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The Story of the Coprolite
Industry in Little
and Great Eversden
Following the discovery in the late-1840s that the
fossils in the Cambridge Greensand were a matter of commercial proposition a
new industry began that was to have enormous impact on many villages in the
Eastern counties. Known by the trade name of coprolites, the fossil deposit
contained not just phosphatised droppings of creatures living in the seas and
on the coastal plains of Cretaceous Britain but also the teeth, bones, scales
and claws of dinosaurs. The more famous dinosaurs of iguanodon, megalosaurus,
dakosaurus, dinotosaurus and craterosaurus were found, as well as the marine
reptiles of ichthyosaurus, pliosaurus and plesiosaurus and the bird
pterodactyl. But it wasn't just dinosaurs. Fossils of prehistoric shark,
whales, elephant, hippopotamus, oxen, bear and horse were excavated as well as
fossilised trees and numerous marine organisms - the most notable being
ammonites.
Not only were they of interest to the students of the
new science of geology but also the religious academics hotly debating Darwin's
controversial theory of evolution. Many drawing room had its fossil collection
and the country's museums had shelves filled with fossils from the Greensand.
But the main reason why they were extracted was not for the pursuit of academic
science but commercial reasons.
Britain's growing urban population during the Industrial
Revolution needed feeding. Experiments to increase food production included
adding a whole range of materials to the soil. Blood, bones, soot, fish,
seaweed, chalk, clay and even rags were trialled. The most effective was animal
bones but the nation's farmers couldn't supply the demand. The battlefields of
Europe were scoured for bones, the pyramids of Egypt were emptied of mummified
cats and even Italian catacombs were reported robbed for their bones. Loaded
onto ships they were taken back to the “dens” of the coastal manure
manufactories. Britain was described as a “ghoul searching the continents for
bones to feed its agriculture.” So, when a cheaper and abundant deposit of
fossil bones was discovered in Cambridgeshire there was, as the local
historian, Richard Grove, described, “The Cambridgeshire Coprolite Mining
Rush.”
Chemical analysis of the nodules showed them to contain
between 50 - 60% calcium phosphate. Ground to a powder and dissolved in
sulphuric acid the resultant mass was superphosphate of lime - the world's
first artificial chemical manure. Manure manufacturers from Ipswich and London
cashed in on this cheaper raw material than the other popular manure of its day
- guano.
They were first worked in Burwell in 1846 and pits
opened in Chesterton in 1849. The deposit was found a few metres beneath the
chalk marl lying above the gault clay. It was simply a matter of a coprolite
contractor getting an agreement with the landowner to raise the fossils. He
then took on a gang of labourers, bought a horse or steam-operated washmill and
some tools and started digging. On average £100 an acre was paid and about 250
tons were raised from each acre (0.404ha.). A trench was dug at one side of the
field with the topsoil and subsoil on one bank. Once the fossil seam was
exposed pick axes and shovels were used to extract it and, thrown into
wheelbarrows, piled near a mill ready for washing and sorting. The seam
averaged about 39cm. thick but in places was over a metre. The soil above the
seam on the new face was removed after undercutting it and thrown into the
trench behind. Backfilling meant the labourers gradually progressed across the
field and onto adjoining property where a new lease was sought.
The Eversdens were among the first Cambridgeshire
villages where the coprolites were worked. Although there has been little
documentation in the way of maps and legal documents showing agreements between
landowners and coprolite contractors, it has been noted that they had started
as early as 1856. ( Kelly’s Post Office Directory 1869; Pennings and
Jukes-Browne, ‘Geol. of Cambs.” 1881)
A fascinating insight into the effect of the diggings on
the area was recorded in an account of the life story of Annie Macpherson, who
moved into Little Eversden in 1858 with her parents to stay with their aunt.
“Just at this time the discovery
was made that the fossils embedded in the clay soil of that neighbourhood
formed, when ground to powder, a valuable manure for the land. Within a week
about 500 rough miners and labourers poured into the quiet little villages, and
the pressing need was felt of efforts to civilise and evangelise these men, not
only for their own sakes, but to save the rustics of the villages from the
contamination brought about by the drunken and loose habits of these invaders
of their peace, and the immorality induced by the absence of any provision for
lodging and sleeping accommodation for this unprecedented addition to the
countryside.•
(Birt,Lilian “The Children‘s Home
Finder,•(1931),pp.9-14)
There were numerous cases in other villages which
suggest there were quite serious problems with the diggers and, as shall be
seen later, she had a difficult task. Unfortunately there has been little
documentation as to the exact locations of the early diggings and the 1861
census gave no indication as no-one was mentioned as employed in either Great
or Little Eversden. If there was a gang of labourers it was not recorded but
there is the possibility local farm labourers were employed who did not
describe themselves as fossil or coprolite labourers. (Cambs.R.O. 1861 census)
The usual practise for landowners of fields where the
coprolite bed was suspected, was to arrange to have someone dig a test pit or
take a bore sample to ascertain its depth, extent and quality and then arrange
for the tenant farmer to raise them or set up a lease with a contractor to work
them. Contractors paid a royalty for each acre worked as well as compensation
to the tenant farmer for the land lost to the diggings. On December 17th 1862,
Mrs Mary Royston allowed William Coulson, a contractor from Milton, to raise
them from Low Close. He had recently been working pits in Whitwell, Barton and
in Ashwell. (Cambs.R.O.Francis Bill Books,1862 p.475; See author's accounts of
Barton,Ashwell )
Another
contractor, John Bennet Lawes, who was well on his way to making an immense
personal fortune from having patented the technique of converting these
coprolites to a very popular artificial fertiliser, had made an arrangement
with another landowner. This may have been on Lord Hardwick‘s estate in the
parish as Lawes’ surveyor, George Beaver, made several entries in his diary
relating to his visits to the area.
“On
Wednesday 16th September 1863 I go to Little Eversden in Cambs. to measure some
coprolite lands being dug there by J.B. Lawes workmen etc.”
(Hitchin Museum,George Beaver‘s diary, pp.75a,75b)
The following summer there was another entry, “On 21st May 1864 I go to Little Eversden to
measure coprolite diggings on Lord Hardwick‘s estates there.” (Ibid.
Beaver,p.76b ) Unfortunately, none of these agreements have come to light but
Lord Hardwick, according to his nephew, amassed the sum of £5,000 per year from
his coprolite royalties, with one of the Ashwell families, the Fordhams,
responsible for much of the work on his estate. (Royston Crow, 1891; See
author's account of Ashwell) Whether the Fordhams had any dealings here is not
recorded.
In 1864, at a parish vestry meeting in Great Eversden,
it was agreed that Henry Wilkerson should be allowed to take the coprolites
that had been found in the parish clay pits for the sum of £40. These must have
been the old brickpits on the east side of “Claypit Hill”, but the following
October, it was admitted that these pits were mostly exhausted. (Cambs. R.O.
Eversden Parish Vestry Minute Book 1864)
Extra light on what was going on was provided in 1866 by
Rev. J. B. Ridout, the vicar of Bourn. Following widespread concern about child
labour in agriculture and the new factories he contributed evidence to the
Commissioners.
“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”.
Parliamentary Papers 1867 -
8 XVII “1st Report of the Commissioners of the Employment of Children, Young
persons and Women in Agriculture.• p.506
The many young men may well have been taken on in Eversden pits or other
workings in the neighbourhood but exactly where has not been determined. Lawes’
account books for 1867 show that between 1st July and 31st
December he had two workings in the parish on Mill Field. He paid £27 11s. 9d.
for levelling No.1. On Mill Field No. 2 his labourers raised 176 tons 6 cwt. at
a cost of £305 6s. 1½d. This included £191 18s. labour costs, £57 10s. royalty
to the Earl of Hardwick and £66 17s. for carriage to Deptford. This averaged £2
1s. 3d per ton. (Rothamsted Research: Archives B8.3).
The same year Lord Hardwick enquired of the parish for a donation or
leave to dig gravel on his land at Great Eversden to repair the roads much
damaged by “traffic of coprolites”.
(Cambs.R.O. Eversden Parish Vestry Minutes, 1864; Correspondence with A.J.N.
Richards, Ambleside, Little Eversden )
By the end of the 1860s the industry had acquired
considerable attention, enough for it to be acknowledged in the local trade
directory for Great Eversden.
“There is a species of small fossil
found in this and surrounding neighbourhoods, called coprolites, which have now
become an article of commercial importance in Cambridge, the land being bought
temporarily for their collection and then passing back to the original owners”.
(Kelly‘s Post Office Directory 1869 )
It mentioned that “coprolites
have been dug here since 1856” and included Henry Wilkerson's advert as a “Coprolite and Manure Merchant”. His
success in the business in this area was shortlived, however, as he fell into
financial difficulties with St.John‘s College. He had an agreement with them to
raise the fossils from their farm in Steeple Morden and was expected to
compensate the tenant farmer for land out of cultivation. As he owed him
several hundred pounds the college put a distress notice put on him. It didn't
deter him as he went on to work in the newly discovered coprolite pits in
Buckinghamshire where he was taken on as manager for a Wolverhampton firm of
manure manufacturers. (O'Connor, B. 'The Buckinghamshire Coprolite Industry',
Bucks. Record, 1990)
On the 20th April 1871 all his “Surplus Stock and Building Materials” at his coprolite works in
Little Eversden was auctioned, details of which can be seen on page ..
(Cambs.R.O. 296/B921.310) The sale realised £224 10s. 6d, but what was
interesting was the attendance of many local coprolite contractors, eager to
acquire some of his useful equipment for their works. Charles Road of Malton
Farm, Orwell, bought 1,250 sleepers for the tramway at his coprolite works and
a sixteen feet. (4.92m.) diameter slurry wheel. Colchester, who had numerous
works along the coprolite belt, bought 500 sleepers as well as many smaller
items and other contractors, like Baker of Barton, Carver of Whaddon, Coxall of
Haslingfield, and Messrs. Wallis, Free and Ellis of Barrington bought such
items as coprolite barrows, bags, belts and wheels etc. There were also local
farmers there to purchase equipment for
their farms. (Ibid.) There must have been some surplus materials as in October
Bidwell reported that there were “also
2000 sleepers for coprolite use together with large quantity of material used
for that purpose.“ The sale realised
a further £175 13s.2d. of which Mr Prime of Barrington paid the most. (CCRO.
296/B923.1).
There is the strong likelihood that the easiest worked
seams had been worked out by 1871 and that deeper seams were being extracted.
Wilkerson‘s difficulties had led many of the coprolite diggers he'd laid off to
find alternative employment as the 1871 census revealed there was no-one in
Little Eversden described as involved. There were twenty one in Great Eversden,
however. Henry Wilkerson, aged 28, described himself as a “coprolite merchant”
and William Mansfield, also 28, was the “foreman over labourers”. Nineteen
described themselves as “coprolite diggers”, including 54 year old John Leeden
who actually lived in a tent on the roadside with his wife and six children.
Confirming Annie Macpherson‘s experience, seven of them were lodgers coming
from the surrounding counties of Suffolk, Beds., Hunts., Herts. and one,
William Pearson, the eldest at 57, from as far away as Westmorland. The
youngest was a lad of 16 yet the average age was 29, somewhat older than in
other villages where the diggings were taking place.
In nearby Kingston 53-year old Henry Mills of Witeman‘s
Lane was the only one involved. He was described as a “Coprolite Labourer
Ganger“ and must have been one of those responsible for bringing in the
outsiders. Maybe he hired some of the men described as agricultural or general
labourers? There were also two coprolite foremen living at Caxton End in
Bourn,, about three miles away. 30-year old William Watson and his 26-year old
brother Charles lived with their father Phillip who was a local farmer. Maybe
he had local fields dug by his sons? Another son, Alfred, was a coal merchant
who probably supplied the contractors with the coal needed for steam pumps and
washmills. (Cambs.R.O 1871 census)
The same year the Parish vestry group rated the
coprolite works in the parish and their minutes revealed, “Rates of Coprolite Works - the Engine and Land £100. Horse Mill £50.“
Unfortunately the minutes gave no details of who was rated or where the mills
were. However, it gave some perspective on the relative wealth of the industry
when the Brick Kiln, which was being operated by Mr Grey of Cambridge, was only
rated at £20. (Correspondence with A.J.N. Richards, Ambleside, Little Eversden)
A church account book showed that in 1871 the vicar, Thomas York, paid off
twenty-five years fee farm rent for Rectory Farm for only £20. It previously
had been sixteen shillings (£0.80) an acre. The farm had gravel pits, lime pits
and meadow and must have been earlier let out for diggings as it stated “money obtained by digging coprolites”.
(Cambs.R.O. P70/1/2) It seems likely that Rev. York allowed the farmer to raise
the fossils. Whether he had a formal agreement written up is uncertain as none
have come to light. Officially he would have had an agreement with the Church
Commissioners. Given the coprolite royalties being paid at the time were as
high as £150 then £20 was a very small proportion of the potential income Rev.
York had made.
According to the history of the village found in the
Victoria County History, in the autumn of 1871 a licence was written up
allowing the diggings to start from 23rd March the following year. (V.C.H. ref.
Land Revenue Dept. Eversden, 8th Nov. 1871) Who the contractor was, what
royalty and in which fields was not stated. More light was shone on the
arrangement in one of Charles Bidwell's account books. He was an experienced
Cambridge coprolite surveyor who had been asked by Rev. W. M. Campion, the
Rector of St. Botolph‘s church, to find out about a field on Rectory Farm.
“3a.1r.4p. Land to be bought
by Rev. W.M. Campion, as Rector of St. Botolph... the remaining portion of the
field containing 3a.3r.8p. is bought by the same living as an investment from
coprolite money raised in the parish of Eversden valued at £200”.
(Cambs.R.O. Bidwell 21 p.383)
Where on Rectory Farm and who was responsible was not
stated but the vicar of Harlton, Rev. O. Fisher, had a geological paper
published in 1871 which referred to “a coprolite pit now in work below the
lime-kiln at Eversden.“ (Fisher, O. ‘The Coprolite Pits of Cambridgeshire,‘
Q.J.G.S. viii, 1871 ,p.66)
The first geological map of the area clearly marked the
junction of the chalk marl with the gault clay along which the Cambridge
Greensand outcropped. It was along here that the coprolites were worked and the
sketch on page .. shows “Obliterated
Coprolite Workings“ extending for about a mile to the west of Great Eversden
towards Kingston and also on the slight ridge stretching northeast towards St.
Helen‘s and Church Farm in Little Eversden. The first 25“ map of the area
showed what appear to be two coprolite mills. One was on the roadside by the
stream just southwest of Armshold Farm and the other at the end of a tramway
which led down the slope, past a well which would have supplied the works with
water and down to several sheds on the roadside by Claypit Hill. (Whitaker, W.
‘Water Supply of Cambs.‘ Mem.Geol.Surv. London, (1921),p.70)
Subsequent evidence from another Bidwell survey
completed in July 1876 revealed that
part of Queen‘s College, Cambridge‘s estate of Manor Farm in Great Eversden had
been dug by Mr. Wallis. This was probably Mr Wallis of Haslingfield referred to
earlier. He was a coprolite contractor well connected with the Cambridge Manure
Company and their Duxford manure factory. He supplied them with coprolites as a
result of numerous agreements with other landowners in the area, including
Barrington, Barton, Bassingbourn, Haslingfield, Coton, Grantchester, Steeple
Morden and Barton-le-Clay over in Bedfordshire. Unfortunately, no agreements,
maps or correspondence have emerged to shed light on his workings in the
Eversdens except a note by Bidwell that the tenant, Ino Banks,
“...complains that
this particular part of the land was badly dug over and levelled when the
coprolites were raised - there may be some truth in the allegation, but the
chief point is that the land required deeper cultivation and more labour
expended on it... The coprolite land which has been recently dug by Mr. Wallis
has been levelled and restored in a satisfactory manner. Mr. Wallis has left
some of his plant on the land which should be removed without delay so that the
land may be cultivated at once.“
(Cambs.R.O..Bidwell,30
pp.318-20)
When Wallis died in 1876 his son, also called Swann,
continued the business but there was no indication the work continued in
Eversden itself. By this time most of the easily accessible seams had been
exhausted. Many of the labourers would
have been laid off and, faced with parish relief, they either reverted to farm
work or, as happened in many villages, they left the area to find better paid
work in the factories of the growing industrial towns. It is possible a number
of men were working in nearby parishes but there must have been financial
difficulties to have led to the incident in 1878 in which a fossil digger was
caught stealing.
“William
Longstaff, Fossil digger of Toft, was charged by Maltbery White, baker of Great
Eversden, with stealing one 2 lb. loaf of bread from his cart in Toft, value 3
1/2d.”
(Royston Crow, March 15th
1878)
Whether there were still workings in the parish in the
1880‘s is uncertain but there were three coprolite diggers in Little Eversden
according to the 1881 census. They were aged 23, 29 and 33 and may well have
been working in nearby Orwell where 58 were employed on several diggings.
No evidence of any workings in Little or Great Eversden
during the 1880s has come to light but, ten years later, the 1891 census shows
there were still local pits in operation. 49 year old William Stearn was the
only one recorded as a coprolite digger but there were six in Orwell and 17 in
Haslingfield. (Cambs.R.O. 1891 census) Most pits in the area had ceased by the
mid-1890s by which time overseas phosphate supplies made local coprolites
uneconomic.
The local historian, E.M. Barraud, pointed out one
social consequence of the work ceasing in the parish. Many licensed beer houses
went out of business. “There is one such ex-pub in my own village - curiously
“The Louse and Stocking,“ probably a corruption of “The Loosened Stocking.“
(Barraud, E. M. 'Coprolites in Cambridgeshire,'
Agriculture, Vol. 58, no.4, July 1951) Annie Macpherson throughout this
period must have still been trying to win over the coprolite diggers and it was
fascinating to discover she had a measure of success.
“It
was not easy for a timid woman to approach these rough characters... at first
her efforts were received with sneers and scoffing. Often she would spend hours
in prayer before she could get enough courage to approach a gang of men or even
say a word apart... Gradually she won a hearing and a quiet influence among
them... (After a trip to a mission London she found new resources for) a new
power was soon evidenced in Annie Macpherson‘s work among the coprolite
diggers. Clubs, coffee rooms, evening classes, prayer meetings and mission
services were carried on, not only in the evenings but at the dinner times in
barns if no other place was available, or in the open fields. Many Cambridge
undergraduates took part. At first the speakers were always men; it was
unthought of that a woman should speak publicly... Miss Ellice Hopkins, whose
father was a distinguished mathematical tutor at Cambridge, came over to
address the gatherings of coprolite diggers and villagers. Ere Annie Macpherson
left Cambridgeshire the fossil strata had been almost worked out in that
immediate neighbourhood so that only the labour of the regular population was
required but the result of her efforts were far reaching. A temperate, united
band of pious young men had been gathered out, full of simple earnestness each
seeking to work for God according to his measure of light time and talents.•
(Lilian Birt,•The Children‘s
Home Finder,•(1931),pp.9-14)
Today there is little evidence that this unique industry
ever existed in Little or Great Eversden and this short account has helped the
lives of the many involved not to be forgotten. It also sheds extra light on
the parish's social, religious and economic development during the latter half
of the nineteenth century.
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