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HENLOW, BEDS.
When the
coprolites were first extracted in Henlow is unknown. The earliest evidence is
1878, many years after the industry had first started in Bedfordshire, at the
neighbouring parish of Shillington. However, in his report to the bishop in
1873, the vicar, Rev. Wm. Holesgrove, informed him
that, “Our Squire is dead and the property is to be sold and our parish is
in a very unsettled state.” (Cambridge University Library Ely Diocesan
Register C3/25) Whether the sale attracted a search for the lucrative
coprolites that were being raised nearby is uncertain. In 1878 the major
contractor in the area, John Bennet Lawes, sent had his Hitchin surveyor, George
Beaver, do some surveying of the coprolite diggings on Henlow Oldfield and
Henlow Grange. (Diaries of G.Beaver,
Hitchin Museum, p.117a.) This was confirmed in Chambers’ account of the
village which stated that,
“Curious
nodules or lumps of stone known as coprolites of the greensand and Gault have been dug in great quantities between
1870 - 1880.”
(Chambers.C.G., ‘Bedfordshire’,117, p.73)