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 derives from the Old English words ''stān'' and ''dūn'', and ...

and surrounded by farmland.

History

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 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

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), also known as the Detached Parishes Act 1844, which came into effect on 20 October 1844, was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which eliminated many outliers or exclaves of co ...

St. Mary's church
dates back to the Normans. The Parish Records of St Mary, Meppershall, have been published on CD by the Parochial Church Council.

Economy

Before the advent of greenhouses, Meppershall was a 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 a "glass city," growing salad crops for local markets, which were 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 ...

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 called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

creatures, which when ground and treated with

sulphuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid ( Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, and hydrogen, with the molecular formu ...

produces a

superphosphate Superphosphate is a chemical fertiliser first synthesised in the 1840s by reacting bones with sulfuric acid. The process was subsequently improved by reacting phosphate coprolites with sulfuric acid. Subsequently, other phosphate-rich deposits suc ...

fertiliser A fertilizer or fertiliser is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrition, plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from Liming (soil), liming materials or other non- ...

. 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 refilled 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.

Education

It is in the catchment zone for

Samuel Whitbread Academy Samuel Whitbread Academy is an Upper School and Sixth Form with Academy status serving the rural communities around the small market town of Shefford in Central Bedfordshire. Its school campus includes a nursery school and facilities for adul ...

, which has an upper school and sixth form. - Map is on p. 35/35.

References

External links

Village websiteVillage Hall
{{authority control Villages in Bedfordshire Civil parishes in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire District