Darwin's Garden Earthworm Weekend

Saturday, October 21, 2017 to Sunday, October 22, 2017
FULLY BOOKED

This two day non-residential event is a great way to get into earthworm recording. If you have some experience of recording earthworms, this event is an ideal opportunity to hone your skills and spend time with like-minded people finding out more about Shropshire's earthworms.

Charles Darwin, who grew up in Shrewsbury, was fascinated by earthworms. 'The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms, with Observations on their Habits', (also known, more snappily, as 'Worms' or 'Earthworms') was this final publication. Despite being his last book, it outsold all his others during his lifetime! As a child, Darwin lived at the family home, The Mount, in Shrewsbury and The Shropshire Wildlife Trust (SWT) recently purchased part of its garden as a reserve.

On the Saturday, with the permission of SWT, we will be sampling earthworms in Darwin's garden and afterwards in the grounds of Preston Montford Field Centre. Whilst in Darwin's Garden, we will be given an introduction to the new reserve from a local Darwin expert! On Sunday we will be identifying the earthworms we collected under the microscope in the classroom at Preston Montford. Attendees are more than welcome to bring along other earthworms for identification, e.g. those collected from their own gardens.

There is a flat fee of £10 to cover the entire two days. Participants are welcome to attend either one or both days. If you are new to earthworm identification, you will get the most out of the weekend by attending both days.

Please note:

  • the course involves the collection and preservation of earthworms for identification, and
  • the course fee does not include accommodation or food - please bring a packed lunch on both days.