressive calcite.
Typically opaque off white in colour and scalenohedral in habit, the crystals show regrowth with great lustre.
Halkyn mine was a lead mine, but reknowned for its fluorite and calcite too. Typically the galena and fluorite crystallised at the base of the pockets, the calcite formations along the roof.
This is exactly as Ed found things, however so far they have not encountered the fluorite/galena - which was also mined out.
A Larger Specimen of Calcite from Halkyn
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Peter Ward and the Greenlaws project had some newly collected material, but I was particularly drawn to a small selection of pieces from the Wanlockhead mines, plus a selection of pyromorphite pseudomorphs of cerussite from Caldbeck.
Of course all will appear online in due course.
News from Enrico Rinaldi is that the next Weardale Mineral Show has been organised and publicity started.
Details for Weardale Show 2018
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Whilst we were talking to Enrico, Ian Jones happened along. This is the same Ian Jones who's name appears in recent TVM Auctions listings.
Ian kindly let us acquire a good quantity of his old collection/stock and self collected minerals last May.
Ian Jones Himself
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Bakewell Show doesn't usually have too many displays, but the Russell Society always have a place to promote their activities and encourage new members.
Russell Society Stand
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They did have an interesting display of malachite from the British Isles including on absolutely superb specimen of malachite (over altered chalcopyrite) from Great Orme Head, Llandudno, Wales. The specimen was originally in the Richard Barstow collection.
Great Orme Head is truly a classic location, where copper mining originally started in the Bronze Age. Ancient antler picks and shoulder blade bone scoops are still being excavated from the caves today.
Russell Society UK Malachite Display
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By the time we had been around the show a few times the clock had ticked on and the place had thinned out by around 4pm.
This is a good time to speak to people who were too busy earlier on, which of course we did.
Second Hall In Quieter Times
We will be back in the morning for the second day of the show.
Sundays at Bakewell are usually calmer and more relaxed at opening time.
We plan to spend our time going around paying and picking up minerals put by. Nearly always we spot something we missed on Saturday.
We will get our errands run and be on the road by lunchtime.
I haven't written up a Bakewell Show visit for a number of years, and it is good to report that Bakewell remains a constant in the UK collector calendar.
Thanks to the PLMS for organising another great event
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