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FALKENHAM, SUFFOLK

 

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)