Location:
- Grid reference: TQ54527502
- x=554520
- y=175020
- 51°27'11"N; 0°13'26"E
- Civil Parish: Dartford, Kent
Clinker manufacture operational: 1891-1911
Approximate total clinker production: 184,000 tonnes
Raw materials: Upper Chalk (Seaford Chalk Formation: 85-88 Ma) and Alluvial Clay from adjacent pits
Ownership:
- 1891-1911 Dartford Cement Works Ltd
- 1911 BPCM (Blue Circle)
The initial four bottle kilns (120 t/week) were extended to six before the turn of the century. In around 1902, a block of six chamber kilns (180 t/week) were added, bringing the total to 360 t/week (although Davis' list said 400 t/week). There was no rail link, all product being despatched by barge from a wharf on the River Darenth. It was already stopped by the time of the BPCM takeover, and there was no point in continuing the plant, the small quarry in a suburban area having no suitable reserves for development. The site remained derelict for many years, although the bottle kilns may have been used in a small way for lime burning. The site was finally cleared and redeveloped in the 1970s and is now under light industrial buildings. The quarry is a car park.
Power supply
The plant in its final form was driven by a gas engine.
Rawmills
No information
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources::
- Primary Sources:
- Greenhithe Archive
- several images from 1904-1908 are held by the Centre for Kentish Studies, Ref CKS-DA/P1
- Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping
- BGS mapping and monographs
- Confirmatory Sources: