Monday 21 November (Indoor Meeting): 'Bilston Stone Quarries - Digging up the Past'. Speaker: Graham Hickman (President of the GA and member of BCGS). Graham wrote about his family connections to these quarries in December 2010 (Newsletter 204). Combining his genealogical and geological research, this talk will explore the geology where his ancestors dug a living for themselves alongside the historical documents and evidence they left behind.

Graham writes: "As a small boy my father often told me about a sandstone quarry in Bilston that my great grandfather had owned. It was not until recently, however, that I managed to research the subject more fully. The quarry known as the 'Bilston Stone Quarries' had been worked from the late 17th century. It came into my family’s ownership in about 1830 and was operated by Job Hickman (1783 – 1855). He was the first of a line of my ancestors who worked the quarry for the next 4 generations.