Fossil shop is last of dying breed
IT IS the unique Black Country shop where a woolly mammoth’s limb can be yours for just £200.
A tyrannosaurus rex tooth is a bargain and even the molars of a megalodon – a long lost, 60 foot shark – won’t leave a gaping hole in your pocket.
The hundreds of fossils on display at Soap and Stone belong to creatures that died out millions of years ago.
But now the Dudley that houses them is the dying breed.
In Victorian times, when hundreds combed the area for prehistoric bugs, the town was littered with fossil shops. The high street, alone, boasted three.
Now there are only two in the whole borough.
Soon there will be just one because the Black Country Museum’s rock and fossil shop is set to close within days.
There are reasons for the slide towards extinction, says Soap and Stone boss John Barlow, whose partner Kelly Hartland runs the bath bombs side of the business.
“There’s only a finite number of fossils out there,” says the 20-yearold. “Once the T.rex tooth has gone, it’s gone.”
Stricter regulations over fossil hunting – you can no longer simply take a spade to Dudley’s hotspots – mean most prized examples come from collections.
That source will not last forever. The clampdown has made the town’s most famous fossil, the trilobite – an early, crab-like insect that features on Dudley’s coat of arms – very rare indeed.
Over a century ago, the ‘Dudley Bug’ was hacked from the limestone of Wren’s Nest and Mons Hill in great numbers.
“Now, if you can find one in good condition, it will set you back by £500 and upward,” says Mr Barlow. “Mind you, we have a trilobite from Morocco that’s priced at £995.”
business last of a
Tellingly, not one fossil at Soap and Stone is from Dudley, yet they are still out there.
They date back to a time when Dudley was submerged by a tropical sea. They are 428 million years old and grew at a time before even dinosaurs roamed the planet.
The treasure trove of loose rock at Wren’s Nest has sprung many surprises. Nineteenth century quarry workers would often come across exotic species.
The American Museum of Natural History website states: “Such was the era’s enthusiasm for the Wren’s Nest fauna that when the famed Scottish geologist Sir Roderick Murchison would lecture on Dudley’s fossils, his talks would often attract incredible throngs.
“Over the ensuing decades hundreds, if not thousands, of complete trilobite specimens – representing 80 different species – were uncovered, with many of these beautifully preserved remnants ending up not only in museum displays around the globe, but also being handed down from generation to generation as prized family heirlooms.”
Mr Barlow became hooked on fossils during childhood visits to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. He began selling specimens at craft fairs and markets, then opened the Fountain Arcade shop in 2017.
And interest in fossils very much alive, he insists.
“It’s going very well, very strong,” he says.
“We are getting more people coming in and from all over the country. Now we’d like to expand.”
is
still