Abstract If working out a plausible story satisfactory to the majority of geologists was difficult for the Skiddaw Slates, and is probably still incomplete, things proved even more difficult for ‘Otley II’ and ‘Otley II‘P, as we shall shortly see. Getting an agreed mapping for the Borrowdale Volcanics, and an agreed interpretation as to the structure and history of the unit has proved to be the most controversial part of the whole story of Lakeland geology (though debates about ‘Otley II’P were perhaps more current by 2000); and the work done on this part of the sequence spun off into the debates about the burial of nuclear waste described in Chapter 20. Yet the basic idea that the Ordovician volcanoes gave rise to the BVG as part of a system of arc volcanism, in accordance with orthodox plate-tectonic theory, was never a controversial issue, though not all have agreed as to whether the volcanism was or was not wholly subaerial. Even so, the method of dealing with the BVG proved controversial. So too have been the tectonic implications for the structure of the Lake District, the relationship of the ancient volcanoes to the emplacement of the granites, and the role of these in the geological history of the region. As for the Skiddaw Slates, the Surveyors were again first into the field in the examination of the BVG. The principal workers on the volcanics were Peter Allen, David Millward (see pp. 168 and 191), Eric Johnson, Michael Petterson and Brett Beddoe

Abstract The Lake District, Isle of Man and Leinster basins lie within the Leinster–Lakesman Terrane, which is situated between the Monian Terrane and the Iapetus Suture ( Fig. 5.2 ). It is sometimes convenient to refer to the Isle of Man and Lake District pre-Caradoc basins together as the Lakesman Basin because they have a similar early Ordovician history characterized by a thick accumulation of mudrocks and turbidites, although the basins may have been separate entities. Following the early phase of basin evolution there was an extensive development of volcanism in the Lake District. The mildly alkali tholeitic composition of the volcanic rocks of the Eycott Group might reflect an immature volcanic arc built on a thin outer edge of the continent. The Borrowdale Volcanic Group records the climactic phase of arc volcanism. After the end of most, but not all, volcanic activity the Lake District Basin subsided, accommodating a thick sequence of clastic sediments in what is interpreted as a foreland basin, which filled and shallowed in its final stages. The Lakesman terrane was subsequently deformed during the Acadian Orogeny (Chapter 4).

Abstract We now come to a time when I have been able to meet and get to know some of the protagonists in the story of the history of Lakeland geology. The first two post-war doctoral students working on hard rocks in the Lake District were Ronald Firman (b. 1929), with a Durham University PhD on ‘Metamorphism and metasomatism around the Shap and Eskdale Granites’ (1953) and Robin Oliver (1921–2001), with a Cambridge PhD on ‘The Borrowdale Volcanic and associated rocks of the Scafell area, Lake District (England)’ (1953). Though Firman was born before Oliver, his thesis was completed earlier, being referenced in Oliver’s, so I shall discuss Firman’s work first. Ron Firman ( Fig. 7.1 ) attended City of Norwich School, where he included geology in his curriculum, becoming interested in the subject through the efforts of his ‘first-class’ geography teacher (Firman, pers. comm., 1999). Though hindered by the disability of mild spasticity and associated speech impediment, he attended Durham University, where, as a goalkeeper, he captained his college hockey team and regularly contributed to Union debates. Despite this, and his previous experience of fell walking in the Lake District, Professor Lawrence Wager cast doubt on Firman’s ability to meet the demands of geological fieldwork, by omitting to invite him, when an honours student, to join an undergraduate field excursion to the Lakes. In the ensuing ‘animated’ discussion, Firman’s response was ‘try me’! The trial was surely successful, for Firman participated in all subsequent departmental excursions both official and unofficial, in