I’m pleased to say that the hoardings around the glacial boulder in the University Old Quad next to the museum have been taken down.
Here’s what we’ve got about the boulder in our new Ice Age display:
In 1888, during the construction of a sewer on Oxford Road, an enormous boulder was discovered, that had originated in the Lake District, more than 80 miles away. It has been displayed in the Old Quad next to the Museum ever since.
The icebergs vs land ice debate was still raging. William Boyd Dawkins, the first curator of Manchester Museum, favoured drifting icebergs.
The Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, February 21st 1888
Excavating the boulder at the junction of Oxford Road and Ducie Street
Image courtesy of Buxton Museum
Filed under: Collections development, Curator's Diary | Tagged: geology, manchester, The Last Ice Age, The Manchester Museum |
Palaeo Manchester 
[…] Through the windows of our Fossils gallery a huge boulder can be seen mounted on a pedestal in the Old Quad of Manchester University. It dates from the last Ice Age and is thought to have been carried down from the lake district by a now long vanished glacier, carving out valleys and scouring the landscape along the way before it came to a stop on Oxford Road, not far from Manchester Museum. […]