In 1838, he helped found the Manchester Geological Society. He was elected president in 1857 and again in 1865. He also was the secretary and later the president of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. He studied the Carboniferous and Permian rocks in northern England and the Drift deposits of Lancashire. He and Joseph Dalton Hooker found the first coal balls. They also studied the geology of the country around Manchester. He became an expert on the Coal Measures, and his "Observations on the Structure of Fossil Plants found in the Carboniferous Strata" (1868–1875) was one of the studies of the Palaeontographical Society. His large collection of fossils was placed in Owens College.