Haydon Bailey being presented with his award by Nicholas Buxton, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, at the HNHS Autumn Meeting. Photos ©Tim Hill and David Utting

Haydon Bailey graduated in Geology from the University of Sheffield and has a PhD in Chalk micropalaeontology from Plymouth University.  He is a Chartered Geologist who worked as a consultant stratigrapher in the oil and gas industry for over forty years. He still specialises in Upper Cretaceous Chalk stratigraphy and was an honorary lecturer at the University of Birmingham for eight years until 2020.

However, this award recognises his extensive voluntary work promoting knowledge and understanding of geology, particularly the chalk beneath our feet and the fossils it contains. 

Haydon moved to Hertfordshire in the 1970s having been brought up in the Staffordshire Potteries.  He recalls that it was discovering chalk in his garden that inspired him to explore the many chalk pits and cuttings around the county to look for specimens and better understand its formation and impact on the landscape.  Some of the fossils from his early forays found their way to St Albans Museum and were re-discovered by Haydon in their store while seeking exhibits for the HNHS 150th anniversary exhibition. 

Haydon has been a member of the Hertfordshire Geological Society since the late 1970s, its chair since 2011/12, and is the driving force behind many of its activities.  He contributed a chapter to the HNHS publication Hertfordshire Geology and Landscape which was edited by the late John Catt, and the last geologist to win this award.  Haydon delivered the Gerald Salisbury lecture online during the Covid pandemic and has supported many other events. 

He has been the geological advisor to the Chiltern Society since 2008, supporting their efforts to mitigate the impact of HS2 and understand how to better protect  our chalk streams.  He has published many research papers, including one on the underlying chalk of the Missenden Valley.  

Nationally, Haydon is a past President of the Geologists’ Association and still serves on its council as chair of the Curry Fund and chair of their Awards committee.  He is national co-ordinator of their School Rocks initiative, an idea he and some colleagues developed to provide schools with lesson plans, rocks, fossils and activities that help teach the 'rocks and soils section' for Year 3 of the national science curriculum Science and the 'Evolution and Inheritance' section for Year 6.  Nearly 12,000 pupils in around 140 schools have benefited, including some in Hertfordshire. 

Citation prepared by Peter Tallantire