She grew up in Bridgend and attended St Winefride's Convent school in Swansea.

[1] Biggs studied chemistry and geology at University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire from 1924 and graduated in 1928.

[1] Biggs enrolled on a PhD at King's College London to study Scottish igneous rocks.

Joan Eyles, as she then became, completed her research but did not take her viva because of "domestic pressures" and the need to travel frequently to follow her husband as he worked as a field geologist for the H.M. Geological Survey.

[1][2] Eyles developed a keen interest in the history of geology and began to collect books and maps.