I visited this museum in the grounds of Birmingham University at Edgbaston with a group from u3a.
It’s easily reachable by train and a short walk and through its displays of fossils and minerals it describes the billions of years evolution of the Earth. Many of the specimens had thier origins locally, specifically the Wenlock Limestone of Dudley and as a result of mining Midlands coalfields.
The minerals displayed are an impressive chemistry lesson, it was nice to see formulas displayed so you could understand the colours relate to the metals involved. And proably the nearest I’ll be to a diamond.
It’s not a large museum but in a way that works better - you absorb a sense of the immense scale of the history being presented. It did reinforce just how miniscule our time is in the big picture, but that in itself makes the ‘now’ all the more precious. And it was a pleasure to share the visit with others just as interested in the collection.