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MEPPERSHALL,
BEDS.
The
Bedfordshire coprolite diggings started in Shillington in 1862. The
phosphate-rich nodules, including a range of fossils from the Cretaceous period
(120 - 65 million years ago,) were found in the Cambridge Greensand between the
chalk marl and the gault clay. The bed was discovered
during the drainage of the south-facing slopes of Chibley
Farm. Manure manufacturers used the eashed fossils as
a raw material in manufacture of superphosphate.
The
scale of the open cast mining operations was large enough to employ up to 400
workers each winter. Numbers were reduced as the agricultural work started in
spring. The better pay of the ”diggers• in comparison
to agricultural labour would have attracted some of the men from Meppershall. The 1871 census recorded six coprolite
diggers, all local men. The eldest was Joseph Izzard, aged 36, and the
youngest, 19 year old Alfred Dilley. Analysis of the census returns for that
year shows that it tended to be a younger man‘s job. Their average age was only
24.4. (O‘Connor, B. ”The Coprolite Industry in
Shillington• 1994; Beds.R.O. 1871 census) The local historian, V.C. Chambers, commented that the
diggings were profitable to landowner and worker alike. Up to several hundred
pounds an acre was paid for the right to dig out these fossils. Agricultural
rents rarely reached £2. an acre. When agricultural
wages were about £0.50 - £0.70 a week labourers in the diggings could earn
£1.00 or so. Details of its social and economic impact can be found in the
Shillington account.
Few
records of workings in Meppershall itself have
emerged. They show that towards the end of the 1870s they had reached this
parish. The local trade directory of 1879 included that ”a
few coprolites are worked in this parish.” (Beds.
Almanac,1879) Who was responsible at this time is
unknown. This period was during the agricultural deression
which brought distress for all those involved in farming. Being able to exploit
the coprolite seam may well have helped some farmers gain extra income but the
sale price of coprolite had dropped from over £3.50 a ton in mid-1870s to only
£1.40 by 1879. This was largely due to large imports of foreign phosphates.
By
1881 there were still small scale workings in the parish. The census revealed
four involved, with Amos Dear, 41, from Oddesborough
in Bucks, described as the ”Coprolite Foreman.• The three others were local
young men in their twenties, James Barratt, James Izzard and James Primmott. They lived at No.2 Lodgeship.
By 1882 the work in Meppershall had apparantly ceased. The local directory reported
”No coprolites are now worked in this parish.• (Beds. Almanac,1882)
The
depression resulted in many problems for farmers in the area. Charles Brown, of
St. Thomas‘ Chapel Farm in Meppershall
was given a 20% rent reduction in 1878 and a 30% reduction during 1883 and
1885. When his lease came up for renewal he was in arrears of almost £300.
(Guildhall Library,London, Christs Hospital Ms.13845) In 1889 some of the governors of
Christ‘s Hospital, London, who owned the farm, paid a visit. Their report
indicated that it was not prime agricultural land but his rent of £0.65 an acre
was considerably less than the £0.80 an acre paid by most farmers in the area.
Brown managed to persuade them to give him a fourteen year lease with a rental
of only £270. This was 50% lower than when he took over the farm in 1875! A
significant part of the farm was poorly drained and he was keen to bring it
into cultivation. The governors agreed to pay for the tiles and labour required
to underdrain 100 acres of the heavy clayey soils.
Brown had to pay for the carting.
It
is possible that this drainage work revealed the coprolite seam in the
greensand on the northeast facing fields. It was only about a mile from where
the first workings took place on the other side of the hill. In autumn 1891,
the Mayor and Commonality of London and the Governors of Christs
Hospital gave a licence to Frederick Smith, a coprolite merchant from Royston,
Herts.
”...for
the purpose of getting and carrying away from and out of the said Farm and
lands the mineral or substance known as Coprolite together with the liberty for
the licensee at any time or times before 25th December 1894 to excavate dig
wells erect engines deposit surface soil and minerals and all acts and things
upon the said farm and lands usual or reasonably necessary for getting and
carrying away all or any part of the Coprolites (if any) in and under the
same...
(Ibid.)
It
also stipulated he had to relay the surface soil on the ”slough,•
the material washed from the coprolites, and to restore the land to full
agricultural use before Christmas 1895. For this he paid £300 the Hospital with
an arrangement that on finishing three acres he was to pay another £250 and
then £83.34 per acre. There was no evidence as to how much was worked or how
successful the operation was. It would have provided welcome work for many in
the parish at the time and probably helped slow down the emigration that was
taking place from many villages at the time.
In
Chambers account of the parish‘s nineteenth century development there are
details of the locations of the workings.
”There
are only three small inliers of chalk marl, partially marked by boulder clay
drift in Meppershall parish, and it is a mark of
their profitability that they should have been discovered. Two of these
outcrops were worked, a small one east of Shillington Road where Mr Parson‘s
nursery stands, the other on Rust Hill, Chapel Farm, to the south east of Cow
Lane footpath. Mr. J. Simkins tells me the site can
still be recognised, the barley is always backward over an area where the
slurry from the coprolite washing tank was run out. The third outcrop, also on
Chapel Farm, but now Mr. Parrish‘s land towards the A600, was evidently not
worth working.”
(Chambers,V.H. ”Old
Meppershall,1979; Communication with Betty Chambers)
There
is little evidence today of the workings except for crop marks visible to the
south of Chapel Farm. These indicated the site of some of the old workings.
(Beds.Mag,3 p.314; Beds.Arch.Base,
SMR. 5497)