Press Releases
Explore the fossils beneath your feet
Date:
2009-12-04If you visit the National Waterfront Museum you’ll get the chance to explore the exciting human stories about innovation and industry in Wales, but now you’ll have the chance to see the remains of a 300 million year old riverbed!
In a new leaflet, Pennant Sandstone - the fossils beneath your feet, visitors to the National Waterfront Museum can now find out about the history behind the paving stones leading them into the building.
With funding awarded by the Geologists Associations, Richard Porch delves into the science behind the rippled paths, highlighting where they originated from and how they came to look like what we see today.
Quarried from Gwrhyd Mountain, Upper Swansea Valley, Pennant Sandstone is a result of numerous layers of sand laid down in a river mouth for over 300 million years before being converted into rock by burial, squeezing, uplift and erosion.
Speaking about the study, Richard Porch said: “I’ve always been interested in exploring the history behind the paving stones. Visitors to the Museum walk over these everyday and I thought it would be an excellent way to highlight what they were walking over. There is a lot of science behind the Pennant Sandstone and it was a great opportunity to be able to explore this.”
You can pick up copies of the leaflet from the National Waterfront Museum.
ENDS
Notes to editor
Richard Porch is a writer who likes to tell informative stories using local history as the subject matter. To him local history can embrace the prehistoric as well as the Victorian and thereby involving the broadest sweep of time and scope for learning. Richard Porch has lived and worked in Swansea for the last 24 years.
For more information about Pennant Sandstone - the fossils beneath your feet contact Richard Porch on 01792 636489.
Admission to Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales sites is free thanks to the support of the Welsh Assembly Government.
Amgueddfa Cymru operates seven national museums across Wales. These are National Museum Cardiff, St Fagans: National History Museum, the National Roman Legion Museum, Caerleon, Big Pit: National Coal Museum, Blaenafon, the National Wool Museum, Dre-fach Felindre, the National Slate Museum, Llanberis and the National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.