Several ancient boulders which were deposited by glaciers over 450,000 years ago have gone missing. There is now an ongoing hunt to seek their whereabouts funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The boulders can be viewed across parks in Birmingham, but over half of them have disappeared from the spots they were last recorded as being.
Around 1912, the boulders were somewhat of an attraction; communities traveled for miles just to have a photo with the ice age relics. People thought the boulders arrived in icebergs, yet they were discovered at the top of hills so this couldn’t be possible. Scientists then began to learn about the ice age which made the boulders become increasingly popular.
The Birmingham Erratic Boulders Project states that, “The erratic boulders of Birmingham and Bromsgrove came from Alrenig in North Wales, probably during the most extreme (Anglian) ice age 450,000 years ago when ice covered East Anglia.”
If you wish to read more on where the boulders initially came from, click here.
There is hope that by bringing awareness of Birmingham’s Erratic Boulders to the public, it will not only bring interest back to the boulders, but help provide information on the ones which were lost. The mystery remains unfolded…
