In 1832 Henry De la Beche, an amateur geologist wrote to the Board of Ordnance and offered to undertake a survey of the county of Devon. This work took three years and so impressed the Board that they set up the Ordinance Geological Survey in 1835 with De la Beche as its first full time employee.

De la Beche petitioned early for a museum and additional staff. By 1839 a Museum of Economic Geology and a Mining Records Office had been established.

An Act of Parliament in 1845 placed the Survey on a more formal footing and it was renamed the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland. There were 24 scientific staff including six English field staff, four Irish field staff, a Palaeontologist, a Chemist and a Keeper of Mining Records.

In 1854 the control of the Survey and Museum passed to the Department of Science and Art and the Survey extended its work into Scotland.

An Edinburgh office was set up in 1867 and in 1906 The Geological Survey of Ireland became a separate organisation so the Survey became the Geological Survey of Great Britain, a name it was to keep until 1965.

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For more information about our archives contact Andrew L Morrison

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