Back to Bedfordshire publications

 

EVERTON, BEDS.

 

Whilst no documentation has emerged which suggests the diggings extended towrds Everton, the were worked extensively on Sandy Heath and there is the strong possibility that people from the village were employed in the works. This could be confirmed by the 1871 census which, interestingly, only showed two ”agricultural labourers” yet forty nine ”labourers.” They may well have been coprolite labourers but did not describe themselves as such. There were no ”labourers” recorded however, in the 1881 census yet there was an incident in the coprolite diggings in the following decade which involved Jonas Giggle, an Everton man who was blinded during some blasting operations in the pit. (See Potton, Beds.Times? October 1889) This was probably on the Heath as in 1891 two women were employed as ”coprolite pickers”, 32 year old Kate Giggle and 24 year old Kate Roberts. In fact, there were 17 female sorters and pickers employed that year. (Beds.RO. 1891 census)

 

A mass of coprolites has been found exposed just below the ridge as one follows the stream north of the public footpath down towards the Roman Road and Fernbury Farm (TL 196510). A depression in the field (TL200517) just south of the village has been suggested as being a coprolite pit but no fossils or nodules have been found on Everton Heath to support this. However, Jonas Jiggle of Everton was reported as being blinded in an explosion in a coprolite pit (See the Dinosaurs on Sandy Heath).