Having studied Geography and Geology at The University of Leeds many moons ago, I always doff my cap when passing the Sedgwick Memorial Fountain in Dent when out walking.
I last passed it whilst hiking the Dalesway, an 82 mile walk from Ilkley over to the Lake District with Dent being about 50 miles into the walk. The memorial can be found on the main street and dates to the late 1800’s. It was built to commemorate the Geologist Adam Sedwick who was born in Dent in 1785 and rose up to become Professor of Geology at Cambridge University.
A bit about the memorial before discussing the man. The distinctive memorial is hewn from pink granite, with a rectangular base with a trough cut in and a drinking fountain. The large tapered rock has the name ADAM SEDGWICK carved in gothic type and the dates 1785-1873 carved beneath. This memorial stone, found locally and pulled into place by 8 horses and once served as the villages only supply of fresh drinking water.
Image courtesy of Lakes Guides - woman collecting water in the 1800's
Adam Sedgwick was born in Dent, his father was the vicar of the local St Andrew’s Church. He went on to become known as “the founder of modern geology”, with a certain Charles Darwin as one of his students.
Sedgwick was educated at Sedbergh School and then Trinity College, Cambridge before following his father’s footsteps becoming a priest. But he also was given the position Woodwardian Professor of Geology at Cambridge at the same time (This position was awarded based on other merits as at the time he had no experience of Geology!).
Interestingly, others noted how this intelligent man retained his “strong Yorkshire accent” whilst mixing with the wealthy and educated at Cambridge!
He threw himself into his new position, studying mainly the Geology of The British Isles and is credited for the system of classification of Cambrian Rocks – a series of rocks formed 538-485 million years ago when raised oxygenation in the atmosphere lead to a huge increase in the biodiversity of life on earth.
Sedgwick later worked with geologist Roger Murchison to define rocks orders in the Devonian and then Carboniferous periods before falling out over some classifications.
During his working life, his faith and research were intertwined.
But he would never let religious beliefs get in the way of the truth stating…
“No opinion can be heretical, but that which is not true.... Conflicting falsehoods we can comprehend; but truths can never war against each other. I affirm, therefore, that we have nothing to fear from the results of our enquiries, provided they be followed in the laborious but secure road of honest induction. In this way we may rest assured that we shall never arrive at conclusions opposed to any truth, either physical or moral, from whatever source that truth may be derived ..”
His reports and studies gradually moved thinking away from the diluvial theory of everything being linked to Noah’s Flood. He recognised how rocks may get changed via heat and pressure as well as the possibility of rocks faulting including the local Dent Fault.
Saying that for all his progressive thinking, Sedgwick never believed fully in his former pupil Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
He finally became President of the Geological Society of London in 1829-1832 and his work into the classification of rocks has led to his more recent recognition of him being the “father of modern geology”.
As well as the Dent Memorial, Sedgwick has a museum at Cambridge University as well as Mt Sedgwick, a mountain in Canada named after him. This Yorkshireman, from the little village of Dent, really did leave his mark on the world of Geology across the world.
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