By Catherine Tite, Volunteer
Over the course of 2023, many volunteers devote their time to listing and cataloguing the collections of West Sussex Record Office (WSRO). Catherine, a regular volunteer, recently completed a project to do this with the papers, notes and photographs of former Bognor Regis and Barnham resident Edmond Martin Venables. An amateur geologist and naturalist, he spent most his lifetime researching in local area, with his work then recognised and published during the 20th century.
The article that appears below was recently printed in the West Sussex Archives Society (WSAS) journal, The Researcher. Catherine provides us with a description of the life and work of Venables, which compliments the contents of this collection held at WSRO and is now available to researchers (AM 1669).
– Introduction by Nick Corbo-Stewart, Archivist and Volunteer Coordinator
One of the many jobs WSRO volunteers do is to sort out, list and package document collections that may have had just a brief listing in the past. This improves access to information for researchers, while helping to protect the contents. One such collection I recently worked on consisted of seven boxes of writing, images and artefacts relating to an inspiring amateur geologist and naturalist – in fact something of a polymath – who spent much of his life in Bognor Regis and Barnham. The more I discovered among this wide-ranging material, the more I marvelled at Edmond Martin Venables’ curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Living through most of the 20th century, his mode of life and ways of learning reflect so well the changes that took place in his 89 years. He was taught at home, devouring books, and developing a passion for science, history and illustration. His travel around the country was mainly by bus – timetables tucked into his field notebooks – and arrangements for visits to fellow geologists entailed handwritten correspondence with landladies.
Notebook of lists of fossil holdings, AM 1669/6/1/2
Venables was as a young man a fruit grower and poultry farmer in Aldwick, but the records don’t concern how he earnt his living. Although an amateur geologist, he contributed significantly to knowledge of geology, fossils, natural and local history. His special expertise was discovering the layers of biological evidence, mainly of the Eocene epoch, found in the London clay beds of Bognor Regis, Bracklesham and other sites locally. Managing to enthuse his wife, friends, children and other acquaintances, he involved them in fossil searches at certain tides over the years unearthing thousands of specimens. Photos, maps and specimen records refer to a group he called his “Mudlarks”, whose fossil findings included in 1956 rhinoceros parts at Selsey and in 1961 elephant, leathery turtle, horse remains and Neanderthal artefacts.
Notebook of lists of fossil holdings, AM 1669/6/1/2
Letters and receipts record hundreds of specimens donated to the Natural History Museum in London as well as to other collections in the USA and Europe. In fact, one genus (Venablesia, a beetle) and several species were named after him. A rare brittle star fossil was a lucky find. His contributions to the study of British Tertiary geology, fossil collections, journal articles and the Geologists’ Association 1948 conference earnt him the Geologists’ Association’s Foulerton Award.
Martin Venables kept his tiny field notebooks, diaries (sometimes using elaborate codes), photographs, drawings, letters, publications and lantern slides. He clearly learnt to experiment with the camera, and developed his own photographs of plants, fossils and animals. The photos also record of family and friends, particularly his older wife and fellow geologist May, and his pet dogs.
There are records from the Second World War, when he was a supervisory civil defence volunteer. Some more unusual correspondence includes: uniting with the astronomer Patrick Moore in a campaign against relocating the Royal Observatory; with King Olav of Norway about the Free Norwegian Forces in Sussex during the war; with Prime Minister Edward Heath to press for the death penalty for terrorists; with Margaret Thatcher to plead about damaging cuts to the Natural History Museum; with local naturalist Richard Williamson to share a love of wildlife; with fellow geologists to invite each other to stay and explore their local geology; with nephews and children keen on fossils; with newspaper readers seeking advice about apple varieties; and correspondence campaigning for a South Downs national park.
Sketch of a living organism, AM 1669/6/1/1
He was a founding member of the Bognor Regis Natural History Society and the Bognor Regis Museum, becoming the curator. He was secretary of the local Heavy Horse Society and an assessor on palaeontology for the Duke of Edinburgh award scheme. From 1940 until his death in 1990 he wrote and illustrated a column in the West Sussex Gazette entitled Selbourne Notes, covering many of his enthusiasms including insects, birds, heavy horses, fruit varieties, wall anchor plates, and the building materials of Bognor Regis. You can now find a blue plaque to Venables on the Esplanade wall at Bognor, by the grass in front of Marine Parade, where Venables grew up.
Having sorted, listed and packaged Venables’ records, I reflect that this sort of highly knowledgeable self-taught and slightly unusual amateur has become rarer in this world that values so much the more formal educational achievements.
References:
- Bone, David A: Edmond Martin Venables, 1901-1990: a Sussex Geologist, Sussex Record Society, 1992
- Bone, David A: Edmond Martin Venables (1901-1990), amateur geologist and natural historian in Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, Volume 114 (2), pp. 139-150, 2003.
- Bone, David A: Martin Venables and the Natural Science and Archaeology Society, Littlehampton, 1933-1938 in Journal of West Sussex History 77, 2008-9.
- Martin Venables: a man of art and nature in Sussex World, 25 November 2016
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