The Aldsworth meteorite
A stone that landed in a field of oats in the Cotswolds after a fireball was seen over Cirencester.
Key facts
- Fell
- 4 August 1835
- Where
- Aldsworth, near Cirencester, Gloucestershire
- Type
- LL5 ordinary chondrite
- Mass
- about 700 g
- Where it is kept
- Museum collections
- Nation today
- England
At about half past four on the afternoon of 4 August 1835, a fireball was seen from Cirencester, and soon afterwards a stone fell into a field of oats at Aldsworth, about 15 kilometres to the north-east. It had buried itself about 15 centimetres in the ground. The main stone weighed about 700 grams, and smaller pieces were reported too.
Aldsworth is an LL5 ordinary chondrite, the group with the least iron metal. LL chondrites are the least common of the three ordinary chondrite groups among falls, and they include the famous Chelyabinsk meteorite of 2013.
Aldsworth lies only about 10 kilometres from Winchcombe, where Britain's most recent fall landed in 2021. Two meteorites in the same corner of Gloucestershire, 186 years apart, are pure coincidence: falls are spread randomly across the Earth.
Did you know?
Aldsworth and Winchcombe fell about 10 kilometres apart, 186 years apart.
Early accounts said the stone was not attracted to a magnet, which can happen with LL chondrites because they have so little metal.
Find out more
- Aldsworth in the catalogue: the official class and recorded mass
- LL chondrites: what this kind of meteorite is and where it comes from
- All the meteorites of Britain and Ireland, with a map
- Found something in the UK or Ireland? What to do next
Nearest other British and Irish meteorites
- Winchcombe 28 February 2021 · about 25 km away
- Hatford 9 April 1628 · about 25 km away
- Launton 15 February 1830 · about 50 km away
- Wiltshire found, date unknown · about 70 km away