To celebrate World Earthworm Day on 21 October a “Worm Weekend” event took place at Down House in Kent from 25 and 26 October. This was set up by Tim Fullick from English Heritage (EH) and Dr Kevin Butt from the School of Engineering and Computing at the University of Lancashire. It was also organised with members of the Earthworm Society of Britain and EH volunteers.
The work displayed focused on Charles Darwin’s research, who studied earthworms throughout his life. Darwin published a book on their ecosystem services in 1881 about the formation of vegetable mould trough the action of worms and is now regarded as the father of earthworm ecology.
"People seem fascinated by earthworms and the ecosystem services that they provide. We’ll certainly be holding a similar event next year."
— Dr Kevin Butt, School of Engineering and Computing
Alongside static displays, the public could see living earthworms and cocoons and participate in earthworm collection techniques in the field.
Kevin also demonstrated a long-term experiment on flint burial by earthworms, which has been running in the grounds of Down House since 2007. This experiment emulates observations made by Darwin at the same location.
The whole event was considered a great success and will be repeated in future years.
When asked about the event, Kevin shared: “We were extremely pleased with feedback received from those who attended, it made the whole event worthwhile. People seem fascinated by earthworms and the ecosystem services that they provide. We’ll certainly be holding a similar event next year.”
