What are the largest meteorites to fall in Britain?
The largest single stone seen to fall in Britain is Wold Cottage (Yorkshire, 1795) at about 25 kg, while the largest total mass from one fall is Barwell (Leicestershire, 1965), about 44 kg spread across many fragments.
When comparing British meteorites, it matters whether you mean the largest single piece or the largest total mass from one fall, because the answers differ.
The heaviest single stone ever seen to fall in Britain is Wold Cottage, which landed beside a ploughman near Wold Newton in Yorkshire on 13 December 1795. It weighed about 25 kg. The landowner, Edward Topham, later built a monument on the spot, and the meteorite is now in the Natural History Museum in London. It is an L6 ordinary chondrite.
The largest fall by total mass is Barwell in Leicestershire. On Christmas Eve 1965, a fireball broke up over the village and showered it with stones. Pieces hit gardens, roads and houses, and at least 44 kg of material was eventually collected, but the largest fragment was only a few kilograms. Barwell is an L5 ordinary chondrite. Another notable fall is Appley Bridge in Lancashire in 1914, whose surviving material totals roughly 13 kg.
Other British falls are much smaller. Rowton in Shropshire, which fell in 1876 and weighs about 3.5 kg, is the only iron meteorite seen to fall in Britain. The most recent famous fall, Winchcombe in Gloucestershire in 2021, totalled only about 0.6 kg, but as a rare carbonaceous chondrite it is scientifically priceless. Meteorites found rather than seen falling are another category. The largest British find is a pallasite, a stony-iron meteorite, found in North Yorkshire in 2005 and named Hambleton, which weighs about 17.6 kg. If you hunt for meteorites in Britain, remember that all land is owned by someone: always ask the landowner's permission, and report any discovery to a museum, as these rare finds can be very important for science.