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OAKINGTON, CAMBS.

Although there were a number of references in geological papers on the coprolites there is no actual evidence that they were worked in the parish. This could have been that they may have been found at depths too uneconomical to extract commercially or that they were worked but not documented. “Phosphatic nodules similar to those at Knapwell are found near where the junction line of Kimmeridge clay and the Lower Greensand crosses the Huntingdon Road and West of Oakington, showing that a layer of coprolites exists wholly or in part between the two formations.” T.Roberts,”Jurassic Rocks of Cambs.” In fact there were reports of workings in Westwick to the northeast which may have involved local men but another report was of nodules being found at Caxton End below the greensand and boulder clay. (Pennings and Jukes-Brown,1881, p11) The census returns showed nobody actually described as involved in the industry which suggests that if the diggings took place they most likely were in the mid-1870’s.