Greenly’s Grave RIGS site

GeoMôn Global Geopark original webpage

RIGS Statement of Interest:

Greenly’s grave is a RIGS to commemorate his outstanding contribution to the understanding of the geology of North Wales and of Anglesey.

Greenly’s grave has been selected as a RIGS to commemorate and honour his outstanding contribution to the understanding of the geology of North Wales and, in particular, the geology of Anglesey. Edward Greenly was born in 1861 and died in Bangor in 1951. He served the Geological Survey from 1889 to 1895, and was involved in the survey of the northern Scottish Highlands. He resigned in order to carry out a detailed independent geological survey of Anglesey. This resulted in the Geology of Anglesey, published by HMSO in 1919 as the Geological Survey Memoir, but partly at Greenly’s expense, and a new ‘1” to the mile’ geological map of the island. The latter is almost unique in having continued in print unaltered to the present day. He lived from 1920 in Bangor at Aethwy Ridge, College Road, researching the geology of Caernarvonshire and Anglesey. His wife Annie (née Barnard b. 1853) was his constant support in all his researches from their marriage in 1891 until her death in 1927. His other main works are The Earth, its Nature and History (1927), Methods of Geological Surveying (1930; with Howell Williams) and the semi-biographical A hand through Time (1938). Fittingly, his grave in Llangristiolus churchyard lies on Precambrian Gwna green-schist. Surprisingly, his gravestone is ‘red’ granite, thought to be the ‘Balmoral Red’, imported through Aberdeen from Finland. Its large red orthoclase feldspar crystals are set in a matrix of black and grey minerals. Not a local rock, it was probably his own choice for his wife who died 24 years earlier.

Geological setting/context: There are three main categories of RIGS selected for their historical importance: 1. Historical constructions (arbitrarily up to 2,000 years old) and/or archaeological constructions (arbitrarily more than 2,000 years old) where rock has been used and where the relevance of geology can be demonstrated. This type of RIGS can include castles, churches, ruins, lanes, walls, cromlechs and standing stones; 2. Sites or features related to the development of geological thought and geology as a science, such as sites where certain concepts or theories were developed or types of feature first explained (e.g. Hutton’s Unconformity); 3. RIGS commemorating the work and contributions of important geologists. These usually take the form of a monument (such as a grave) or memorial.

Network context of the site: Greenly’s Grave is one of a series of monuments in Anglesey adopted and cared for by members of Gwynedd and Môn RIGS Group. These sites include the grave of Andrew Crombie Ramsay (1814–1891) and the memorial plaque on Rhoscolyn Headland to Dennis Stephenson Wood (1934–2001). They deserve to be remembered for their outstanding contributions to British and Welsh geology.

References:

GREENLY, E. (1896). The geology of the eastern corner of Anglesey. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 52, 618–632.

GREENLY, E. (1900). On sandstone-pipes in the Carboniferous Limestone at Dwlban Point, East Anglesey. Geological Magazine, London, 7, 20–24.

GREENLY, E. (1919). The geology of Anglesey. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. HMSO, London, 980pp. (2 vols).

GREENLY, E. (1920). 1:50,000 (and 1 inch to 1 mile) Geological Map of Anglesey. Geological Survey of Great Britain, Special Sheet No. 92 and (3 with parts of 94, 105 and 106).

GREENLY, E. (1921). Geological itineraries in Anglesey. [Privately published by T.A. Jones, Liverpool] 12pp.

GREENLY, E. (1928). Some recent work on the submerged forest in Anglesey. Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society, 15(1), 56–62.

GREENLY, E. (1932). The stones of the Castles. Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society and Field Club, 50–56.

GREENLY, E. (1938). A hand through Time; memories – romantic and geological; studies in the arts and religion; and the grounds of confidence in immortality. 2 vols., 774pp., 75 pls.

GREENLY, E. (1946). The geology of the City of Bangor. Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society, 19 (3), 105–112.