Discover Lincolnshire and Explore the Geodiversity and Fossils at the Louth Museum
- Wayne Munday
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
Sip back and discover Lincolnshire and explore the geodiversity and fossils of the Ludalinks Gallery at the Louth Museum. Established in 1884 by the Louth Naturalists', Antiquarian and Literary Society. Louth is known far and wide as the capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds National Landscape, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is also a treasure trove of ancient geology. But don’t be fooled by today’s gentle rolling chalklands which mark the highest point along eastern England from Yorkshire to Kent. Dig deep and you’ll find evidence of a tropical sea and later an ice-covered landscape the melt waters of which carved Hubbard’s Hills, the popular beauty spot on the edge of the town.
Being surrounded by so much natural and social history, it’s no surprise that a group of schoolboys got together in 1884 and founded a club which became the Louth Naturalists’. Antiquarian and Literary Society. Since then, the “Ants & Nats” has grown into a thriving volunteer organization that runs Louth Museum together with other historic buildings in the town.
The museum tells the rich and colourful story of Louth which begins with displays outlining the area’s millennia old geological history, featuring many of the spectacular fossil finds that have been made over the years and donated to the museum. These include ammonites, elephants’ molars and a variety of other fossils.
Louth’s geological story begins even before you step inside the museum. One of the first things you see approaching the entrance to the museum is the “Blue Stone”. This large lump of smooth, dark rock was deposited nearby more than ten thousand years ago by an ice sheet moving from the northeast.
The Bluestones of Lincolnshire are mostly glacial erratic's or non-local boulders deposited by Ice Age glaciers and are typically igneous or metamorphic rocks. Despite the name, these stones are often not blue, making the term "bluestone" a misnomer. The best explanation come from linguist Richard Coates who suggests that the term "Blue" may not refer to the colour but instead originate from the Old Norse or Scandinavian word blōð meaning blood or blōt meaning sacrifice. This theory is supported by Lincolnshire having place-names with possible sacrificial or religious meanings, such as Blod hou (a sacrificial mound) in Barrow-upon-Humber, Bloater Hill in North Willingham, and potentially Blotryngcarre in Scartho parish.
The Bluestones of Lincolnshire have served multiple purposes as meeting points, court stones, boundary markers or just as local landmarks. At the Louth Museum the Bluestone is thought to have been used as a mounting block (to help people get up onto their horses) on the corner of Mercer Row and Upgate in the heart of the town, and it also prevented carts bumping into the corner of what was once the Blue Stone Inn.
Louth has always been keenly aware of its local geography and has always put it to good use. But back to the present day, step inside the museum and the first gallery you come to displays a reproduction of William Brown’s remarkable panorama of mid-nineteenth century Louth. The next gallery traces the town’s geological history, and that of the surrounding Lincolnshire Wolds, with artfully created visual displays that condense millions of years of geology into easy to understand “at a glance” exhibition pieces.
One of the hallmarks of Louth Museum is that it puts a lot of thought into designing its displays to make learning about Louth’s story as inspiring as possible, especially for its younger visitors. You’ll also see display cases of fossils, animal bones and teeth that are millions of years old, and perfectly preserved ammonites in all their twirly glory, all of which hail from the Louth area and the surrounding Lincolnshire Wolds.
Naturalists will be enchanted by the insect and butterfly cases together with birds and four-legged fauna, and those with an eye for local history will be able to trace Louth’s rich and colourful story from Roman remains and Viking invasions to Tudor revolutionaries and Victorian giants, such as Alfred Lord Tennyson who hailed from a local family and went to school in Louth. Come for the geology but stay for the natural and local history at Louth Museum. It’s where the story of Louth comes alive.
Louth Museum is open from April to October and every day from Wednesday to Saturday, from 10.00am to 4.00pm, and admission is £5 with concessions being £4. Accompanied children visit for free and every effort has been made to facilitate disabled access. The museum can be found on Broadbank, Louth, LN11 0EQ, a stone’s throw from the town centre. There are a number of public car parks nearby.
Enjoy your visit...
