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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
аlikely that it was
from these workings that a Bronze Age hoard was unearthed by the diggers in
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