On Monday 29 July 2024, a blue plaque was installed at Cantock’s Close, Woodland Road, Clifton, BS8 1TS. It celebrates pioneering work done by the University of Bristol’s Organic Geochemistry Unit.
The Apollo 11 lunar mission landed on the Moon on 20 July 1969 and Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on its surface. During his three hours of moon-walking, he collected 21 kilos of lunar rock samples. President Nixon subsequently gifted small pieces of rock and soil samples to the 270 nations of the world. Some samples were used specifically for research and our city’s university played a big part in this endeavour.
The Blue Plaques Panel had been in discussion with the university for some years about a plaque honouring the pioneering research carried out at the School of Chemistry. A commemorative plaque was installed some years ago at the entrance to this building, at the far end of Cantock’s Close. It was erected by staff and is a dedication to Professor Geoffrey Eglinton and his colleagues. The plaque credits their work in ‘establishing the precise nature of carbonaceous material in lunar samples using mass spectrometry’.
It was entirely appropriate for this plaque to be situated on a door pillar where science undergraduates would see it, but we were keen for commemoration in a more public area and for a plaque with a simple, potent message. Mass spectrometry is an analytical technique unfamiliar to the average citizen of our city, whereas terms like ‘moon rock’ and ‘Apollo 11’ have an immediate resonance,
This plaque is easily seen from Woodland Road. It proudly celebrates human space exploration and the rigorous analysis of that ancient, solidified lava sample from the Moon’s crust which took place here.
Gordon Young