CHARLES Darwin is a man who needs no introduction and whose works revolutionised nature, biology and geology.

However even the great Darwin was prone to a mistake as records of his visit to Llanymynech prove.

In the summer of 1831 the then virtually unknown Shrewsbury born Cambridge academic visited the border village to complete field work as part of Adam Sedgwick's survey of the area.

He brought with him a 1795 map made by Robert Baugh and John Evans which he used to show the geological state of the area.

However Darwin scribed in his notebook that Llanymynech was 16 miles east of Shrewsbury, rather than west.

Darwin completed the summer by continuing his research on sedimentary rock in Barmouth.

Darwin did not have much time to dwell on the innocent error as when he returned home in August he received a letter which would change his life - and that of science - forever.

For the letter contained an offer of a position of naturalist on board the HMS Beagle on its around the world voyage.

Darwin departed Britain in December and during five years aboard the Beagle he would come to begin to consider what would become known as evolutionary theory.

It is possible Darwin returned to Llanymynech and continue his field work after publishing his three revolutionary - or evolutionary - books The Voyage of the Beagle, On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man before his death in 1882.