INDUSTRIES 



INTRODUCTION 



LOCAL industries naturally fall into two 

 tolerably distinct classes : those that 

 the locality shares with all other 

 ^ populated areas, and those that, 

 owing to underlying geological 

 wealth, or to peculiarities of soil, or to situation, 

 or to historical accident, give a distinctive character 

 to the locality. 



Of the former class of local industries little 

 need be said. They do not differ in extent and 

 character from those of other districts in which 

 most of the local wants are supplied by local 

 trade and enterprise. A few exceptions in which 

 the modern facilities of communication and 

 transit have made the comparatively central 

 midland situation of Bedford and the county 

 a valuable asset in industrial enterprise will 

 be mentioned in the closing section of this 

 article. 



But of the second class there are several which, 

 though not all of very great importance, are all 

 of sufficient interest to deserve a detailed discussion. 

 Local mineral deposits, the extensive river system, 

 the character of certain local agricultural products, 

 and what may be called historical accidents, 

 have given rise to industries which are more or 

 less peculiar to the county, and the history of 

 ■which, in two or three cases, is specially 

 interesting. 



There are some extensive industries in the 

 county dependent upon the local character of the 

 soil. A very large part of the county consists 

 of Chalk, Gault, Clays, and Gravels. Hence 

 Bedfordshire produces an output, exceptionally 

 large in proportion to its size, of lime, cement, 

 whiting, bricks, tiles, and various grades of gravel. 

 Some of these works — notably, some lime and 

 cement works — have been in existence for a 

 considerable time ; but it has been during the 

 last two or three decades that the brick and tile 

 -works have been very largely developed, 

 particularly in the valley between Bedford and 

 the range of the Lower Greensand hills. In 

 certain parts — particularly Flitwick and the 

 neighbourhood — a large trade is done in the 

 beautiful red and yellow sands yielded by the 

 Lower Greensand formation. In the Flitwick 



district many thousands of tons are dug annually ; 

 and a great quantity is dug also near Leighton 

 Buzzard. The sand is used in various industries, 

 according to its character. In the west corner 

 of the county, at Heath and Reach, where the 

 Lower Greensand crops out from beneath the 

 Gault, there is found, at a considerable depth 

 from the surface, a white sand which is excavated 

 and sent away for glass-making. Also in the 

 Lower Greensand, at Woburn Sands, during the 

 latter part of the nineteenth century, fullers' 

 earth was dug ; but the work proved unremune- 

 rative, and has now been discontinued. 



Until recently, at several places in the county, 

 a profitable industry was carried on in the digging 

 of phosphatic nodules, generally known by the 

 name of coprolites. True coprolites are the 

 fossil excrement of reptiles ; but the so-called 

 coprolites of Bedfordshire have been determined 

 by geologists and chemists to consist of ' pieces 

 of wood mineralized by the infiltration of 

 phosphatic matter,' casts of shells, bones, &c. 

 They occur both below and above the Lower 

 Greensand. In Bedfordshire, those in the Gault, 

 above the Lower Greensand, occur in two seams 

 near Barton in the Clay ; they are dark and rich 

 in phosphate, and belong to the band that has 

 been extensively worked in Cambridgeshire. 

 Those at the base of the Lower Greensand occur 

 in several parts of Bedfordshire in seams varying 

 in thickness from two to six feet. From their 

 rolled appearance it has been inferred that they 

 were washed out of the earlier deposits, the 

 Oxford and Kimmeridge Clays, Dr. Voelcker's 

 analysis shows them to contain some 49 per 

 cent, of phosphate of lime with a little carbonate 

 of lime. 



The principal excavations have been at Potton, 

 Sandy, Stotfold, Shillington, &c. The digging 

 began between forty and fifty years ago, and has 

 now ceased entirely in this county. The seams 

 have not been exhausted, but the supply of other 

 phosphatic manures has made the work 

 unremunerative, especially where the pits were 

 not near a railway station. When the industry 

 was at its height many thousands of tons of 

 coprolites were dug out every year, and at one 



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