| Brooks, Shoobridge Anchor Brand. |
Location:
- Grid reference: TQ60517765
- x=560550
- y=177650
- 51°28'30"N; 0°18'41"E
- Civil Parish: Grays Thurrock, Essex
Clinker manufacture operational: 1871-1922
Approximate total clinker production: 1.07 million tonnes
Raw materials:
- Upper Chalk (Seaford Chalk Formation: 85-88 Ma) from quarries at 560300,178400
- Alluvial Clay from the Medway until 1900, then from Cliffe.
Ownership:
- 1871-1893 Brooks, Shoobridge and Co.
- 1893-1900 Hilton Anderson Brooks and Co. Ltd
- 1900-1922 APCM (Blue Circle)
Otherwise known as Brooks or Anchor Works. There were initially four small wet process bottle kilns: these expanded to eight (80 t/week) by 1873. In 1880, six small Johnson chamber kilns (86 t/week) were installed. In 1885, these were extended to 17 (245 t/week), and the bottle kilns were decommissioned. After the merger with Hilton Anderson, a large expansion took place, with another 28 chamber kilns (845 t/week) in place by 1895. During 1896-1904, the older small kilns were replaced with 16 Hilton kilns (510 t/week), leaving the final total capacity of 1355 t/week. The site probably ceased operation during WWI, but restarted (probably only the Hilton kilns) during 1919-1922. The remains of the plant were described in detail in the APCM 1924 schedule. Although the plant stood beside the main railway to Tilbury, it had no rail link, and despatched all product by barge. The site remained abandoned until after WWII, when it was redeveloped for industry, but is now under housing: the wharf area is a small park.
Power supply
The plant was originally direct-driven by steam, with separate engines for rawmills (250 HP double expansion) and finish mills (two 250 HP double expansion). With replacement of the finish mills with ball-and-tube mills, gas engines (220 HP and 500 HP) were used.Rawmills
Washmills were used, with the final arrangement being two 18' rough mills, a 25' intermediate mill, a 21' screener and two 18' screeners.
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources:
- Primary Sources:
- Greenhithe Archive
- F. H. Lewis, The European Cement Industry, Engineering Record, 1899, pp 9-12
- Victoria County History of Essex, Vol 2, p 492
- APCM 1924 schedule
- Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping
- BGS mapping and monographs
- Confirmatory Sources: