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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).