Meppershall is a hilltop village in Bedfordshire near
Shefford,
Campton,
Shillington,
Stondon
Stondon is a civil parish located in the Central Bedfordshire district of Bedfordshire, England. The parish includes the settlements of Lower Stondon and Upper Stondon.
The name "Stondon" derives from the Saxon word meaning Stone Hill. The pa ...
and surrounded by farmland. The village and the manor house are mentioned in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
in 1086 - with the entry reading: ''Malpertesselle/Maperteshale: Gilbert FitzSolomon.''
The Manor House belonged to the De Meppershall family for nearly 300 years following 1086. The present house is early 17th century.
Until 1844 Meppershall was partially in Hertfordshire. The detached portion of
Hertfordshire was transferred to Bedfordshire in 1844, following the
Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844
The Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844 (7 & 8 Vict. c. 61), which came into effect on 20 October 1844, was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which eliminated many outliers or exclaves of counties in England and Wales for civil purposes. ...
.
St. Mary's churchdates back to the Normans. The Parish Records of St Mary, Meppershall, have been published on CD by the Parochial Church Council.
February 2011.
Before the advent of greenhouses, Meppershall was a very poor community with large families living in two up, two down type thatched cottages built of brick with stone floors. However so many greenhouses were built in the village that it was known as "glass city" growing salad crops for local markets and shipped further afield via the railway.
As well as farming the village earned its income from coprolite
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...
digging. Coprolite is the fossilised
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved i ...
dung of pre-historic
Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of ...
creatures, which when ground and treated with sulphuric acid produces a superphosphate Triple superphosphate is a component of fertilizer that primarily consists of monocalcium phosphate, Ca(H2PO4)2. Triple superphosphate is obtained by treating phosphate rock with phosphoric acid. Traditional routes for extraction of phosphate roc ...
fertiliser
A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
. To extract it a long trench was dug on one side of a field. The overlaying clay was then dug out until the nodule bed was reached. If the depth of clay to be removed was more than eight to nine feet, the trench was made in two or three steps and as the nodules were taken out, so the trench was re-filled with the earth already removed. The nodule bed was shovelled into barrows and taken to the washing mill. This consisted of a circular iron trough with a pivot in the centre to which a set of travelling rakes was attached, these being dragged round by horses and a constant stream of water was kept running through the trough until the clay washed off. The dirty water then was drained off and the nodules carted away. The coprolite was worth about £3 a ton in 1890, yielding some 300 tons per acre. A good fossil digger could earn as much as £2 a week. This industry has also died out.
References
External links
Village website
Village Hall
{{authority control
Villages in Bedfordshire
Civil parishes in Bedfordshire
Central Bedfordshire District