Programme of Events
The Black Country Geological Society’s indoor meetings are now held at The Lamp Tavern. The room is on the top floor and there is a lift. The address of The Lamp Tavern is 16 High Street, Dudley, DY1 1QT.
Unless otherwise stated, the indoor and Zoom meetings will normally open at 7.30 and lectures commence at 8.00.
Those wishing to attend field or geoconservation meetings please contact our Field Secretary (email address on the Contacts page).
Any non-members wishing to attend our virtual meetings should contact our Meetings Secretary for instructions (email address on the Contacts page).
Other contact details are also available on our Contact us page.
Updated 21 January 2026.
Members please check your email for any last minute changes.
Recordings of some of our virtual talks can be found on our YouTube channel.
Events in January–February 2026
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19 January (1 event)
Bringing Forward the Past: Black Country Geology, Past, Present and Future Bringing Forward the Past: Black Country Geology, Past, Present and Future 8.00 -
Monday 19 January (Indoor Meeting): 'Bringing Forward the Past: Black Country Geology, Past, Present and Future'. Speaker: Graham Worton (BCGS Chair and Keeper of Geology for Dudley).
Click here for a Google map for The Lamp Tavern.
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14 February (1 event)
Smestow Valley + Erratics at Wightwick Manor and the Mount Smestow Valley + Erratics at Wightwick Manor and the Mount 10.00 - 4.00
Saturday 14 February 2026 (Field Meeting): Smestow Valley and Erratics at Wightwick Manor and the Mount Hotel. Leaders for Smestow Valley: Smestow Valley Country Park Wardens and Friends of Smestow Valley. Leaders for Wightwick Manor and the Mount Hotel: Julie Schroder and Andy Harrison. Meet at Smestow Valley Local Nature Reserve, Meadow View Terrace, Wolverhampton WV6 8NX (Grid ref: SO 891 999), 09.45 for a 10.00 start. The morning will involve a geology and biodiversity walk and a chance to get to know the 'Friends of Smestow Local Nature Reserve' whilst discussing future opportunities at the site. Wear suitable outdoor clothing for the weather conditions. We will aim to finish this session around 12.30. Either bring a packed lunch or you can purchase lunch locally.
The afternoon session starts at 1.30 in the car park at Wightwick Manor, Wightwick Bank, Wolverhampton, WV6 8EE, Grid Ref: SO 868982. (NB: The post code is misleading: the grid ref shows the car entrance from the Bridgnorth Road, A454. See the map below). Meet by the ticket office in the car park where we will be admitted (without charge) as a group. Please be there on time! We will visit the recently cleaned array of glacial erratic boulders, and other glacial erratics around the property, and learn something of their geological and social history. Drive on to the Mount Hotel, Mount Rd, Tettenhall Wood, Wolverhampton WV6 8HL Grid ref: SO 874989 (see map below). Meet in the hotel car park at 2.45 – 3.00 (depending on exit time from Wightwick Manor). Here we have permission to visit the recently 're-discovered' erratics from Charles Benjamin Mander's late 19th century 'bouldery' (never yet visited by BCGS!) and learn about their connection with the Wightwick Manor erratics. Finish 3.30 – 4.00.
Click here for a Google map for Smestow Valley LNR.
Click here for a Google map for Wightwick Manor.
Click here for a Google map for Mount Hotel.
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16 February (1 event)
Spicomellus: the punk rock dinosaur of the Jurassic Spicomellus: the punk rock dinosaur of the Jurassic 8.00 -
Monday 16 February (Indoor Meeting): 'Spicomellus: the punk rock dinosaur of the Jurassic'. Speaker: Richard Butler (Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham).
In 2021, palaeontologists from the Natural History Museum, London (NHM), and Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University (USMBA), Fes, described a bizarre fossil from the Jurassic (~165 million years ago) of the Middle Atlas Mountains, Morocco. The fossil was just a single incomplete rib, but a rib like none other ever discovered as it had armour plates with long spikes fused to the outside of it. The team named it Spicomellus afer and hypothesised that it belonged to an ankylosaur, a group of low, squat, tank-like, plant-eating dinosaurs covered in armour. This interpretation was controversial given how incomplete and weird the fossil was. In 2023, our team from the University of Birmingham, NHM and USMBA returned to the Middle Atlas and collected a partial skeleton of Spicomellus, including multiple ribs, armour from all over the body, vertebrae and bones of the shoulder girdle and pelvis. This discovery proves definitively that Spicomellus is the geologically oldest known ankylosaur, but also that it is one of the strangest dinosaurs ever discovered. Spicomellus bristles with spikes, including a bizarre collar around the neck from which project spikes stretching up to a metre in length. I will describe the discovery of this ‘punk rock dinosaur’, how it overturns much of what we thought we knew about ankylosaur evolution, the challenges of working in an area where commercial dealers poach fossils for sale on international markets, and the potential that discoveries like this have for sustainable development and tourism.
Richard Butler is a Professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on Mesozoic vertebrate evolution, particularly the early evolution of dinosaurs in the Triassic and Jurassic. He is a field-based researcher, with current projects in the Middle Jurassic of England, Scotland, Morocco and Kyrgyzstan. He also co-leads the Earth Heritage Network at the University of Birmingham, which aims to bring together researchers, practitioners, and policy makers from across the natural, physical and social sciences, arts, and humanities to develop innovative, cross-disciplinary approaches to long-standing and emerging challenges around the protection and use of geological resources.
Click here for a Google map for The Lamp Tavern.
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