Back to coprolite publications
BAWDSEY,
After the Hitcham
vicar, Rev.John Henslow,
discovered what he termed “coprolite” in the cliffs at Felixstow
on a visit to the resort in 1842 he recognised that they had agricultural
potential in regards to their potential use as a manure.
He initially felt they were fossilised dung but subsequent Victorian geologists
argued that they were the phosphatised bones, teeth
and shells of an assortment of marine life which had accumulated in beds in the
warm, shallow sea that covered this area over 100 million years ago. Although
there is a reference to these “coprolites” being raised in Bawdsey
from as early as 1845, the first worked from the coastal area near Felixstow were about 1847. (Kelly’s Directory, 1873,
Woodbridge)
Manure manufacturers found
them a useful substitute for animal bones which were having
to be imported from the continent by that time. Many of the locals were engaged
in extracting hundreds of tons of these fossils from the local red crag. Carts
took them down to the side of the estuary where a channel was dug into the
bank. A large wooden sieve was placed into the trench and after the fossils had
been emptied into it, they were washed clean from the surrounding clay. They
were then shovelled
into barrows and wheeled up a plank and emptied into the holds of
shallow-bottomed lighters. These then
took the cargo down the coast to
In manure factories they were
ground and then mixed with sulphuric acid to produce superphosphate
of lime, a cheap and effective artificial manure. It
was not long before the extent of the deposit was determined and the “diggings”
spread up the the coast towards the Deben estuary. Two Bawdsey men
contacted the trustees of Boyton Charity in July 1850
with the prospect of raising them from one of the farms there. One was Francis
Robinson and the other was the landlord of “The Stars Inn,” Edward Ransby. They did not get the contract. It was won by Edward
Packard, one of
Although there was no mention
of coprolite or fossil diggers in the 1851 census they may have been worked by
the time it was taken as it was generally a winter job for the tenant farmers’
labourers. They reverted to farmwork during the busy
season when the census was taken and would probably not have described
themselves as “agricultural” rather than “fossil” or “coprolite diggers.”
As Felixstow
at that time was one of the many popular Victorian seaside “resorts” it
attracted numerous visitors. One of whom in 1854 was an eccentric
“When you approach the Deben
the cliffs disappear; and by the side of the river you will see a large extent
of salt-marsh, which is not very ornamental. By the side of the river stands a
bunch of houses, which appears to take its name from the Ferry, it is called Bawdsey Ferry; the people inhabiting them are very poor,
subsisting chiefly on lobsters and coprolites. In the summer they also pick up
a little money by letting their boats and taking Felixstowe people for a quiet
toss after dinner “with the blue above and the blue below”... In the winter
their abode must be rather trying; one of the ferrymen told me that they were
frequently disturbed in the winter nights by the summons of ships in distress.”
(Humble Gumble
(Hervey Goodwin),(1854)
‘Letters from Felixstowe’.)
The discovery of these
fossils would have provided the cottagers with a welcome extra source of income
but it appeared it did not particularly improve their standard of living. Those
who owned their own property under which the fossils were found would have profitted from selling them but generally it was the large
landowners who made small fortunes from having them raised from their estates.
They engaged their farm labourers to dig them out and wash them.
Those crossing the estuary by
ferry would almost certainly have been aware of the business, especially when
they went to “The Ferry Boat Inn,” seen in the photograph below, which must
have had its trade increased by the thirsty “diggers.”
It would not have been long
before the deposit on the Bawdsey side of the river
was exploited. Landowners were keen to capitalise on the deposit on their land
but who else was responsible in Bawdsey remains
uncertain. No other records have emerged. The earliest documentary evidence for
the coprolites being sold in Bawdsey was in 1855.
Edward Packard, one of two
Although the trade was
predominantly for artificial manure, according to the local historian, Allan
Jobson, they had another use.
“...vast
quantities were collected by a perfect flotilla of little boats, taken to
Harwich to be shipped to
(Jobson, Allan, (1967) ‘In
Suffolk’s Border’)
No other evidence confirms this.
It appears there was a confusion with septaria. These were nodules of clay which were excavated
off the shoreline and were used in the manufacture of “Roman” cement. In fact,
White’s history of the county revealed that they also had another little acknowledged
use.
“Coprolite is a valuable mineral extensively used
as manure and in the finer sets of earthenware. It was mostly found near
springs of crystal water, surrounded by crag, which abounded in fossils of the
antediluvian world, including relics of enormous fish and animals mostly now
extinct.”
(White’s History of Suffolk,1855)
The fine earthenware is Coade, a stone used for high quality garden statuary.
Examples of it
can still be found in some of the antique shops in the area but the best are reported
as being in the graveyard at Saffron Walden.
When the trade directory was
published in 1855 it revealed just how far the industry had extended.
“Immense quantities of COPROLITE are got in
all parishes on or near the coast from Bawdsey Haven
to Boyton. It is a valuable mineral, and is
extensively used as manure and in the finer sorts of earthenware, and thousands
of tons of it are now shipped yearly from the Deben
to various parts of the kingdom, and great quantities of it are burnt and used
as manure by the Suffolk farmers. Its name coprolite, or dung-stone, is
expressive of its fertilising qualities which were first discovered in 1718. by Mr. Edmund Edwards, a farmer of Levington.
Veins and ridges of it are found and got at various depths from two to twenty
feet, and as much as 20 worth has been got out of a cottagers’ garden. It is
mostly found near springs of crystal water, surrounded by crag and abounding in
fossils of the antediluvian world; including relics of enormous species of fish, animals and shells, most of
which are now extinct. When thrown up, it is carefully sorted, washed through
sieves, and laid in heaps, ready for carting. It gives employment to many
hundred hands; gangs of 20 to 25 men, women, and children, being daily at work
in many parts of the district between Bawdsey, Boyton and
(White’s
Suffolk Directory 1855)
There was a similar
description in other directories, which was repeated in the two subsequent
directories, “There are large strata of
coprolites, and the cliffs are celebrated for geological and fossil remains.”
(Kelly’s and Harrods Co. Directory 1858, 1873, 1877, 1883) By 1858 the parish
was listed as one of nine in
The diggings
was very much a labour intensive industry, employing large numbers in
the workings. Further evidence of Lord Rendlesham’s
involvement was when he allowed his tenant, Thomas Easterson,
to raise them from his fields in Bawdsey. Although
they may well have been worked earlier, the records show they were worked between 1857 - 60. It seemed to be predominantly work done
over the winter and during 1857-8 200 tons were raised with labour costs of
£1.00 a ton. Out of this Easterson had to pay income
tax of £3.25. As they were sold to William Colchester, a manure manufacturer
who had works in Harwich and
Over the following winter,
perhaps because of bad weather, the records show that only 12 tons were raised
and despite similar labour costs, prices had dropped to £2.00, a problem
repeated the following year when they fell to £1.50 a ton. A “New Buin (sic) for depositing coprolite” had ben bought which presumably was for washing the fossils but
in 1860, when the records ceased, 143 tons were raised. (SCRO.
HB416/F.2 pp.13, 31, 63, 91, 127, 153)
There were no records of
anyone being involved in the 1861 census but geological literature confirmed
the workings were still going on during the 1860s. (Lankester,R. (1865), ‘Mammalian Fossils of the Red Crag,‘
Q.J.G.S., p.226) It must have been mostly winter work as in 1866, a visiting
geologist’s account of his trip to the area recorded how,
“Near Bawsdey Ferry
we noticed in front of the cottage-doors small heaps of the dark-brown,
shining, water-worn pebbles called “coprolites,” which ten years ago created an
extensive trade here, and the preparation of which for artificial manure gave
employment to numbers of peasantry.”
(Woodward,H, (1866), ‘An Excursion
to the Crag District’, Intell.Observer,vol.8, p.37)
From this evidence it
suggests the industry had all but ceased but the demand for them must have been
high enough in the 1870s for them to be extracted again at greater depths.
(Armstrong, P. ‘The Changing Landscape,’ p.106) There was a detailed account in
1874 in the local trade directory.
“Immense quantities of coprolite, fossilized
excreta and bones of antediluvian animals, chiefly marine, are got in all the
parishes on or near the coast from Bawdsey to Boyton. It has fetched upwards of £3 a ton, and is used as
manure and in the manufacture of fine earthenware etc. Thousands of tons of it
are shipped yearly from the Deben to various parts of
the Kingdom. Its fertilising properties are procured by trituration
and treatment with sulphuric acid. Veins of it at various depths from two to
twenty feet and thousands of pounds worth have been got out of a single small
field. It is mostly found near springs of water, and the starta
of the
(White’s Suffolk Directory,1874)
After having been washed and
sorted the coprolites would have been loaded onto barges down on the shore and
taken to manure manufactories for conversion into superphosphate
but there were occasions when, to save money, local farmers simply burnt them
and applied them untreated to their land. The “celebrated” cliffs had attracted
many geologists in their search for fossils and one recorded:-
“I believe that the nodule bed has been
worked just SE of Manor House, Bawdsey and in 1874,
there was a small working in a field about a third of a mile SW of the church.
At the spot where the bed was shown it was about three feet down, and capped by
Shelly Crag.”
(Whitaker, ‘Geology of Ipswich Etc.’,1885, p.69.)
Although they did not mention
their involvement in the industry, it would appear that many of the farmers
advertising in 1874 would have profited from the trade. These included Edward Cavall at Bawdsey Hall, William Gobitt at the Red House, Samuel Gross of the Manor House
and William Turner of High House. It would also seem likely that Mr. Ransby would have acted as the middle man, purchasing the
coprolite and then selling them on to the manufacturers. (White’s Directory,1874, 1877)
There were further references
in the trade directories to the workings in the 1880s but these must have been
on a much reduced scale, partly due to exhaustion of the beds but mainly due to
imports of cheaper, foreign phosphates which were eventually to be the death of
the “diggings.” (White’s Directory 1885, see author’s account of Alderton) Over the thirty or so years the industry lasted
in the area the diggings would have been a welcome addition to the labourers’
wages and provided more than “subsistence” employment to those involved.
Landowners would have benefitted the most, realising
many hundreds of pounds and possibly the cause of new buildings being erected
in the parish and expansion of landholdings.