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Darwin egg from Beagle voyage found by museum volunteer

AN EGG collected by Charles Darwin while on HMS Beagle - and thought to be the last such specimen known to exist - has been rediscovered by an octogenarian volunteer at Cambridge University’s Zoology Museum.


And records seem to indicate that Darwin himself was responsible for damage caused to the heavily cracked egg after packing it in too small a box during or following his famous voyage from 1831-36.

The chocolate brown egg, one of 16 collected on the naturalist’s trip, was among the many items being catalogued by volunteer Liz Wetton.

Liz has spent half a day at the Museum each week for the past ten years where she faithfully sorts and reboxes the Museum’s bird egg collection.

She merely commented the specimen had C. Darwin written on it before moving to the next drawer.

But it was only when Collections Manager Mathew Lowe was reviewing her work that he discovered no one knew about the existence of this specimen.

He said: “There are so many historical treasures in the collection, Liz did not realise this was a new discovery. To have rediscovered a Beagle specimen in the 200th year of Darwin’s birth is special enough, but to have evidence that Darwin himself broke it is a wonderful twist.”

After reading Liz’s notes, Lowe and Curator of Ornithology Dr Mike Brooke, traced the specimen’s origin in the notebook of Professor Alfred Newton, a friend of Darwin’s and Professor of Zoology in the latter 19th Century.

Newton had written: “One egg, received through Frank Darwin, having been sent to me by his father who said he got it at Maldonado (Uruguay) and that it belonged to the Common Tinamou of those parts.

“The great man put it into too small a box and hence its unhappy state.”

Museum director Professor Michael Akam said: “This find shows just how valuable the work of our loyal volunteers is to the Museum. Only Liz has examined each of the many thousands of eggs in our collection. Without her we would not have found this unique specimen.”

Volunteer Liz Wetton said: “It was an exhilarating experience. After working on the egg collections for ten years this was a tremendous thing to happen.”

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EEDA invests £2million into Cambridge University’s Hauser Forum

THE driving forces behind Cambridge University’s ground-breaking Hauser Forum donned hard hats and high-visibility jackets at the West Cambridge site to see how work is progressing.


[Pictured: Dr Paul May, Dr Hermann Hauser, Professor Ian Leslie. CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO VIEW / DOWNLOAD FULL-SIZE VERSION.]

The visitors, including donors Hermann Hauser and his wife Pamela Raspe, visited what will become the new home for Cambridge Enterprise, the University’s commercialisation office.

The visit coincided with the announcement that the East of England Development Agency (EEDA) has invested £2 million into the project which will create a state-of-the-art enterprise hub to stimulate “open innovation” - innovative collaborations between clusters of academics, start-up businesses and established industries.

The Hauser Forum will feature an ‘Ideas Space’ for emerging companies and a seminar centre used to promote Cambridge research to the business and investment community.

EEDA chairman Richard Ellis said: “The East of England - the ‘ideas region’ - has a global strength in innovation which has played a major role in making this region’s economy one of only three to make a positive contribution to the Exchequer year-on year. EEDA’s continued investment in stimulating innovation is absolutely vital to prepare for the inevitable upturn and help drive UK plc out of the recession. We are delighted to back the prestigious Hauser Forum project, which will build upon Cambridge’s world renowned innovation strength to stimulate even more R&D activity and knowledge transfer between business and academia across the region.”

Hauser, of Amadeus Capital Partners, and his wife, donated £8m last January to fund the hub’s building work. EEDA’s investment has been secured to provide specific business support services within the Hauser Forum. This will encourage multinational companies, start-ups, investors and academics alike to come together through networking, training and research collaborations.

Hauser said: “I am delighted that the EEDA has decided to support entrepreneurship in the region using the new facilities available in the Hauser Forum.”

Ian Leslie, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Cambridge University, said: “We are very excited to be working with EEDA to extend and develop our experiences with open innovation into the region as a whole. We hope this connects regional industry better into Cambridge and improves our understanding of the innovation capacity of the region.”

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Great St Mary’s in Cambridge is ringing the changes

NEW bells have been cast to mark the 800th anniversary of Cambridge University. They will replace some of the most famous bells in the United Kingdom, whilst retaining their signature chime for posterity.


[Pictured: The bells of Great St Mary's Church in Cambridge are recast. CLICK ON ANY IMAGE FOR FULL-SIZE VERSION.]

The 12 existing bells, which are housed in the University Church, Great St Mary’s, include those on which the “Cambridge Chimes” were written. These later became the chimes for Big Ben and churches around the country.

Although the five bells on which the chimes were written will still be used to ring out the famous motif, the full set has become so worn that they need to be withdrawn from general use to preserve the chime for future generations.

A new set of 12 has been cast at Taylors, Eayre & Smith in Loughborough, and work has now begun to replace the old bells.

Great St Mary's has the only peal of 12 bells in the Ely Diocese. In 1793, the Reverend Dr. Joseph Jowett used five to compose the “Cambridge Chimes”, which were later copied for Big Ben and renamed the Westminster Chimes.

The full set is in almost constant service. They are used up to three times on Sundays for services and University Sermons, on Monday, Tuesday and Friday nights for practice and teaching sessions, on Saturdays for weddings and also other occasions such as New Year, funerals and for memorial services.

As a result, during the last 300 years, they have had to be re-cast, re-tuned, replaced and even welded back together. Structural problems, including the sway of the church tower, have also made ringing them difficult.

The new peal was made possible through a generous donation by Dr. Dill Faulkes, a bell-ringer and member of the University 800th Campaign Board.

“Four of the current bells will go to other churches, with the rest remaining at Great St Mary’s,” said the Reverend Canon John Binns, Vicar of Great St Mary’s.

“The historic ‘Cambridge Chimes’ on which the Westminster chimes in Big Ben were modelled will still be used to ring out that theme and will be preserved into the future. The new bells will enable high-quality ringing that will be enjoyed by local people, and at the same time will ensure the preservation of an important part of our history. It will be a peal of bells of which the church, University and city can be justly proud.”

Work to install the new bells is scheduled to finish in June. The intervening months will see a brief, necessary hiatus in the traditional playing of the famous chimes.

Dr Faulkes said: “As a bell-ringer and benefactor, I am delighted to help Cambridge University and Great St Mary’s sustain their important and historic partnership in this 800th anniversary year. It gives me great pleasure to know that these new bells will be enjoyed by everyone in Cambridge for many hundreds of years to come.”

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