Leicester New Walk Museum

[David Entwistle]

With reference to the BIMS Museum Collections page:

Leicester: New Walk Museum and Art Gallery - Part of the Barwell meteorite is usually on display but the geology gallery is currently closed and not due to re-open until 2011.

I see that Leicester New Walk Museum Dinosaur Gallery has now re-opened and the Barwell fragment is back on public display.

[Kieron]

Thanks David,

And from there, I see they have produced a podcast/video about Barwell. It can be seen on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/leicestermuseums

[Barwellian]

Hi David/Kieron,

Yes....good video....enjoyed watching that...brought back some memories and added some more clues!

Cheers,

Graham

[msg-meteorites]

Fantastic video, thanks for posting David and Kieron. That piece pulled out of the hole in the allotment looks amazing!

Cheers

Martin

[David Entwistle]

And from there, I see they have produced a podcast/video about Barwell. It can be seen on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/leicestermuseums

Thanks Kieron, I'd missed the video. Very interesting.

Would it be fair to say that the surface of the large fragment suggests the body may have been oriented prior to fragmentation? I'm thinking that as the surface features (regmaglypts?) appear elongated and aligned in a particular direction.

[Kieron]

David,

I am not sure about the possible orientation of the stone - Graham might have some thoughts on that.

Generally I find that there is disappointingly little information/academic discussion about Barwell on the Internet, considering it is a relatively recent fall.

And while we are on the subject, there is a nice piece on display at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich.


Regards, Kieron

[Barwellian]

There was never enough recovered to accurately work out the original shape and orientation. There are definitely some wonderful regmaglypts hinding at orientation. The best piece I have seen was on show at the Space Centre in Leicester a couple of years ago....not sure if it is still on show...it was on loan. It showed some great flow lines and lips too.

When pieces were matched up and put together it seemed obvious that there was much more to be found....but very little more was, which has made me ever hopeful that some large pieces are still out there. There were reports that said it was seen to fragment/explode over coventry and split into 3 distinct pieces.

I have investigated a more recent story from a farmer about 20 miles down the line from Barwell. I worked with Derby University to search the area where he saw pieces fall using various quite sophisticated equipment...his report roughly coincides with the Barwell fall time and and dates even though he knew nothing of the Barwell fall....Nothing found though.

Cheers,

Graham