Pyromorphite

The famous Cornwall-based collector and mineral dealer Richard Barstow passed away at the all too early age of thirty-five, but in this short number of years, packed in much more than most people do in a long lifetime. Dick Barstow will long remain famous in the mineral world for countless reasons, but there is only one location which bears his name and that is the excavation at the head of Roughton Gill in the Caldbeck Fells of the English Lake District. Barstow’s Trench, also known as Barstow’s Cut, forms a roughly ‘W’ shaped feature high on the hillside and it was from this dig, made in the late 1970s, that this Pyromorphite originates. Deep acidic lemon yellow Pyromorphite crystals form a rich lustrous coating to a partly brecciated Quartz veinstone matrix. This is a really good example from this well-known British locality. Barstow’s Cut, although now back-filled, is still clearly visible on the hillside at Roughton Gill but, sadly, collecting is now strictly forbidden and enforced.