| New Rainham Peacock Brand, 1890s. |
Location:
- Grid reference: TQ50918113
- x=550910
- y=181130
- 51°30'32"N; 0°10'29"E
- Civil Parish: Hornchurch, Essex
Clinker manufacture operational: 1881-1902
Approximate total clinker production: 150,000 tonnes
Raw materials:
- Upper Chalk (Seaford Chalk Formation: 85-88 Ma) from Grays?
- London Clay (London Clay Formation: 48-55 Ma) and perhaps Alluvial Clay from around the plant
Ownership:
- 1881-1884 Rock Cement Co.
- 1884-1892 Rainham Portland Cement Co. Ltd
- 1892-1900 New Rainham Portland Cement Co. Ltd
- 1900-1902 APCM (Blue Circle)
Not to be confused with the British Standard plant at Rainham, Kent. There was nothing here on the 1867 map. There is no chalk nearby, but septaria-bearing clay outcrops on both sides of the Thames at this point, and it may be that it was originally founded in the 1870s to make Roman Cement. There were five wet process bottle kilns in 1884, and eight (210 t/week) by 1891, when the plant was put up for sale. These were replaced, in 1895, with eight chamber kilns. Total capacity 240 t/week. After the APCM takeover, there was no point keeping a plant with no chalk quarry, and it was promptly shut. All its transport was by water. It was still standing in 1923, but as a prime riverside site, it was eventually redeveloped, and is currently occupied by a waste management facility.
Power supply
No information
Rawmills
No information
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources:
- Primary Sources:
- Greenhithe Archive
- newspapers
- Victoria County History of Essex, Vol 2, p 493
- Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping
- BGS mapping and monographs
- Confirmatory Sources:
- Francis, pp 206-207