A meteorite which fell on a Yorkshire farm two centuries ago is to be returned for the first time to the spot where it landed.

The phenomenon which happened on December 13, 1795, at Wold Cottage, Wold Newton, near Scarborough, is the oldest recorded meteorite to fall on the British mainland for which a sample remains. Professor Colin Pillinger of the open University's Planetary Sciences Research Institute will take the meteorite from the Natural History Museum to the farm on Sunday with Dr Monica Grady.

He will give an illustrated lecture on its history and the farm staff and owner who found it, to raise funds for the villages churches at Wold Newton and Thwing at Wold Newton village hall. A giant monument was erected at the spot where it fell by the then farm owner, Major Edward Topham in 1799. To mark the 200th anniversary of its erection the monument has recently been restored with funding from the Meteoritical Society and the farm's present owners, Derek and Katrina Gray. The rock was described as being 30 inches by 28 inches and weighing 56 lbs.

Mrs Gray said: "Apparently the noise of the explosion in the sky was so great when the meteorite fell that it was heard at Scarborough and it was thought it was the Spanish Armada."

The stone was impregnated with sulphur and of grey granite appearance. An account in The Times of the day said: "The clouds opened as it fell." A Mr Shipley was said to have thought "that Heaven and Earth were coming together!"

Mr Gray added: "What makes this meteorite so interesting is that there were several witnesses who each signed oaths to that effect, including the local vicar."

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