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MILLBROOK,
BEDS.
There were
several coprolite workings in Millbrook which must have started in the 1870s.
The 1871 census gave no evidence of any local involvement but the first
geological map shows that the work had stopped by 1881. A sketch from the map,
seen on page , located two “old coprolite pits” on the
south side of the by-pass along the eastern slope of the valley. Here ran the
line of the Lower Greensand which overlay the Oxford Clay. The coprolites were
found along this junction and would have been washed and sorted before being
carted in tumbrils either to Ampthill station for
transfer to manure works in London or over the hill to Millbrook station from
where they could have been taken to the Midlands. The photograph on page .. suggests the latter, quite likely as the major
contractors working in this area sent the bulk of their coprolites to Morris
and Griffin‘s works in Wolverhampton.