HADDENHAM, CAMBS

HADDENHAM, CAMBS.

T. Roberts in Jurrassic Rocks of Cambs. 1892, refers to the nodule bed occuring at Haddenham, but the mining of the nodules was suspected to have been in Wilburton, not far to the east. HARDWICK, CAMBS. By the 1860‘s there was a new industry beginning to take hold in this area of Cambridgeshire. A fossil seam, known as coprolite, had been found in the greensand which outcropped along the junction of the gault clay and the chalk marl in this parish. Its value was not so much in its interest to geologists but as a source of fertiliser since the phosphatised fossils of bones, teeth, shells etc. were in great demand from manure manufacturers since fresh animal bones were in short supply! Prices were offered of up to £3 per ton for these coprolites and, when the seam was located in their fields, local landowners and farmers would have capitalised on this profitable mineral, especially when yields of up to 300 tons an acre were common! The diggings had affected Hardwick parish by 1861 as there were 23 villagers involved. Living in Holmes Yard was John Cullop, aged 67, who with his 17 year old son, Walter, were recorded as, ”Working on St. Neots Road Copperlite digging;• obviously the local accent explaining the misspelling. 60 year old James Johnson and his 58 year old wife, Mary, were also involved along with six teenagers, the youngest, 13 year old Benjamin Bard. All the others were married men and, as the average age was 30, it showed it was the older men who dominated the work and it was very much a family affair with six members of the Bond families, four Ayletts, three Johnsons, three Bards, three Kings and two Cullups. Altogether ten were living at Holmes Yard, ten on the High Street and three on King‘s lane. As there were only 40 agricultural labourers and eight farmers it showed it was a significant occupation at the time out of the village population of 240. Figures showed there were 32 acres for each farm labourer so it seems the coprolite workings would have been less intensively worked. 70% were locally born but with 25% actually lodgers in the parish there must have been some overcrowding in the small two-roomed cottages. As no documentation for the workings having taken place in this parish, there is the possibility they were attracted by the nearby workings in the Eversdens, Madingley, Coton or Comberton. How long the work continued for is not clear but the workings had slowed down as, according to the 1871 census, there were only four involved.