SHEPRETH, CAMBS

SHEPRETH, CAMBS.

It is uncertain when exactly the coprolite, or what were locally called fossil diggings, first spread to this parish but there had been workings across the river in Barrington and Orwell from the late 1850‘s. These may well have attracted local men to work in them and the 1871 census recorded three fossil diggers in the village. They may have been employed in workings on this side of the river but it was the local historian, Richard Grove, in his paper on the coprolite industry who suggested that the workings had started in Shepreth by 1872. The labour intensive industry resulted in a huge influx of outside labour and there had been worry expressed over the poor behaviour of some of these gangs of workmen, in the same way that parishioners had been concerned over the ”shanty• developments associated with the railway navvies. He mentioned that one landowner, William Woodham, allowed a Frank Hills to raise the coprolites from his land with a proviso that the landlord reserved the right to throw out of his property ”any unruly, unreligious, drunken or otherwise persons• to whom he objected. (R.Grove,•The Cambridgeshire Coprolite Mining Rush,1976,p43) Unfortunately, no further evidence of this agreement has emerged but by 1875 there was a record of a possible suicide of one of the diggers.

Inquest on digger. - On Tueday, C.W.Palmer, Esq. deputy coroner, held an inquest at the ”Railway Tavern,• Shepeth, touching the death of George Gascoigne, a copolite digger. - Thomas Coleman, Barrington, said that the deceased lodged with him, and that he came from Hitchin, some 18 months ago. Deceased was in the habit of drinking a great deal, and after a ”spree• he became low and depressed in spirits. On the 5th instant he was taken very ill., and said if he had a razor he would cut his throat, the pain was so great. He did not work on Friday or Saturday, and the last time Coleman saw him was about 8 o‘clock on Sunday morning. - William Chapman, labourer, Barrington, said on Sunday afternoon he went over the bridges and on going over the second bridge he went up to some fossil works, where the end had slipped and the water ran in. He observed a hat, which was recognised by some workmen as belonging to the deceased. They dragged the pit and got out the body of the deceased. The pit was about half a mile distant from his lodgings. - After some further evidence in which it transpired the deceased suffered from ”delerium tremens•, the jury returned an open verdict of ”Found Drowned.• (Cambridge Chronicle,14th August 1875,p4)

Subsequent evidence showed that Hills had workings in barrington and in 1878 made further investigations in Shepreth as to the possibility of raising a deeper seam. He was described as a Gentleman from Deptford, where a large Chemical Manure Works was situated. There is the strong possibility he was working for Lawes Chemical manure Company and was interested in securing a new deposit of potentially thousands of tons of good quality phosphatic nodules. An agreement was drawn up on the first of May 1878 whereby the landowner, W.F.N. Woodham, allowed him, if Grove is correct, his second licence to raise the coprolite from 25 acres of land at 150 per acre over a period of five years. The map on page .. shows the area that was to be worked but the agreement was actually cancelled, quite possibly because William Matheson, the Manager of the Manure Works who acted as Hills witness, must have been aware of the growing imports of cheaper higher quality rock phosphate from the United States. (CambsRO.R53/4/81) This was also a time of exceptionally heavy rains which would have made the work not only more difficult but also more expensive in terms of pumping out water from the pits. Free trade had not only allowed massive imports of phosphates from overseas but also enormous quantities of grain and refrigerated meat from the American Prairies which brought prices down so much that farmers, particularly cereal and stock farmers, faced ruin. Many coprolite contractors went out of business when falling prices made it uneconomic to continue and many pits were left open and workings unlevelled. Topsoil was not replaced and even today there is considerable evidence of past coprolite workings from the poor state of the soil.

They were still being worked over in Barrington in 1881 when almost 70 men were working but it seemed the work had ceased here as there was only one coprolite digger from Shepreth, 36 year old William Barnard. Presumably he walked to work across the river in the Barrington pits. Several years later the economic situation improved enough to allow Woodham to eventually profit from the coprolites in his field. By 1885 the Farmers‘ Manure Company at Royston, of whom Woodham may well have been a shareholder, still had a demand for local coprolite. It seems likely that being an inland works it would have had to pay quite high transport costs to bring in the foreign phosphates and, being a cooperative, had a reputation of supporting local farmers. So, in 1885 Woodham gave a licence to Frederick Smith, who described himself as a coprolite merchant from Royston, to dig them from 24 acres, presumably the same deposit that Hills had been interested in, for the slightly reduced price of 130 per acre. He was allowed to work them from two acres at a time with permission to have horses, carts, wagons, crushing mills, steam engines, apparatus, tools and other effects and to continue for three years ”unless prevented by a combination of workmen or inevitable accident.• (CambsRO.R53/4/82)

No other details of these works have emerged but it would appear that like in many other parishes along the junction of the gault clay with the chalk marl ta new industry grew up utilising the marl for cement making. Whether the owners sold the coprolites that were found between the chalk marl and gault has not been documented for Shepreth but it appeared that it had not all had been exploited by the turn of the century. In 1902 the sale particulars of 38 acres of arable land by the railway behind the East Anglian Cement Works revealed that “The mineral resources of the district are exceptional, combining the manufacture of the best quality of Cement and Bricks and the raising of coprolites with the greatest economy. The situation adjoining the railway is also most advantageous for the economical carriage of all material both to and from the estate.” (CCRO. 515/SP248; 296/SP1012; R.Grove,op.cit.p.47)