occupation: coprolite **

I am looking for the numbers of people employed in the coprolite
industry in the UK, mainly Cambs, Beds, Herts and Bucks, as recorded in
the censuses 1851-1901. They are variously described as "coprolite
diggers", "coprolite labourers" &c

CWatters...

Might be worth a look at..
Cambridgeshire The Corprolite Industry

I just need numbers and location (village, parish, ...), not personal
details.

It seems that there is a plan to erect a sculpture to commemorate these
activities at Bassingbourn ...
yDirt.htm

I am not familiar with the various on-line family history databases and
the question is: which is the best to try ?

Hugh Watkins...

there are two tarnmcriptions you may search for occupations

keyword(s)
coprolite

circa 550 hits

also available as a cd set

from

Name: Thomas Abrey
Age in 1881: 53
Age months: 0
Estimated birth year: abt 1828
Relationship to head-of-household: Head
Household: View other family members
Family and neighbors: View neighbors
Gender: Male
Where born: Mildenhall, Suffolk, England
Address: Parish Cross
Civil parish: Meldreth
County/Island: Cambridgeshire
Condition as to marriage: Married
Occupation: Coprolite Labourer
Education: View Image
Employment status: View Image
Source information: RG11/1415
Registration district: Royston
Sub-registration district: Melbourn
ED, institution, or vessel: 15
Folio: 29
Page: 3

to

Name: James Yearle
Age in 1881: 39
Age months: 0
Estimated birth year: abt 1842
Relationship to head-of-household: Head
Household: View other family members
Family and neighbors: View neighbors
Gender: Male
Where born: Potton, Bedfordshire, England
Address: 212 Newmarket Rd.
Civil parish: Cambridge
County/Island: Cambridgeshire
Condition as to marriage: Married
Occupation: Laborer Coprolite Pits
Education: View Image
Employment status: View Image
Source information: RG11/1664
Registration district: Cambridge
Sub-registration district: St Andrew The Less
ED, institution, or vessel: 1
Folio: 15
Page: 23

======
digger gives many more
eg
Name: David Long
Age in 1881: 26
Age months: 0
Estimated birth year: abt 1855
Relationship to head-of-household: Head
Household: View other family members
Family and neighbors: View neighbors
Gender: Male
Where born: Wimpole, Cambridgeshire, England
Address: No 37 Cottage
Civil parish: Wimpole
County/Island: Cambridgeshire
Condition as to marriage: Married
Occupation: Fossil Digger
Education: View Image
Employment status: View Image
Source information: RG11/1656
Registration district: Caxton
Sub-registration district: Caxton
ED, institution, or vessel: 28
Folio: 86
Page: 8

there willbe typos and errors
togetnumbers just copy the pages

and put the datain aspread sheeet

1901 census

needs a name as well
so is not handy (not deigned by genealogists but engineers)

Hugh W

Chris Cooksey...

Many thanks for the suggestions.

I found some numbers in
which suggest that at the peak of the industry in 1871, 2396 people were
employed.

squealing...

Hi, I'd be suspicious of those numbers - the UK coprolite 'mining' industry
was a shortlived affair in some places and those census figures only tell a
hint of the story. You can see on the page you gave above that activity in
some places started and finished in the period of a decade.

I've looked into it a little bit in Suffolk where the likes of Fisons and
Packards were permanantly based, in Bramford and Ipswich (and where there
is even a Coprolite Street, whose nameplate is often stolen by geology
students). The 'works' there employed hundreds of men on the furnaces,
vitriol manufacture, and all the other supporting skills needed by the
indutry like mechanics, carting and shipping. Surprisingly those parishes
and their neighbours are left off entirely from those lists.
Though you have to know what to look for - I've seen the Suffolk census
sometimes records those people simply as 'xxxxman at works'.

And as the page says, often the mining was done by the farmer's labourers
doing a job on the side. It seems that in the Shotley Peninsula almost
everybody dug up coprolites for themselves. The stories go that they could
earn 10/- from their own back yard.

I find it fascinting that the once famous industries of Suffolk
(fertilizers, Xylonite, agricultural steel, brickmaking etc...) are all-but
forgotten nowadays.