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SHEPRETH, CAMBS.
It is uncertain when exactly
the coprolite, or what were locally called fossil diggings, first spread to
this parish but there had been workings across the river in Barrington and
Orwell from the late 1850‘s. These may well have attracted local men to work in
them and the 1871 census recorded three fossil diggers in the village. They may
have been employed in workings on this side of the river but it was the local
historian, Richard Grove, in his paper on the coprolite industry who suggested
that the workings had started in Shepreth by 1872. The labour intensive
industry resulted in a huge influx of outside labour and there had been worry
expressed over the poor behaviour of some of these gangs of workmen, in the
same way that parishioners had been concerned over the ”shanty• developments
associated with the railway navvies. He mentioned that one landowner, William
Woodham, allowed a Frank Hills to raise the coprolites from his land with a
proviso that the landlord reserved the right to throw out of his property ”any
unruly, unreligious, drunken or otherwise persons• to whom he objected.
(R.Grove,•The Cambridgeshire Coprolite Mining Rush,1976,p43) Unfortunately, no
further evidence of this agreement has emerged but by 1875 there was a record of
a possible suicide of one of the diggers.
Inquest on digger. - On
Tueday, C.W.Palmer, Esq. deputy coroner, held an inquest at the ”Railway
Tavern,• Shepeth, touching the death of George Gascoigne, a copolite digger. -
Thomas Coleman, Barrington, said that the deceased lodged with him, and that he
came from Hitchin, some 18 months ago. Deceased was in the habit of drinking a
great deal, and after a ”spree• he became low and depressed in spirits. On the
5th instant he was taken very ill., and said if he had a razor he would cut his
throat, the pain was so great. He did not work on Friday or Saturday, and the
last time Coleman saw him was about 8 o‘clock on Sunday morning. - William
Chapman, labourer, Barrington, said on Sunday afternoon he went over the bridges
and on going over the second bridge he went up to some fossil works, where the
end had slipped and the water ran in. He observed a hat, which was recognised
by some workmen as belonging to the deceased. They dragged the pit and got out
the body of the deceased. The pit was about half a mile distant from his
lodgings. - After some further evidence in which it transpired the deceased
suffered from ”delerium tremens•, the jury returned an open verdict of ”Found
Drowned.• (Cambridge Chronicle,14th August 1875,p4)
Subsequent evidence showed
that Hills had workings in barrington and in 1878 made further investigations
in Shepreth as to the possibility of raising a deeper seam. He was described as
a Gentleman from Deptford, where a large Chemical Manure Works was situated.
There is the strong possibility he was working for Lawes Chemical manure
Company and was interested in securing a new deposit of potentially thousands
of tons of good quality phosphatic nodules. An agreement was drawn up on the
first of May 1878 whereby the landowner, W.F.N. Woodham, allowed him, if Grove
is correct, his second licence to raise the coprolite from 25 acres of land at
150 per acre over a period of five years. The map on page .. shows the area
that was to be worked but the agreement was actually cancelled, quite possibly
because William Matheson, the Manager of the Manure Works who acted as Hills
witness, must have been aware of the growing imports of cheaper higher quality
rock phosphate from the United States. (CambsRO.R53/4/81) This was also a time
of exceptionally heavy rains which would have made the work not only more
difficult but also more expensive in terms of pumping out water from the pits.
Free trade had not only allowed massive imports of phosphates from overseas but
also enormous quantities of grain and refrigerated meat from the American
Prairies which brought prices down so much that farmers, particularly cereal
and stock farmers, faced ruin. Many coprolite contractors went out of business
when falling prices made it uneconomic to continue and many pits were left open
and workings unlevelled. Topsoil was not replaced and even today there is
considerable evidence of past coprolite workings from the poor state of the
soil.
They were still being worked
over in Barrington in 1881 when almost 70 men were working but it seemed the
work had ceased here as there was only one coprolite digger from Shepreth, 36
year old William Barnard. Presumably he walked to work across the river in the
Barrington pits. Several years later the economic situation improved enough to
allow Woodham to eventually profit from the coprolites in his field. By 1885
the Farmers‘ Manure Company at Royston, of whom Woodham may well have been a
shareholder, still had a demand for local coprolite. It seems likely that being
an inland works it would have had to pay quite high transport costs to bring in
the foreign phosphates and, being a cooperative, had a reputation of supporting
local farmers. So, in 1885 Woodham gave a licence to Frederick Smith, who described
himself as a coprolite merchant from Royston, to dig them from 24 acres,
presumably the same deposit that Hills had been interested in, for the slightly
reduced price of 130 per acre. He was allowed to work them from two acres at a
time with permission to have horses, carts, wagons, crushing mills, steam
engines, apparatus, tools and other effects and to continue for three years
”unless prevented by a combination of workmen or inevitable accident.•
(CambsRO.R53/4/82)
No other details of these
works have emerged but it would appear that like in many other parishes along
the junction of the gault clay with the chalk marl ta new industry grew up
utilising the marl for cement making. Whether the owners sold the coprolites
that were found between the chalk marl and gault has not been documented for
Shepreth but it appeared that it had not all had been exploited by the turn of
the century. In 1902 the sale particulars of 38 acres of arable land by the
railway behind the East Anglian Cement Works revealed that “The mineral
resources of the district are exceptional, combining the manufacture of the
best quality of Cement and Bricks and the raising of coprolites with the greatest
economy. The situation adjoining the railway is also most advantageous for the
economical carriage of all material both to and from the estate.” (CCRO. 515/SP248;
296/SP1012; R.Grove,op.cit.p.47)