We're back again at the 24th Hayward's Heath Mineral Show organised by the Sussex Mineral and Lapidary Society (which happens to be my local mineral club).
View of the main hall, before the crowds descended
The Hayward's Heath show is the best southern UK mineral show, all the more remarkable as it is hosted in an area which is reasonably devoid of all things mineralogical (if you discount the odd bit of calcite and the occasional pyrite nodule). Such has been the effectiveness of the club that it is able to run a successful mineral show for 24 years, attracting all the major UK dealers.
The Dealers
Unity Minerals (Ian Jones) had a good selection of classic british minerals along with some contemporary worldwide material:
Unity Minerals - Topaz and Phenakite from Burma and China
Phosgenite crystal on matrix, from the Bage Mine, Derbyshire
Liroconite, Wheal Gorland
Bournonite, Les Malines
Proustite, Imiter, Morocco
Chalcopyrite, Carn Brea also carried a mix of British and Worldwide classic material, with specific emphasis on the material from the Philadelphia Academy collection, many flats of which were available for browsing.
Los Lamentos Wulfenite
Chalcocite, Geevor Mine
Aquamarine, Shigar Valley
Cuprite, Wheal Phoenix
Amethyst, Wheal Jane
For those micromount-dodgers amongst you,
Mark Wrigley of
Thames Valley Minerals had some nice large British mineral specimens:
Large British mineral specimens from Thames Valley Minerals had some fluorescent minerals which he was promoting next to photos of the specimens fluorescing:
Fluorescent Minerals were showing a variety of excellent Calcite specimens - apparently the best ones were bought before I got a chance to visit their table, but those that were left were impressive enough:
Bigrig Calcite Twin
Frizington Baryte
Gillfoot Calcite
Blue Circle Fluorite
Egremont Calcite
There were plenty of other interesting
and inexpensive items spread amongst the other dealers:
Malachite pseudomorph after Azurite crystals, 10cm tall. From Earth's Wonders
Sphalerite from Corrantee - Midland Minerals
Barite from Justice Mine - Collected by the Lawsons 2007
Galena from Joplin, Missouri - Roland W. Thomas specimen
Fluorite from Florence Mine - Rock-site
Quartz epimorph after Fluorite - Mike Merry specimen
Botallack mine, Cornwall - "Wire Copper" - Mike Merry specimen
Spessartine, Minas Gerais - Simon Hildred Fine Minerals
Chalcocite, Wheal Crenver - Simon Hildred Fine MineralsThe Competition Displays
For the third year running, the show has been running competitive thematic displays. 2005's theme was Fluorite, last year was Baryte, and this year, the theme was the minerals of Cornwall and Devon. And, just for fun, this year I entered! The cabinets were judged by Roy Starkey from the British Micromount Society and the Russell Society, and the winning cabinet was Number 5 - fellow mindat.org regular Ian Jones! (This is Ian's 2nd win, he also won in 2005 with his Fluorite display).
Cabinet 1 - Shirley Adrian
Cabinet Number 1 was from Shirley Adrian
Pyromorphite from Wheal Alfred
Close up of bottom right
Another close up
Amethyst from Wheal JaneCabinet 2 - Jolyon Ralph
Cabinet Number 2 was mine
Close up of top left
Close up of top right
Close up of bottom right
Close up of bottom leftCabinet 3 - David Aubrey-Jones
Cabinet Number 3 was from David Aubrey-Jones
"Pig's Eggs"
A closeup
Another closeupCabinet 4 - Steve Warren
Cabinet Number 4 was from Steve Warren
Closeup of the Woolley Farm Schorl and Apatites
Pell Mine Fluorite
Wheal Penrose PhosgeniteCabinet 5 - Ian Jones
Cabinet Number 5 was from Ian Jones
Berealston Fluorite
... and its history
Fowey Chalcotrichite
I look forward to seeing you all at the Hayward's Heath show 2008!
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Kind Regards
Debbie
Debbie Woolf
19th Nov 2007 2:30am