Detailed information
Dimensions
83 x 120 x 70
mm
Locality
Frazer's Hush Mine Co. Durham England
Condition
No recorded repairs
Frazer's Hush mine is situated next to the main road between Rookhope and Allenheads in the Weardale valley, County Durham, only 2 km from the county border with Northumberland (in which Allenheads is). The large steel headframes were a familiar sight, just a stone's throw along the valley from the lesser well known Groverake mine. A distinctive characteristic of Frazer's Hush Fluorite is the highly glassy lustre of its cubic crystals and this splendid specimen aptly demonstrates this. Covering a light grey Quartz-rich matrix, cubic Fluorite crystals average 1 cm on edge, but do attain 1.9 cm where the crystals are piled up into a jumbled mound. The smaller crystals tend to be pale lilac while the larger are rich Royal purple. As with most Frazer's Hush specimens, the Fluorite fluoresces rich blackberry-purple in direct daylight, although this is more prevalent in the large interpenetrate twins rather than the smaller single crystals. A delightful Frazer's Hush specimen.
