Nancy Kirk

[3] During her time at Newnham College, Cambridge, she originally intended to study Botany, but soon switched to Geology where she receive "first class marks" in her final exams in 1939.

During this time, her father was employed at a local factory where he worked as an office boy, eventually taking on a management role.

For example, while she was attending school, she was known to bicycle home after the term was finished - as she was unable to afford to take the train at the time.

Her interests included art, gardening, and the admiration and collection of artifacts; the latter being a passion for which she saved most of her money, putting it towards any pieces that had greatly intrigued her.

[3] Kirk attended Mansfield's Queen Elizabeth's Girls' Grammar School where she won a competition in 1985, which granted her an opportunity to study in the faculty of natural sciences in Newnham College, Cambridge.

[2] In the year 1939, a time where women could not hold degrees, she was awarded the Bathurst Prize based on the exceptional grades she received during her studies in geology.

After receiving her doctorate, Kirk went to work in Birmingham at the university for two years before moving to live in her area of research, a country between Pontfaen, Breconshire, and Presteigne, Radnorshire.

Though her earlier work was not officially published, she had established a series of maps and conducted research around the Welsh borders.

[3] After completing her fieldwork studies at the time, Nancy presented her findings at three meetings of the Geological Society of London.

On one occasion, however, Nancy Kirk and Pam Robinson had been unable to attend a gathering after, as the dining club that the rest of the members had gone to had been exclusive to only men.

Eventually, she was able to convince them, but she had to shorten her written work in the end because the Geological Society due to rationing that was occurring at the time.

Fossils dating from the Middle Cambrian to the Lower Carboniferous are the main source of information about these filter-feeding creatures.

Her success was largely due to the use of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine specimens, and her collaboration with other previous works.

Kirk put effort into the brightest and weakest students equally, making sure all of them moved forward and were able to learn what she was teaching.

[3] In her three-acre site close to Llanatan in the Ystwyth Valley, Kirk had her rose gardens, but replaced them with other flowers such as azaleas and rhododendrons.

[11] After her death, the Nancy Kirk Viewpoint was created through donations by former students and colleagues, situated at the northernmost point of Pant Da nature reserve.