Great Brickhill’s transport history connects the village’s farms and trades with the routes beyond the parish. Nearby railways and the canal offered ways of moving people, goods and raw materials, while local tracks linked places of work with those larger networks.
Coprolite mining and the canal
In the 1870s, phosphate-rich nodules near Great Firs and Galley Lane supported a short period of extraction. The material, commonly called coprolite, was used in fertiliser. A horse-worked tramway carried it downhill towards the Grand Junction Canal. The local account below explores the workings, their transport connections and the evidence left in the landscape.
Railways and Great Brickhill
Explore the railway network around the village and its place in the area’s transport history. The railway account provides the historical background; current regional rail development is covered separately in Connected Regional Heritage.
Explore further
The coprolite pits and tramway — Buckinghamshire Heritage Portal