Ambitious plans for National Prehistory Centre sees launch of £2m crowdfunding campaign by Fenland palaeontologist
A Fenland-based palaeontologist has launched a major fundraising initiative with the ambition of creating a National Centre of Prehistory right on our doorstep.
Jamie Jordan, who runs Fossils Galore Museum and Activity Centre in March High Street, has spent two years working on plans for the centre and has been busy looking for suitable premises that would help his community interest company Unearthed Discovery Centre CIC realise his ambitions.
To that end, he and fellow CIC director Sarah Moore, is hoping to raise around £2million through crowdfunding, donations and grants to help make the centre, which Jamie says will enable Fossils Galore to expand its laboratory work, provide more exhibition space for the museum as well as help provide training for palaeontologists of the future, a reality.
It would also offer better experiences for school visits as space constraints at its existing premises, which opened a decade ago, means only one or two classes can visit at a time, rather than whole year groups.
Jamie has enlisted the help of zoologist and TV star Nigel Marven who presented the BBC series” Walking with Dinosaurs” and ITV’s Prehistoric Park, and he has added his voice to a promotional video about the project on the Crowdfunder page.
He is the patron of Unearthed Discovery Centre CIC and Jamie said: “He is in full support of this project and he is excited to be part of the official opening.”
The Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire has also visited the March site to discuss Jamie’s plans.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has also been helping Jamie with the launch of the CIC and with pointers on making funding bids, including to the National Lottery.
Jamie said: “We have found suitable premises unfortunately, it is in Huntingdon and not in March, but we will also be remaining in the town as it is our home base. We have not been able to identify any buildings in March that would suit our purposes.”
He explained the laboratory facilities currently used by him and the Fossils Galore team means they can only work on a small scale at the moment, so finds such as theIndie the iguanodon unearthed by Jamie in 2017 and found in 18 blocks can only be worked on one or two blocks at a time.
With a larger laboratory, the time it will take to conserve and preserve finds and put them on display for the public to enjoy would be cut dramatically.
Jamie said: “I know it is a very ambitious project, but we are hopeful we can raise the necessary funds, as a CIC we can put in for match-funding which will help.”
The new centre’s facilities would include: a museum, hands-on activities for children of all ages and abilities, a ‘fish-bowl’ laboratory so the public can watch first hand the preservation and conservation of prehistoric finds, both a fossils and dinosaur walk with an emphasis on those found in the UK, a diary of events throughout the year, a 24/7 hub for the team to go to any reported discoveries, and a safe environment for schools and organisations to learn about what lies beneath our feet.
To support the project you can visit the National Centre of Prehistory Crowdfunder page.
Meanwhile, Jamie and the team have been back in the headlines this week after unearthing the fossil remains of a sea monster that roamed the seas millions of years ago.
Jamie was on a routine visit to a quarry near Peterborough – where earlier this year he unearthed a mammoth tusk – to study the rock layers to see if any more fossils had been uncovered by recent rains and excavations.
The visit at the end of last month proved hugely fruitful, when Jamie who runs Fossils Galore in March, spotted a few vertebrae lying on a heap of clay that had recently been excavated and moved.
A little bit of exploration led Jamie to the original location of the vertebrae and he started to dig down into the clay layer where he found eight more vertebrae lying together.
Excited by the find Jamie rallied the Fossils Galore dig team and together they continued to excavate the site and to their delight, they unearthed a total of 20 vertebrae and several smaller bones.
On examination the bones were found to have belonged to an opthalmosaurus meaning ‘eye lizard’ – a type of ichthyosaur – that were swimming the oceans 155 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
They look a bit like giant dolphins and could reach up to five metres in length.
The fossilised remains are now at Fossils Galore Museum where they will be cleaned, researched and preserved all in full view of the public who visit the museum, based in High Street.
Jamie has launched a separate Gofundme page to help with the latest discovery. He is hoping to raise around £5,000 to purchase specialist ground-penetrating radar machine, which will help in the search for the rest of the opthalmosaurus’ remains.