reading rocks
Geologist and writer Ian Jackson reads a selection of stories from pages of his five books about northern rocks and their connections with our landscape ….and us. The stories of this first series – Time travelling - begin almost 500 million years ago and end with the Roman conquest of the north.
Episodes
25 episodes
The garden of Eden
A journey from source to sea but this time the Irish sea. The River Eden starts in the south and flows north before turning west near Carlisle and heading to the Solway estuary. There are quite a few places we’ve already visited along the river...
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Season 4
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Episode 5
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14:07
There's only one Tyne
Since the last episode we and the river have flowed past Newbrough with its definite Roam road and indefinite Roman fort and go and on through Hexham. Both places described in previous episodes. The Tyne is now a single river. Waters meet...
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Episode 4
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14:47
Seduced by Silver but sustained by lead
We begin quite a way up the South Tyne Valley – appropriately at a place called Tynehead to try to get to the bottom of the many stories about the Romans and silver mining in the north. The metals theme continues with stops and stories at a pre...
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Season 4
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Episode 3
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13:52
The Tees - from the moors to the coast
This is a journey from moors above the middle reaches of the River Tees near Barnard Castle to its mouth where it empties into Hartlepool Bay. Along the way the plan is to look at some prehistoric rock art at Barningham, celebrate the merits of...
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Season 4
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Episode 2
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14:37
A trip down the Tees
The first of our journeys is along the River Tees. The Tees has its headwaters way up in the Pennines, in the Carboniferous rocks just east of Cross Fell, but downstream of Cow Green Reservoir it cuts through some of the oldest rocks in Norther...
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Season 4
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Episode 1
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13:35
The far east
The episode title of this section of the Roman Rock Trail isn’t perfect – as we are starting in west Durham in a place called Lanchester, then returning to the Wall at Heddon – a village which owes its position to its hard sandstone bedrock res...
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Season 3
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Episode 7
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15:43
Scratching the surface
This episode initially takes us from Chesters on the Wall to Hexham. South of the Wall but very much a gateway and one with some important recycled Roman rocks. Then back to close to the Wall at Fallowfield before jumping back south to Roman Co...
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Season 3
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Episode 6
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16:40
Hard rock and hard water
All of these podcasts are geological but this episode is three-quarters pure rock. First the plan is to look closely at the rock that provided the mortar for the wall – limestone – did the Romans use it to sweeten these northern soils too – the...
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Season 3
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Episode 5
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14:51
Channels and minerals
Time to descend into and out of one of the classic components of this frontier landscape - one of the "gaps". You have already experienced a few and today there will be a few more. But your legs need a break so we are going to deviate south of ...
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Season 3
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Episode 4
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15:56
Forts, castles and camps
We are starting at Bewcastle Fort around 10 kilometres north of Hadrians Wall – well that’s as the crow flies. But then we will be returning the Wall and some of its most dramatic landscapes and archaeology. From a ruined medieval Thirlwall Cas...
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Season 3
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Episode 3
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17:49
Some Wall at last
Our journey east continues, we are about one and a half kilometres north east of Lanercost just over the line dividing the red St Bees Sandstone bedrock from grey brown Carboniferous rocks – although there is no bedrock to see here – its covere...
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Season 3
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Episode 2
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14:39
The western front
Series 3 is an extended Hadrian’s Wall rock trail with little side trips and the first episode will start just north of a little seaside town called Maryport on the southern coast of the Solway Firth and head north and then east. We will ...
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Season 3
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Episode 1
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17:30
The bedrock of our heritage
We are so lucky in the north – apart from having far more open space than most people those open spaces have some of the most spectacular landscapes in Britain. Our northern landscapes are a result of our geology and their biodiversity and cult...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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16:33
The ground rules
The episode title does have a double meaning – the rocks and deposits that lie beneath us have a very strong controlling influence on what we do to our planet and what we don’t do and what we shouldn’t. They may take time to assert that influen...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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19:07
Rocks to riches Part two
There are so many places across the north of England that show us how the human race has depended on rocks that I felt this topic needed at least 2 episodes. The last episode explored the origins of stone axes, copper, iron and lead ores,...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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18:47
Rocks to riches
It is difficult to overstate how dependent we humans are on the resources geology – rocks – provide. It was rock that first provided prehistoric people with shelter and with the raw materials for their tools and weapons, jewellery and pots. Sto...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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18:45
Lives in stone
This second episode explores those northern rocks that are the domain of palaeontologists – rocks that contain fossils. These remains of lives long ago from sea shells to dinosaurs are one of the three aspects of geology that - along with earth...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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13:25
A restless north
This first episode of Series two - called a restless north - takes a look at how dynamic our land has been (and still is!). At least once or twice a year we are reminded of the awesome but terrifying power of the planet by catastrophic earthqua...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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14:03
THE BLACK THREAD – Part Two
Part two of this short geo-fiction story looks forward 40 years and 100,000 years. It may be a speculative look into our future but it draws nonetheless on forensic climate projections and impacts which have been generated by reputable scientis...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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15:26
THE BLACK THREAD a bit of geo-fiction for a change – Part One
Reading the story of the Earth through its rocks has been likened to reading a book with 90% of its pages missing. An incredible tale and fertile ground for the imagination for sure. But everything in this two-part short story is based on sound...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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16:20
The return of humans
Its time to get to grips with how people and rocks connect. And first in ancient societies. So we will be occupying the overlap – more no-mans-land – between geology and archaeology. The two subjects - just like rocks and humans - are ine...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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21:26
Freeze and thaw
Our tectonic plates continued their erratic waltz north. All the while billions of tonnes of sediments were deposited, turned to rock, tilted up here and there and then eroded away. 60 million years ago lava started to pour out of an enormous r...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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21:20
Red Deserts, salty seas, and an intruder
This episode starts with injection of molten rock across northern England a rock that is responsible for a huge chunk of our tourist economy. Then it takes a tour of hot deserts, evaporating salty seas, and finally our secret bit of every...
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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18:01