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FALKENHAM,
The coprolite started being
extracted in nearby Felixstowe during the mid 1840s but there was no indication
they had spread to this parish until the early-1870s. When they first started
is uncertain as no local sources have emerged and the 1871 census gave no
indication anyone was involved. The 1881 census, however, revealed there were
five coprolite labourers living in the village, two on Kirton
Road, 20 year old Frederick and11 year old Arthur Stevenson. Three lived on
Dover Street, William Pace, 26, James Wright 29 and John Chapman 33, who was
the only one born in the parish. The others came from nearby parishes which
suggested an influx of labour to work the pits. On whose land they were working
is unknown but when Whitaker’s study was
done of the local geology in 1885 he included the information that,
“About half a mile northward of Falkenham Church there was a nodule working in 1874 on the
eastern side of the track” but the work was finished as it was “then being
filled up.”
(Whitaker,
(1885), ‘Geology of Ipswich Etc’,pp.58-9)
However, just southeast of
the lane leading from the church to Corporation Farm there was a report of
another working and nearby, half a mile northnorthwest of the Church, the bed was worked again. “Here the workmen had to remove cover of 13
to 15 feet of sand and crag before reaching a two feet thick seam.” (Ibid.,pp.58-9)
Unfortunately, records of
these workings have not come to light but the local landowners would have been
very keen to capitalise on what was a profitable deposit. Perhaps as a result
of the Whitaker’s publication the local trade directory for that year included
the comment that, “Coprolites have been
formerly obtained in this parish.” (White’s Directory,1885)