Business & Industry History

	Village Pubs Meppershall has only one pub now, so why I hear you say is the title plural. Well, we did at one time boast 4 pubs for a total of 700 persons, not bad for a small village and for that matter competition. History say's that there has been at least 5 pubs within the village in the past. The pub that remains is The Sugar Loaf, others were The Five Bells, two called The Barley Mow and The Red LIon, which was licensed in 1842.

	Under Taker The Simons family were the local builders and undertakers for many years. Maurice Simons was one of the few undertakers who still made coffins by hand. Made of elm and oak, hand polished and lined with swans down (which was purchased in large rolls), The coffins took about eight hours to make. Lead was not used unless by special request. At one time, for those who could afford them, four jet black horses were kept for pulling the hearse, the less well off were taken to Church on a Shaelibier. The Shalibier was pulled by the bearers and consisted of wooden boards on a set of four wheels, the front wheels made to turn independently to enable them to get around corners. The mourners would walk behind.

	Hoo Farm Hoo Farm was once owned by the Osborne family and has frequently changed hands in the last hundred years or so. Earlier in the 20th century a fire destroyed part of the house which was originally a small farm cottage. Mr.Thompson who owned the farm until 1958 added to the house over a period of time by putting rooms at both front and back of the old cottage. A previous owner Mr. Ivory, once went as far as putting large gates across Hoo Road and locking them, but leaving a smaller one open, for horse riders to get through. He was not very popular as Hoo Road was common land at the time.

	Coprolite Digging Coprolite is the fossilised dung of pre-historic creatures, when ground and treated with sulphuric acid they produced a superphosphate fertiliser. 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, yielding some 300 tons per acre. A good fossil digger could earn as much as £2 a week, a lot of money around 1890. The industry died with the imports of rock phosphates.

	Gloves and Stocking Factory The Gloves and Stocking Factory is believed to have started around 1915. At that time the women were employed in making gloves of all shapes and colours. As time went by the trade of gloves gradually declined, so woollen stockings were made for amputees during the war, returning to glove making after a few years. Gloves were made for all the armed services as well as the police force. Never a large factory, it had a reputation of having a very relaxed and informal atmosphere, with no hard and fast rules, no strikes and a cuppa when the fancy took you!! Alas, it finally closed around 1964.

	Temperature Gauges After the demise of the glove factory (above), four enterprising young men started up in business making temperature gauges, the company being called Nulectrohms. Business built up in the next 6 years until they sold out to The Highlands Electronic Group, in 1970. The group made Electrical temperature measuring equipment for a world wide market. They made a wider range of equipment including items in oil refinery works again world wide. The factory was extended to cope with expanding business and employed about 30 people. The company closed in the late 1990's.