[meteorite-list] The "Lost" English Meteorite

From: FERNLEA4_at_aol.com <FERNLEA4_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:55:41 2004
Message-ID: <5f.206b3dad.2969e0e7_at_aol.com>

Hi folks,
I realise that this is a long-shot and probably a wild goose chase, but here
goes anyway......
During the late 70's, a large nightime fireball was witnessed by many people
over London, England. I saw it myself and it was every bit as spectacular as
the Peekskill fireball, only much shorter in duration......it was breaking up
during flight with several smaller fireballs lagging behind the larger
fragment. The next day, a science teacher at a local high school in Sutton,
who had also seen it, gave his class a lecture on meteorites and asked for
more eye witness accounts to be passed to him. It was also mentioned in the
newspapers, then quickly forgotten.
This was all a very long time ago, but it's still the best fireball I've ever
seen and very fresh in my mind. List member Geoff Notkin lived only a few
miles from my home back in those days, so perhaps you remember reading about
it Geoff?
Last year, I was chatting with a British mineral dealer who told me about a
meteorite that he'd purchased from a finder in England ~20 years ago. At
first, I reckoned on it being another fragment of the Barwell fall, but soon
realised that it was something completely different. The mineral dealer had
been approached by guy in England who had found a rock lodged in his roof
space during recent repairs. Three or four years earlier, he and his family
had been startled by a loud "thud" on the roof of their house during the
night, but could not account for it afterwards.
A corner was ground off the stone to reveal metal flake and
chondrules......the mineral dealer bought it from the finder on the spot,
then sold it to a collector in America.
Although the dealer was primarily involved in selling minerals, he was also
experienced in meteorites and swears that the stone was meteoric, fusion
crusted and chondritic in nature. Sadly, he no longer remembers who actually
bought the stone from him. *&^%$"_at_!!!
Whether or not this meteorite is linked to the fireball witnessed by myself
and many others during the late 70's is pure speculation, but there's little
doubt that there WAS a fall onto a house in England around the same time,
which has so far gone unrecognised. As far as I'm aware, the stone has never
been formally classified....if it has been, it's certainly never been
submitted to the Meteoritical Society and probably still remains in someone's
meteorite/mineral collection in the USA.
I've kept some of the finer details back (names, places, times, circumstances
etc.) for purposes of authentication, in case this stone ever surfaces again
in the future. If you think it strange how a meteorite can lodge itself
within a roof without being noticed or cause any leaks over 3 years, there's
good reason for that too!
We know when and where it fell, how it impacted, and the somewhat unusual
circumstances surrounding it's recovery, as well as the weight of the stone
itself. If anyone feels that they may have it in their collection or knows
who might, please feel free to fill in the blanks and let me know. There's
also a $20K incentive on offer to the mystery owner, should he wish to sell
it to me :-)

Cheers,
Rob Elliott.
http://fernlea.tripod.com/forsale.html
Fernlea Meteorites,
The Wynd,
Off Dickson Lane,
Milton of Balgonie,
Fife. KY7 6PY
United Kingdom
Tel: +44-(0)1592-751563
Fax: +44-(0)1592-751991
Email: fernlea4_at_aol.com
Received on Sun 06 Jan 2002 12:18:31 PM PST