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Croydon Fossil Diggings

 

Following the discovery in the late-1840sа that the fossils in the Cambridge Greensand were a matter of commercial proposition a new industry began that was to have enormous impact on many villages in the Eastern counties. Known by the trade name of coprolites, the fossil deposit contained not just phosphatised droppings of creatures living in the seas and on the coastal plains of Cretaceous Britain but also the teeth, bones, scales and claws of dinosaurs. The more famous dinosaurs of iguanodon, megalosaurus, dakosaurus, dinotosaurus and craterosaurus were found, as well as the marine lizards of ichthyosaurus, pliosaurus and plesiosaurus and the bird pterodactyl. But it wasn't just dinosaurs. Fossils of prehistoric elephant, hippopotamus, oxen, bear and horse were excavated as well as fossilised trees and numerous marine organisms - the most notable being ammonites.

 

Not only were they of interest to the students of the new science of geology but also the religious academics hotly debating Darwin's controversial theory of evolution. Many drawing room had its fossil collection and the country's museums had shelves filled with fossils from the Greensand. But the main reason why they were extracted was not for the pursuit of academic science but commercial reasons.

 

Britain's growing population during the Industrial Revolution needed feeding. Experiments to increase food production included adding a whole range of materials to the soil. Blood, bones, soot, fish, seaweed, chalk, clay and even rags were trialled. The most effective was animal bones but the nation's farmers couldn't supply the demand. The battlefields of Europe were scoured for bones, the pyramids of Egypt were emptied of mummified cats and even Italian catacombs were reported robbed for their bones. Loaded onto ships they were taken back to the 'dens" of the coastal manure manufactories. Britain was described as a "ghoul searching the continents for bones to feed its agriculture." So, when a cheaper and abundant deposit of fossil bones was discovered in Cambridgeshire there was, as the local historian, Richard Grove, described, "The Cambridgeshire Coprolite Mining Rush."

 

Chemical analysis of the nodules showed them to contain between 50 and 60% calcium phosphate. Ground to a powder and dissolved in sulphuric acid the resultant mass was superphosphate of lime - the world's first artificial chemical manure. Manure manufacturers from Ipswich and London cashed in on this cheaper raw material than the other popular manure of its day - guano.

 

They were first worked in Burwell in 1846 and pits opened in Chesterton in 1849. The deposit was found a few metres beneath the chalk marl in a thin bed of Cambridge Greensand which lay above the gault clay. It was simply a matter of a coprolite contractor getting an agreement with the landowner to raise the fossils. He then took on a gang of labourers, bought a horse or steam-operated washmill and some tools and started digging. On average г100 an acre was paid and about 250 tons were raised from each acre (0.404ha.). Once the depth and extent of the field was ascertained, mostly by boring but in some cases exploratory pits, a trench was dug at one side of the field with the removed topsoil and subsoil placed on the boundary side. As the fossil seam was exposed pick axes and shovels were used to extract it and, thrown into wheelbarrows, it was piled near a mill ready for washing and sorting. The seam averaged about 30 inches (0.39m.)а thick but in places it was up to six feet. (2.1m.). The soil above the seam on the new face was removed after undercutting and, for convenience, just thrown into the trench already worked. Backfilling meant the labourers gradually progressed across the field and onto adjoining property where a new lease was sought..

 

It was in 1863 when the coprolites were first dug in nearby Orwell, quite liekly the result of drainage work uncovering the seam. Their value for agricultural purooses led over the next few years to landowners gaiving a series of leases to coprolite contractors allowing them to raise the phosphatised nodules. They were found in a seam within the Lower Greensand which outcropped between the overlying chalk marl and the gault clay all along the slopes of the chalk ridge that stretched westwards from Orwell, behind Wimpole Hall and along the upper part of the ridge at Croydon, roughly along the line of the High Street. (2) It appears that there had been draining work done on several of the farms in the parish to improve the clayey lands down the slope and the tiles for which were quite likely supplied by William Turrell who had opened a brickworks in the village in 1861. This may well have been the works on the other side of the road at the junction of Larkins Road and the Tadlow Road in the field of what is now Brickyard Farm. (3)

 

As happened in many parishes at this time, the digging of drainage ditches exposed the coprolite seam, and although they may well have been worked from fields in the village before 1867, it was not until then that documentary evidence showed work had started in Croydon. Downing College, who owned a large estate in the area gave Turrell a licence allowing him to raise them from their land at г100 per acre, a considerable sum when agricultural rents were only about г1.50 an acre. Unfortunately, the College records did not specify dates, or include correspondance with either Turrell, their tenant farmer or their surveyor. (4) No maps or tracings have come to light either so one has had to rely on more modern maps to give an indication as to where these fossils were actually worked.

 

It was the soil survey map of the Royston area that revealed the extent of what they termed reclaimed coprolite workings, in other words soil that appeared to have been turned over by the diggers in their attempts to raise these fossils. The map on page .. shows the area covered and clearly it was a considerable area. (5) So much so that Turrell was unable to work it all and in June 1868 the college gave another lease to Henry Wilkerson, a coprolite contractor of Little Eversden. He paid the same 100 per acre but must have only worked an acre or so as the college accounts showed he had only paid them г125 13s. 0d. In fact, he had got into financial difficulties with St.JohnСs College over him not having paid any compensation to a farmer on whose land he was raising coprolites in Steeple Morden. Distress notices were slapped on him and his plant and machinery auctioned. This may well have accounted for Turrell being given a second lease the following year, 1869, but by this time the manure manufacturersС demand for the coprolites must have been so great that he was prepared to pay the college г150 an acre, a 50% increase in two years. (6)

 

Two years later when the 1871 census was taken, 50 year old Turrell was living in Brickyard Cottage, described as Brickmaster and Coprolite master employing 21 men and 4 boys. The other major employer was William Ellis, aged 54, living in Church Farm. He was described as a ФFarmer of 312 acres employing 9 men and 3 boys. There were, however, 105 agricultural labourers and 36 coprolite diggers, the second largest occupation. There were two men aged 48, James Brumell and Daniel Whitby, and two eleven year olds, Jonas Thacker and Philip Law. The average age was 24.6 with the bulk in their early twenties. (7)

 

As there were 12 brickmakers labourers there must have been thirteen working for Turrell and 24 for Wilkerson. In nearby Arrington there were also quite a number employed, 16 compared to 48 agricultural labourers and 14 described as аУlabourers.Ф

 

It was also 1871 when a government commission reported on their investigation into university income and in it the college admitted to making г294 14s. 1d. that year from coprolite royalties, adding,а УThe stone lies at intervals; there remain say 3 acres to be dug, depth varies.Ф (8) These three acres would undoubtedly have been dug and when they were exhausted adjoining fields along the outcrop would similarly have been worked. There were coprolite measurements taken in February 1872 by Charles Bidwell, an experienced coprolite surveyor, which showed Turrell had been working on Mr GapeСs land but their actual location was again not referred to. (9) The first geological map of the area, however, showed Уold coprolite workingsФ in the field opposite the crossroads on Croydon Hill to the west of the village. This would have been in the overgrown pits just below what used to be the The Lime Kiln. (10)

 

By 1873, however, it appeared that the workings on Downing CollegeСs Farm had ceased with Turrell and Wilkerson having together worked a total of just over 11 acres. In all likelihood, they had made similar arrangements with other farmers and landowners, but records of such agreements have not come to light. On February 18th that year an auction of TurrellСs Coprolite Plant etc. was held at the site of his diggings in the village, details of which can be seen following:-.

 

An 8 Horsepower portable engine by BURREL, nearly new Engine and Strap Sheds, 2 36 ft, leather driving straps A 20 Ft. Shaft, Common Wheel, 4 Pulleys 2 Trucks, 2 Weighing Machines 3 Powerful Working Horses. (11)

 

It realised the sum of г347 3s. 0d. of which almost г200 was paid for the relatively new engine by Francis Carver, a coprolite contractor from Whaddon. Other farmers and contractors bought other bits and pieces including William Colchester and Swann Wallis who also had works in the area. (12)

 

No further evidence of diggings has emerged but it was of interest to note a comment made in 1878 by one of Downing CollegeСs clerks that,

 

УSince the report of the late University Commission, in 1871, an increased income of г500 has been realized on the re-letting of some of the farms; but this increase has been balanced by a loss of г500 a year from coprolite diggings which are now exhausted.Ф (13)

 

Whilst this may have been the case on DowningСs land it appeared that there must have been more work available a few years later as the 1881 census showed there were nineteen coprolite diggers in the parish. The eldest was 43 and the youngest 17 and with an average age of 30.2, it was significant that the men were considerably older than a decade earlier. As there was no evidence of work in the parish, whilst they may well have been diggings for which no evidence has emerged, the likelihood is that the men walked to work in the pits nearby, either in Wimpole, Abington Pigotts or Bassingbourn. (14)

 

The diggings during the 18 caused damage to the earthworks (O.S. 302489 - 303485) (C.Arch.012161)

 

References

1. Unknown Geological ref.???; Communication with Cambridgeshire Archaeology Field Group which suggested a church magazine had the reference.

2. See authorСs accounts of Eversdens, Orwell, Wimpole,

3. Vict.Co.Hist.Cambs.p39

4. CUL.Parliamentary Papers,Rep.Com.Univ.Income,1871,p505.

5. Soil Survey Map, (Royston)

6. CUL.Parliamentary Papers,Rep.Com.Univ.Income,1871,p.505.

7. 1871 census, Croydon

8. CUL.Rep.Com.Univ.Income,p.505

9. Cambs.R.O.296B449.53

10. O.S. 6 inch Cambs.52NE (18..)

11. CUL.Royston Crow,February 1873,p.709)

12. Cambs.R.O.296B928.8

13. Downing Coll.Mun.Croydon

14. 1881 census; Royston Crow, 22nd Dec.1876, April 19th 1878,p.5

 

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