Jeremy and the bust of William Smith with his map, on a recent visit to the Geological Society at Burlington House, London.
I first came across sections of William Smith’s map at Bath’s Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) while searching for fossils from the Jurassic Coast.
William Smith’s map made a crucial contribution to the understanding of the ground beneath our feet and by showing the location of coal, iron ore, clays and other raw materials helped to shape the economic and scientific development of Britain, just as the country was experiencing the Industrial Revolution. It is a map that laid the foundations of a field of study that culminated in the work of Charles Darwin.