Woolsthorpe Manor – The home of Sir Isaac Newton
While in Lincolnshire I visited Woolsthorpe Manor
Woolsthorpe Manor
It is the birth place of Isaac Newton. He was born there on Christmas Day 1642 and was not expected to live. Despite being described as small enough to fit in a quart pot he did survive to become one of the greatest scientists of all time.
He lived at home until 1655 and during this time his curiosity about the world around him, particularly light, water and wind led him to make many experiments. He also made a variety of models ranging from sundials to windmills.
After years at the King’s School, Grantham and Cambridge University Newton returned home in the summer of 1665 to avoid the plague which was spreading out from London where it was killing up to ten thousand people a week. The plague was not so severe in Cambridge but Newton remained at home until the spring of 1667.
During this time Newton tells that in the late summer of 1666 he observed an apple falling from a tree which gave him the idea which led to principle of universal gravitation or the ‘theory of gravity’.
Newton’s apple tree
Here is the apple tree which produced the falling apple. It has re-grown after being damaged in a storm nearly two hundred years ago.
Newton used his bedroom as a laboratory while staying at the Manor from 1665- 67.
In one set of experiments he investigated a beam of light shining through a hole in a shutter in his bedroom window.
Newton’s bedroom window
The bedroom window used in the light experiment is on the first floor on the right in this picture.
Board with hole
Today the window is filled by a wooden board which has a hole larger than Newton used in his experiments.
Newton directed placed a prism in the beam of light and found that it split up into light of different colours.
A prism dispersing light – Picture Credit D-Kuru/Wikimedia Commons
Or If you have a cut glass vase and shine light on it on a sunny day it will produce a spectrum on a wall which shows what Newton saw.
Snipe Dales country park and nature reserve
Snipe Dales is a country park and nature reserve in Lincolnshire. Snipe are no loner common in the reserve but we found plenty of small birds singing in the trees and butterflies rested on the grass paths through the woods.
In nature reserves it is always good to expect the unexpected and we came across a surprise in one of the woodland clearings – a rock with a map on it.
An interesting discovery
When we looked closer we made this discovery.
Can you find the stone on a map
You can use this information and the missing co-ordinate 53.2° N to find out the position of this stone on a world map.
You can find out more about Snipe dales at http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/snipe-dales
A visit to Skegness seal sanctuary
The common or harbour seal is found on the coasts of North America, Russia and Europe. In 2008 it was estimated that the world population was between 350,000 – 500,000 and just over 27,000 live on the shores of the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Seals can suffer injuries and seal pups can be orphaned but on the east coast of England at Skegness there is a seal sanctuary where injured seals and orphaned pups are nursed back to health before being returned to the sea.
A common or harbour seal.
A common harbour seal
Baby seals waiting to be fed. The attendant delivers an entertaining talk about the seals as she feeds them.
Baby seals waiting to be fed
I make a new friend…
A new friend
… who helps to demonstrate how the refraction of light in water makes the underwater body near than the head!
A seal helps demonstrate water refraction
I visited the seal sanctuary in April and recommend that anyone holidaying in the area should also make a visit. Find more details at Skegness Nature Land
A trip to Gibraltar Point in Lincolnshire
Last month I took a little time off from my books and visited Lincolnshire. As a bird watcher from my youth I had to visit Gibraltar Point a great place to see migrants as they pass up and down the east coast of Great Britain in spring and autumn.
It also produces surprises any time. A Little Egret, once a very rare visitor to the UK preened itself in the salt marsh. Avocets skipped about on the mud, once only seen regularly in Suffolk and a barn owl slowly flapped its wings and glided a metre or so above the salt marsh before disappearing into a wood.
The daily information board tells you what birds have been seen and what to look out for. I tend to think of it like an arrivals board at an airport.
Daily information board
An information board tells you about the plants and animals found on the reserve and about the action of tides and the wind in forming the habitat.
Information board
A view of the salt marsh as we walked towards the sea.
The salt marsh
We were surprised to see these sheep on the reserve.
Sheep on the reserve
An information board told us how the sheep were being used to maintain the diversity of the habitat – a great example of conservation in action.
Information board
Cowslips – one of the species benefiting from the grazing of the sheep and a favorite of mine from my childhood in the Yorkshire Dales.
Cowslips
Gibraltar Point is just one of six nature reserves managed by the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust. Find out more about it and Gibraltar Point at http://www.lincstrust.org.uk
Year 5 experience owls and falcons at close hand
As a follow up to the owl pellet dissection in Year 5, a visit was arranged to the Play Barn where Rapid Raptors were preparing their birds for static and flying displays for the summer season.
Rapid Raptors is run by Chris who has been caring for falcons and owls since he was in his early teens.
Chris of Rapid Raptors
The class gathered round the birds as Chris introduced them and explained about the lives of owls and falcons.
The children gather round
A barn owl displays the wings which flap silently as the bird searches for food.
Barn owl
The Bengal Eagle owl shows how it can turn its head to look in any direction for prey and danger.
Bengal Eagle Owl
The little owl displays its hooked beak and sharp claws for catching its prey.
Little Owl
The peregrine falcon cools off in a bird bath. It is the fastest flying bird on the planet.
Peregrine Falcon
Chris had brought some pellets from his bird sanctuary. The largest on the left is from an eagle owl and contains a rabbit leg bone!
Owl Pellets
A Fossil Hunt on the Jurassic Coast
The Jurassic Coast is England’s first World Heritage Site.
Liesl had to write a diary entry as part of her homework for school and chose to write about her fossil hunting trip there:
“On Monday 6th April 2015, my family and I went to Charmouth on the Jurassic Coast for a fossiling adventure!
Charmouth on the Jurassic Coast
A Tree Walk With Year 1
Just before Easter I took Year 1 on a tree walk as part of their plant studies. We walked around the school grounds learning how to recognise the different trees…
Richard Towneley and the rain gauge
For my occasional series of “Science is nearer than you think” I went three miles from home to Towneley Hall In Burnley, Lancashire.
This was the home of Richard Towneley (1629 – 1707) a man who made contributions to several lines of science enquiry.
A visit to sharks for British Science Week
This week is British Science Week. There are lots of events taking place all over the country, so there’s bound to be something fascinating near you that you can visit and take part in.
Or you could make a field trip of your own. My family paid a visit to a Sea Life centre to feed the sharks!
Getting ready to feed.
Here they come!
Gotcha!
Time to move on…
Take a rest.
Science is nearer than you think
To most people science has always been done in laboratories and local areas cannot have any connection with it. This is not true.
First – science was certainly not done in laboratories until about the seventeenth century in Europe, although chemical laboratories had been set up in the Middle East from about the ninth century.
Second – there were some people from almost every occupation almost anywhere who developed an interest in science and often made a contribution to it. This series of notes is taken from my occasional travels to find out about science local and nationally. Perhaps you might like to do the same.
Whalley Abbey and a bestiary
I live in England where there are many ruins of monasteries. They were destroyed by Henry VIII in the sixteenth century but before that they contained books of science which the some of the monks would study and copy and send on to other places. Our local monastery is Whalley Abbey and it was closed in 1537. Since then stone has been taken from it to make other buildings but in one corner of the cloister is a space where the book shelves once stood.
Although there is no evidence that I know of that the shelves may have held some scientific books. There is a chance that they may have held books such as a bestiary – a book of information about the animals of the world. The inspiration for this type of book came from Pliny the Elder (23 – 79 CE) who gathered information from others about the animals of the world. Some of this information was accurate but some was fanciful and the stuff of legends and all went into his books.
In the spirit of the awe and wonder created by a bestiary Caspar Henderson has written a present day bestiary The Book of Barely Imagined Beings based only on accurate information about the animals that share our world. To merge the old with the new I am standing in the bookshelves with it. I whole heartedly recommend the book to scientists young and old.
