HARLINGTON, BEDS.
According to contemporary geological reports,
the coprolites were first worked in this area in 1874. It appeared Mr. Henry
Wilkerson, of Leighton Buzzard, was the manager of the works for Morris and
Griffin‘s Manure Company‘s of Wolverhampton. He was also responsible for
workings in many villages in the area including Sharpenhoe, Barton,
Cheddington, Northall and possibly Billington. (I. O‘Dell‘s notebooks in Luton
Museum.) The fossils attracted the interest of a number of geologists and in Jukes-Brown’s
1875 paper it was mentioned that, ”Mr. Wilkerson told me that in the second
cutting in the railway north of Harlington the same band of coprolites (as that
worked at Buckland etc.) was met with light coloured clay above them. Mr.
Pearce of Harlington also told me that coprolites occurred about 20 feet down
in the clay pit on the right hand side of the road to Toddington.”
(Jukes-Brown, 1875, p267.)
In January 1875, when it
seemed that land nearby might have a bed of coprolite in the greensand, the
owners were keen to ascertain the whereabouts and economic prospects of
exploiting this valuable source of additional revenue. The administrators of
the Oakington Hospital Trust, the Draper‘s Company, entrusted the work to an
experienced coprolite surveyor, Charles Bidwell, who then tested fields in
Harlington, Flitton, Pulloxhill, Flitwick, Streetly and Westoning. They must
have been disappointed when he reported that the land of Hermitage and
Greenfield Farms in Flitton, Pulloxhill and Flitwick, “...do not contain a
vein of coprolites of sufficient value to pay for the cost of excavation, there
may be here and there a small pocket of fossils, but none of mercantile value.”
(Cambs.CRO. Bidwell 30 pp18-22) His report on Lower East End Farm, Grange Farm
and Grange Mill in the parishes of Streetly, Westoning and Harlington was more
optimistic. ”When I made my survey of these lands I found coprolites of very
fair quality close to the surface near Grange Mill and looking to the position
and general features of this valley I thought it right to have these lands
carefully tested.• (Ibid) The result of his borings and further comments
can be seen on page .. but unfortunately no records have come to light
indicating they were exploited but it does seem likely that Morris and Griffin
would have been interested. There was a reference to them being discovered in
the brickworks at Fancott, two miles to the northwest but it was not clear
whether the black coprolites were also exploited. (Jukes-Brown, ”On the Relations
of the Cambridge Gault and Greensand, p263)