author

T. C. (Thomas Crosbee) Cantrill

1867–1931

A geologist and antiquarian whose work helped map the South Wales coalfield and parts of the English Midlands, he brought a sharp eye for landscape, industry, and local history to everything he wrote. After retiring from the Geological Survey, he turned more fully to archaeology and regional studies, adding another layer to a career rooted in careful fieldwork.

1 Audiobook

George Borrow's Second Tour in Wales

George Borrow's Second Tour in Wales

by T. C. (Thomas Crosbee) Cantrill, George Borrow, J. (John) Pringle

About the author

Born in 1867, he studied at King Edward VI Grammar School, Stourbridge, and Mason College, Birmingham, where he learned under the influential geologist Charles Lapworth and graduated with a B.Sc. in 1891. Early research on the Forest of Wyre Coalfield earned him the Heslop Gold Medal, and in 1896 he joined the Geological Survey.

Much of his career was spent on the detailed investigation of the South Wales Coalfield, where he worked for about fourteen years and helped produce memoirs and maps on the region. Later transferred to the Midlands, he became a District Geologist in 1914 and also contributed wartime reports on mineral resources. Colleagues remembered him as a skilled field geologist whose published work was valued for its precision and usefulness.

After retiring in 1927, he devoted more of his energy to local archaeology and antiquarian research, especially in Worcestershire and nearby areas. He died in 1931, leaving behind a body of work that connected geology with the history of the places he studied.