Cook’s ‘lost’ shells saved from skip go on display
BEAUTIFUL shells collected during an ill-fated Captain Cook voyage are to go on display in Northumberland where visitors can view them for the first time in 100 years and learn of their remarkable rescue from a skip.
The shells, sent back to Britain during the famous 18th Century explorer’s final voyage which resulted in his death in 1788, are part of a ‘globally important’ set of more than 200 specimens – including some from extinct species – which was believed lost for decades. And it is to be exhibited at Chesters Roman Fort on Hadrian’s Wall from today.
English Heritage made the announcement on Monday morning, and revealed the story behind the collection’s return to the public eye – which includes how a sharpeyed university professor originally saved the shells from a skip.
But the history of the shell collection starts many years earlier.
Described as a remarkable record of Britain’s role in global trade, it was amassed by a woman from Cumbria called Bridget Atkinson – the grandmother of John Clayton, town clerk of Newcastle in the 19th Century, who was credited with much of the protection of Hadrian’s Wall.
For Bridget, who died in 1814 at the age of 82, her worldwide collections were her passion and this enthusiasm was inherited by John, who grew up with Chesters Roman Fort in his garden and whose own archaeological collections form the basis of the museum there.
Most of Bridget’s shells were sold along with the Clayton estate in 1930, but around 200 remained on display in the museum before then being loaned to the zoology department of Armstrong College, now Newcastle University.
However, during an office clearout at the university in the 1980s, the shells were thrown out and they were thought to be gone forever.
However, 40 years on, it has now been revealed that a passing lecturer, Dr John Buchanan, had rescued the shells from the skip – and his family have now donated them to English Heritage, meaning they have been returned to the museum at Chesters Roman Fort, where they are also reunited with a giant clam which was believed to be the only remaining piece of the original collection.
The family of Dr Buchanan said the senior lecturer and marine zoologist had rescued the collection and the shells had remained in the family home for 35 years. Following the death of their mother, they discovered the shells were part of the Clayton Collection and “were delighted to return the collection to English Heritage for future generations to enjoy”.
Dr Frances McIntosh, English Heritage’s collections curator for Hadrian’s Wall and the North East, said of the extraordinary story: “We’ve always known about Bridget Atkinson’s collection but had believed it completely lost.
“To discover that the shells have not only survived but been kept safe and loved all this time is nothing short of a miracle.”
Dr McIntosh added: “As well as being a testament to Bridget’s character and contacts, this collection is also a superb record of Britain’s role in global trade in the late 18th Century, not to mention human impact on the natural world.”
Dr Tom White of the Natural History Museum, who has been helping English Heritage identify and catalogue the shells, said the collection includes numerous rare and protected species as well as an extinct one called Distorsio cancellina.
He added: “These would have been extraordinarily sought-after in 18th Century Britain, during the golden age of shell collecting when single specimens could sell for thousands of pounds.”
■ The collection will go on show at Chesters Roman Fort, near Chollerford, from today.