The biggest chunk of Barwell’s famous meteorite will be landing back in the village for one day only to mark the 50th anniversary of it falling to Earth.
Barwell Methodist Church will be hosting the renowned piece of space rock on Saturday December 12 from 10am.
Experts from the National Space Centre in Leicester will be on hand to explain all about the inter-planetary artefact which is believed to be billions of years older than the Earth.
Excitement is growing in the return of the Barwell meteorite which will be back on display in the village 50 years after it fell to earth.
Barwell Methodist Church will be playing host to the largest chunk of the space-rock, which smashed into the village near Hinckley on Christmas Eve 1965.
Now the property of London’s Natural History Museum, the meteorite is on loan to the National Space Centre in Leicester, whose curator Dan Kendall will be bringing it back to Barwell for one day only on Saturday December 12, from 10am.
Mr Kendall said: “Pieces of the meteorite fell all over the village, with fragments falling on the bonnet of a car, on a driveway, through a window and into flowerbeds but fortunately no-one was hurt.
“It remains the largest recorded meteorite fall in the UK and was highly sought-after by collectors - and still is today.
“It is estimated to be over 4.55 billion years old, which is older than the Earth.”
Members of the British and Irish Meteorite Society will also be going along, with displays of other meteorites, including a piece of the Barwell space-rock reputedly recovered after it smashed through someone’s roof.
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