FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Forrestblyth]

Some of the many interesting minerals in Castleton, Derbyshire UK

Including the incredible local specific fluorite "Blue John"

[James Catmur]

Castleton still holds a special place in my memories, as I used to collect there a lot as a child and found some nice rocks and a Carboniferous trilobite, which I still have. My mother used to take me and a friend, aged about 9-10, and drop us off to collect together. She would then pick us up a few hours later!

[Forrestblyth]

It is a very fossilized area. I was very surprised to see the thick beds of spirifer bivalve and crinoid death beds. I was more focused on the minerals and didn't look too hard for more desirable subjects like trilobites.

What was your picking area. I was pleased to find a great variety of decent minerals in the long rake that stretched from the ugly cement factory up to the huge open cast working quarry. What an eyesore in so lovely a location. How anyone got planning permission for that monstrosity in so lovely a location is beyond me.

[James Catmur]

Back in the 60s you could go down almost any mine you wanted to visit, so we went down the Odin and Old Tor mines. For fossils we collected at Perryfoot in Perrydale and also on our farm near Hayfield. I seem to have a BlueJohn specimen on corral, but no note of when or where I found it.

[Forrestblyth]

Hi James, Derbyshire is truly the king of fluorite variety. your specimens show some fine zoning and colour variation from this area.

one location that less than 60 minutes drive from Castleton called Milltown is so full of cabinet sized chunks the hardest decision is what to leave behind. The floor and walls are festooned in clear and yellow fluorite. The picture is one bag uncleaned picked up in 15 minutes just from the floor of the quarry..

If you would like to take a reflective trip back to some of those wonderful locations I can recommend two great books that cover that area well