Kerbs and your enthusiasm
Sarah Day writes: as our contribution to Earth Science Week 2013, Geoscientist is setting out to unravel an urban conundrum – with your help!
Across the country, Victorian pavements and kerbstones are dotted with mysterious markings. Whether letters, symbols or shapes, no-one seems to know what these engravings mean. Following Peter Dolan’s June 2013 article (Geoscientist 22.05), our crack reporters have been searching for an answer; but not even the Worshipful Company of Paviors (est. 1479) has the answer. Quarry marks? Delivery instructions? Pointers to local services? Clues to a Da Vinci Code-style treasure hunt? We would like to know.
So, as an Earth Science Week ‘fringe event’, Geoscientist is calling on readers to help us build the largest kerbstone markings database the world has yet seen. If you spot a mysterious marking, snap it, use our handy identification guide to tell us about the rock it is carved in, and send us the information! You can find our guide at www.geolsoc.org.uk/kerbsurvey.
- Email pictures to [email protected], or tweet us @geoscientistmag using #kerbsurvey. The official data gathering week is 7 – 13 October.