THETFORD, NORFOLK

 

The firm of Fisons grew up in Thetford in the mid-nineteenth century with James Fison of the White House, Barningham, being the entrepreneurial figure at its head. As his milling business expanded he moved to Thetford in 1808 where he was joined by his two sons, James and Cornell, producing feeding stuffs, linseed and rape cake as well as malting, buying and selling corn, coal, wool as well as brickmaking. (Norsk Hydro file, Museum of East Anglian Life,Stowmarket)

They opened works in Stowmarket in the early-1830s and, by the 1840s, they were advertising in the local trade directories as selling feeding stuffs, linseed and rape cake, buying and selling corn, coal and wool, malting, timber sawyers, bone and cake crushing, and brickmaking. James Fison was experimenting with bone dust as early as 1843 as evidenced by the following extracts from his memo book: -

 

"BONES: January 28th 1843

To Grind bones into Drill and Dust. I do not leave all the dust in the make but nearly so. My price here for drill and dust averaged 15/6d and 17/6d for all dust. Average price paid this year for bones at 75/- or 76/- per ton. Profit I calculate at 2/- to 2/6 per quarter"

(‘The Early Fertiliser Years 1843 – 1929', Fison’s memo book, Fison’s Ltd)

 

Following the development of artificial manures in the early-1840s and the profits to be made in the lucrative manure market, James invested in the plant and machinery needed to expand into this branch of agricultural supplies. He used his mill to grind imported bones and guano, in great demand at that time by agriculturalists, By 1845 He had expanded his factory at Steam Mills, Bridge Street, Thetford to capitalise on the growing demand from Suffolk farmers. (White’s Norfolk Directory,1845; Norsk Hydro file, Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket; Norfolk Industrial Archaeology Society Journal 1976)

 

BONES: April 10th 1847

Mixture with vitriol. Information obtained from the Newcastle Agricultural Meeting.

Make a conical heap of earth or ashes with a mouth at the top. For two acres, put 8 bushels of half inch bones to 160 lbs sulphuric acid. Mix the acid with 10 gallons hot water. Place alternate layers in the cone of earth, bone and acid. Stir and cover over for a day or two and turn twice or thrice."

 

(‘The Early Fertiliser Years 1843 – 1929', Fison’s memo book, Fison’s Ltd)

 

By 1847 Joseph Fison had expanded into Suffolk and opened a fertiliser works in Ipswich to capitalise on the newly discovered coprolite beds. James made many analyses of Peruvian guano, gypsum, coprolite and manures. In 1851 he had 80 tons of Felixstowe coprolites shipped into Thetford via King’s Lynn. Following Joseph’s success in Suffolk he realised the potential market from landowners and farmers in Norfolk. In 1853 he leased a large plot of land at Two Mile Bottom, about two miles from Thetford. (TF. 853867) from W.D. Mackenzie of Fawley Court, Buckinghamshire. It was between the Thetford to Mundford Road and the Little Ouse alongside the Thetford to Ely railway line. It had its own acid plant to manufacture what was then called oil of vitriol or sulphuric acid which was used to dissolve the phosphatic materials to produce and market turnip and corn manures as well as superphosphate of lime. The company office was on Bridge Street. (Kelly's Post Office Directory,Norfolk, 1879,1883) Between 1856-75 the company was the major supplier of vitriol to Cambridge Manure Co. works at Cambridge and Duxford. (Cams.RO R60 Cambridge Manure Co.Minute Books)

 

In the same year, 1853, he opened 'The Blood and Manure Company' with its own vitriol and manure works. When it was completed it was the second such extensive chemical manure works in the country after Packards in Bramford. With the river Ouse being navigable as far as King's Lynn the major raw materials, mineral phosphates, coprolites and sulphur, were easily brought in by barge. The proximity of the railway was also an advantage enabling easy access throughout Cambs., Norfolk and Suffolk. However, as coprolites or phosphatic nodules were found on land in Cambridgeshire belonging to other landowning and farming members of the Fison family it seems likely there was some trade in it. They began exploiting it in the late-1850s and, although none of the company records have emerged, in all likelihood they would have had it sent by truck or barge. This traffic in raw materials from Ipswich, Cambridgeshire and elsewhere would have stimulated other businesses and provided employment for many and proved a valuable contribution to the local economy.

 

Coke was brought in by barge and water for the steam was obtained from the river Little Ouse. The company records show that they purchased fossil bones from the Cromer bone bed at West Runton as well as whale bones. Whether the latter were from the fossil bed or from the whaling fleet is unknown.

 

In 1855, 650 tons of coprolite were brought into Fison’s Thetford works from pits in Ipswich, Felixstowe, the Deben estuary as well as from the Cambridge area. It was shipped to Lynn and then came upstream by barge. Details of the their costs seen below, show that, when a ton of superphosphate was selling at £6.00 a ton, there were considerable profits to be made. Labour costs were as low as 4s.4d. (£0.22) a ton.

 

"COST OF GRINDING COPROLITE

Tons                                                   £  s. d.

7        One day & nights labour               12  8

                   Coals . . . 18cwt …..                       18  0

1.10 8

Employed 3 pairs stones and rollers.

Engine worked at 30-35 lbs or nearly full power.

Labour         1 man plus 5 boys in day.

1 man plus 2 boys at night."

 

(‘The Early Fertiliser Years 1843 – 1929', Fison’s memo book, Fison’s Ltd)

 

Fison was a true Victorian entrepreneur. His memo book recorded all sorts of things that caught his interest. In 1830 he recorded the Thetford flood that reached into some of his malt kilns and “Mr Minn’s parlour at the Paper Mill.” The 1832 election returns for West Suffolk were listed, the prices of timber from Quebec in 1834, the quality of porter brewed by twelve London brewers between 1835 – 36. wool prices, corn prices and the report on sanitary conditions in Thetford in 1868.  He liked to have the background of the firms he was working with. For example, in 1874 he checked the trustworthiness of brewers in Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds, Halifax and Manchester before selling them his malt. He was in correspondence with engineers and chemists about the processes to be used at his works and had notes on all sorts of things from making black ink to preparing rat poison.

 

He imported products such as rye grass, rape cake, red clover, linseed cake, Lucerne, barley, bones, hemp, wool and bark into Hull, Lynn, Wells, Yarmouth and London from Archangel, Memel St. Petersburg, Rostock, Stettin, Riga, Konigsberg, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Kiel, Rotterdam, Bordeaux, Douai, Dundas, Nantes, and Marseilles. In 1857 he imported 49 rolls of lead, 230 tons of bones, 572 bags of guano, 289 tons of brimstone, 20 tons of sulphur, 419 bags of nitrate soda, 134 bags of ammonia, 100 bags of gypsum and, notably, 624 tons of coprolite.

 

Analysis of Fison’s insurance records shows that his works were insured for £4,600 in 1854. By 1858 it was increased to £8,750. Between 1855 and the end of the century, numerous improvements were made to the site. It had three lead chambers, stores, a counting house, new steam engines, pumps, engine sheds, boiler houses, tool room, bone and coprolite mill house, rectifying equipment, evaporators, coolers, bottles and piping. There was also an extensive tramway system and railway sidings. (Ibid.)

 

In 1873, with the discovery of a new coprolite deposit at West Dereham in Norfolk the company expanded into the profitable coprolite industry themselves. Whilst they may well have done so earlier in other areas, this is the first documentation of such. James Fison and Son, as well as Thomas Thwaites Ball, a Burwell manure manufacturer, had an arrangement with Hugh Aylmer, the sheep breeding landowner of the estate, to raise these coprolites, thereby reducing their dependency on having to rely too heavily on other coprolite merchants for their supplies. (Ibid. Kelly's Directory, Norfolk, 1879, 1883, 1892) Only very keen competition from the West Norfolk Farmers' Cooperative prevented their steady business in superphosphates from showing very healthy profits. (The Early Fertiser Years,' Fisons Journal no.77, December 1963) It was said to have been taken over by Packards but exactly when is uncertain.