60 pages, full colour.

Mineral collecting in Northern England has a long and distinguished history. The mining districts of Cumbria, Northumberland and Durham include a remarkably large number of localities that are famous for fine specimens. Minerals from these locations are found in most of the world’s great collections. Although many of these specimens are ‘old-timers’, procured for the cabinets of well-to-do Victorians in the heyday of mining, the last two decades has substantially added to the number of discoveries and to our understanding of the mineralogy of the area.

The Shap Granite Quarry, on the eastern flank of the English Lake District, is one of the best known geological localities in Britain. It provides superb exposures of the distinctive and decorative Shap Granite, which are of international significance to research on the origin of granitic bodies and the formation of large feldspar megacrysts. In addition to the rock forming and accessory minerals, which have been described in the geological literature, the Shap Granite hosts a variety of less well known species on mineralised joint planes and in miarolitic cavities. These include bismuth-bearing, rare earth, and supergene minerals which have not been previously documented. We describe these, and summarise the forty or so other mineral species previously recorded from the Shap Granite.