In the year 2002 I found ,in the bottom of a box of brassware purchased at an auction,A small book with a handwritten spine "smiths description of norfolk"
It was dated inside 1807 and had various inscriptions which were all but illegible :roll: I took it home and placed it with my collection of East anglian ephemera,where it sat for about 12 months and during which time it was almost forgotten.
I was reading a paperback entitled "william smith-the map that changed the world" and on a page somewhere around 200/220 there was a mention of a book that william smith wrote on the history and geology of Norfolk.It said something along the lines of "Smith struggled to have any meaningful work published for lack of funds but did write a "description of norfolk which he gave a copy of to Dawson turner the owner of turner and gurney bank hall quay great yarmouth at an election campaign in Norwich in 1807,it is uncertain if this book was printed as a proof or if it was in manuscript form but it was lost to history when turner went bankrupt in 1853.It was known that samuel woodward the local topographer saw and borrowed the book as it was mentioned in one of his publications"
I closed up shop for the day and actually ran home and turned my library upside down to find the book,when I opened it it had Dawson turner's name written in it,and a letter from samuel woodward (who actually worked at turner's bank) thanking him for the loan of the book :shock:
I rang the professor who had helped to compile the book and told him of my find and he said "that is bloody impossible as I have been looking for that work for fifty years" so I replied that I would throw it on the fire then as it is cold in yarmouth today
He replied "NO do not do that,can you meet me in Cambridge on friday"
so three days later we were in cambridge sitting in a coffee bar with the most eccentric man you could ever imagine (not having met me )
He took photographs of each page and we set to work trying to build the provenance of the book and trying to discover where it had been for 150 years
I had to take several photographs of buildings in my town and at holkham where smith is pictured on the norfolk pillar in holkham great park.We discovered from other faded writing inside the book that it had been in the collection of James mann wordie who was the geologist of the shackleton expedition :shock: and who never realised what he had 
There was a letter in the book from jmw to the british library asking for some info on publication dates etc.and a reply stating "We do not have a copy of the work of which you speak so can confidently state that it was never published and your copy must be a proof" Sadly,James mann wordie died without realising what was laying in his attic rooms at cambridge,and the college cleared his rooms and sold his belongings at auction in 1963,the contents of the box were wrapped up in newspaper dated......1963 :shock: so this box was purchased by somebody in that year and never unpacked :shock:
This news travelled round the globe within 1 week and within one month had been in every geological publication on earth :shock:
Smith was already known as "The father of geology" and any of his early works were very well sort after. I got a phone call from a curator at the smithsonian institute later that year which was amazing as my name had not been revealed :shock: When asked how he got my number he replied"I read that an antiques dealer in yarmouth had found it and you are the only one so directories led me to you" he wanted to buy it.......
Anyway I am not a fan of selling our heritage to any other country so I declined and opened negotiations with Oxford museum of natural history,who have one of the biggest collections of william smith related paperwork in the world.
William smith was the first known person to be able to find coal by looking at the surface rock and studying stratagraphical layers :shock: remember that coal was the black gold of the industrial revolution,he also designed many of the countries canal routes and locks in the days before the train had taken over,and he was the first man to say that fossils were actually animals preserved in rock and not just put here by god to confuse us with his magnificence :roll:
after two years of negotiations we shook hands and the deal was done it was an amazing discovery and made it onto tv and to the times newspaper.
I still think it is amazing and sorry to bore you guy's.
It was dated inside 1807 and had various inscriptions which were all but illegible :roll: I took it home and placed it with my collection of East anglian ephemera,where it sat for about 12 months and during which time it was almost forgotten.
I was reading a paperback entitled "william smith-the map that changed the world" and on a page somewhere around 200/220 there was a mention of a book that william smith wrote on the history and geology of Norfolk.It said something along the lines of "Smith struggled to have any meaningful work published for lack of funds but did write a "description of norfolk which he gave a copy of to Dawson turner the owner of turner and gurney bank hall quay great yarmouth at an election campaign in Norwich in 1807,it is uncertain if this book was printed as a proof or if it was in manuscript form but it was lost to history when turner went bankrupt in 1853.It was known that samuel woodward the local topographer saw and borrowed the book as it was mentioned in one of his publications"
I closed up shop for the day and actually ran home and turned my library upside down to find the book,when I opened it it had Dawson turner's name written in it,and a letter from samuel woodward (who actually worked at turner's bank) thanking him for the loan of the book :shock:
I rang the professor who had helped to compile the book and told him of my find and he said "that is bloody impossible as I have been looking for that work for fifty years" so I replied that I would throw it on the fire then as it is cold in yarmouth today
He replied "NO do not do that,can you meet me in Cambridge on friday"
so three days later we were in cambridge sitting in a coffee bar with the most eccentric man you could ever imagine (not having met me
)He took photographs of each page and we set to work trying to build the provenance of the book and trying to discover where it had been for 150 years
I had to take several photographs of buildings in my town and at holkham where smith is pictured on the norfolk pillar in holkham great park.We discovered from other faded writing inside the book that it had been in the collection of James mann wordie who was the geologist of the shackleton expedition :shock: and who never realised what he had There was a letter in the book from jmw to the british library asking for some info on publication dates etc.and a reply stating "We do not have a copy of the work of which you speak so can confidently state that it was never published and your copy must be a proof" Sadly,James mann wordie died without realising what was laying in his attic rooms at cambridge,and the college cleared his rooms and sold his belongings at auction in 1963,the contents of the box were wrapped up in newspaper dated......1963 :shock: so this box was purchased by somebody in that year and never unpacked :shock:
This news travelled round the globe within 1 week and within one month had been in every geological publication on earth :shock:
Smith was already known as "The father of geology" and any of his early works were very well sort after. I got a phone call from a curator at the smithsonian institute later that year which was amazing as my name had not been revealed :shock: When asked how he got my number he replied"I read that an antiques dealer in yarmouth had found it and you are the only one so directories led me to you" he wanted to buy it.......
Anyway I am not a fan of selling our heritage to any other country so I declined and opened negotiations with Oxford museum of natural history,who have one of the biggest collections of william smith related paperwork in the world.
William smith was the first known person to be able to find coal by looking at the surface rock and studying stratagraphical layers :shock: remember that coal was the black gold of the industrial revolution,he also designed many of the countries canal routes and locks in the days before the train had taken over,and he was the first man to say that fossils were actually animals preserved in rock and not just put here by god to confuse us with his magnificence :roll:
after two years of negotiations we shook hands and the deal was done it was an amazing discovery and made it onto tv and to the times newspaper.
I still think it is amazing and sorry to bore you guy's.
