The British Geological Survey moved its first 30 staff to Keyworth in October 1976. Fifty years on, about 500 work there, beside 600km of stored rock core.

The British Geological Survey has marked 50 years at its headquarters in Keyworth.

The first 30 members of staff moved to the village in October 1976, from offices in London and Leeds. Around 500 people work on the site today, the survey said in its anniversary article on 28 October.

To mark it, the BGS invited around 70 former staff back to Keyworth. They toured the newer buildings and saw a temporary exhibition of archive photographs from the five decades.

From teacher training college to national survey

The site was not built for geology. It was Mary Ward College, a teacher training institute, which came on the market in February 1975.

The Institute of Geological Sciences, as the survey was then called, completed the purchase on 1 September 1976. The aim, the survey says, was a centralised office to suit a multinational geological survey. It took the name British Geological Survey in 1984.

Black and white aerial photograph of Mary Ward College in Keyworth in 1975: flat-roofed college blocks of two to four storeys around courtyards, a circular building and a tall tower, with a road curving past and fields beyond.
Mary Ward College in Keyworth as it was offered for sale in 1975. Photo: © NERC, supplied by the British Geological Survey

Fifty years on the site

The survey’s own timeline picks out these milestones:

Year What happened
1976 Site bought on 1 September; first 30 staff arrive in October
1985 Headquarters officially opened on 8 October, the survey’s 150th anniversary year; the National Geological Repository opens
1997 The Princess Royal visits the cartography team
2002 Core store and records areas extended
2005 First 3D visualisation facility installed
2009 William Smith Building opened by the Princess Royal
2010 Repository extended, with high-density racking for drillcore; Sir David Attenborough speaks at the survey’s 175th anniversary
2012 James Hutton Building opened, with the Geological Walk
2021 and 2022 More than 1,700 solar panels installed over the main car park

The National Geological Repository is the part of the site with national reach. It is the UK’s most comprehensive collection of geological material. The survey says it holds more than 600km of drillcore and 16 million specimens from the UK and its continental shelf.

The William Smith Building covers 3,000 square metres. When it opened, the survey says, it was the UK’s largest wooden-framed, open-plan office building.

What the survey said

Dr Karen Hanghøj, the BGS director, said the survey was “proud of our long connection with Keyworth and Nottinghamshire”.

“We look forward to the next 50 years of scientific discovery and innovation delivered as part of a vibrant and growing community,” she said.

What it means for you

  • Around 500 people work on the site, which makes the survey a large employer for a village of Keyworth’s size.
  • It is a research site, not a visitor attraction. The anniversary exhibition was put on for former staff.
  • Much of its data is free to look at. The survey’s GeoIndex map viewer shows geological maps and borehole records, including for Rushcliffe.