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BOURN, CAMBS.

Although no documentary evidence has come to light which shows the coprolites were worked in Bourn, there is evidence that shows men from the parish worked in the pits. During the late-1850s and 1860s there were workings nearby in the Eversdens and Wimpole but when the men first started raising them is undocumented. In the 1861 census18 year old David Clark was described as a labourer digging fossils. Maybe there were others who described the work simply as labour.

The work must have extended in the area during the 1860s as in 1867 the vicar, Rev.J.B. Ridout, responded to a government enquiry into the employment of young children in the area. He provided background into the working conditions of the time. The working day for males was from six in the morning till six at night, with one and a half hours for meal, and for females, from eight till six, with one hour for meal. He went on to say,

“...of late years many of our young men have earned wages at coprolite digging and therefore, I believe the farmers have wanted, at particular times, all the labourers, young and grown up, and when wages are low, the parents are too glad to send their children.”

(C.U.L. Parliamentary Papers, Commissioners report on the Employment of Young Children, Young persons and others in Agriculture, 1867)

Interestingly, the 1871 census reveled that theree were two coprolite foremen living in Bourn, at Caxton End, about three miles away. They were the sons of Philip Watson, a farmer who may well have also farmed land in the Eversdens. William was aged 30 and Charles aged 26 and with another brother Alfred as a coal merchant they must have been involved in the business but no further documentation for their involvement has emerged. (1871 census, Bourn )