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In introducing the concept of a crinoid in the Society's field guide to Wenlock Edge, the illustration chosen is doubly unfortunate. It is too well preserved to represent the specimens likely to be found by the nascent collector and represents a species that is not yet known from the area. A future guide could more constructively illustrate a species typical of Wenlock Edge, perhaps Crotalocrinites verucosus (Schlotheim).

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Specimens of two species of flexible crinoid from the Much Wenlock Limestone Formation at Dudley, Lecanocrinus bacchus (Salter) and Icthyocrinus pyriformis (Phillips), in the collections of the Natural History Museum, London, were erroneously given the same registration number by a curator in 1871. This mistake has only just been recognised. Previous confusion caused by this error is indicated by the series of changes to the handwritten entries in the specimen register.

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The Much Wenlock Limestone Formation continues to provide new data and insights to geologists and palaeontologists even after being studied for over 200 years. A specimen of the solitary rugose coral Dokophyllum sp. from the ?old? road cutting at Farley, near Much Wenlock, Shropshire, formed part of the fossiliferous debris on a largely overgrown and degraded site. This specimen preserves stark evidence of how it lived and died. After toppling over while still immature, the coral was growing around a tight corner, seeking to elevate the calice above the sediment surface, in which it was partly buried, when it is presumed to have died by burial due to another influx of sediment. Evidence for this scenario includes preservation of the sediment surface (now lithified) in which it was embedded, angling of the new growth away from the old calice so as to leave a wedge-shaped gap between them and growth of root-like rhizoids on the base of the new growth.

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The margins of the Cheshire Basin exhibit base metal mineralization associated with epigenetic processes driven by groundwater circulation, primarily of meteoric origin. Concentration of ore tends to be associated with sandstone and bounded by faults, both in situations where clay has created impermeable barriers to water flow.