Location:
- Grid reference: SE95010109
- x=495015
- y=401095
- 53°29'53"N; 0°34'3"W
- Civil Parish: Hibaldstow, Lindsey
Clinker manufacture operational: 1920 to 1976
Approximate total clinker production: 9.3 million tonnes
Raw materials: quarry at 494500,401800 supplying materials all of Inferior Oolite (Bajocian) age - Lincolnshire Limestone Formation - (top to bottom):
- relatively pure cream-coloured Lincolnshire Limestone (Hibaldstow Limestone): 168-170 Ma, locally 1.6 m thick, 22.3% of mix over the history of the plant.
- grey Kirton shale (Kirton Cementstone Mudstone) consisting of thin inter-bedded argillaceous limestones and calcareous shales: ~170 Ma: 4.5 m thick, 44.5% of mix
- shaly grey Scawby limestone (Kirton Cementstone Limestone): 170-171 Ma, 2.1 m thick, 14.2% of mix
- Kirton cementstone (Kirton Cementstone Limestone) consisting of inter-bedded limestones and black shales: 170-171 Ma, 2.9 m thick, 10.2% of mix
- Santon limestone (Santon Oolite): 170-171 Ma, 2.1 m thick, 6.3% of mix
- sand, clays and argillaceous limestones (Raventhorpe Beds): 170-171 Ma, 3.6 m thick, 2.5% of mix
The suggestion that the plant used Blue Lias materials dates from the 1901 Cam Blue Lias Case, and is entirely false, although repeated by many who ought to know better.
Ownership:
- 1920-17/9/1923 Caustic Lime and Macadam Co. Ltd
- 17/9/1923-17/3/1936 Central Portland Cement Co. (Ltd 1927)
- 17/3/1936-1949 Alpha Cement Co. Ltd
- 1949-1976 APCM (Blue Circle)
Also known as Central Works. The “Blue Lias Lime and Cement Works” (which made neither Blue Lias lime nor cement!) had been opened on the site in 1882 by H Parry and Sons, and a bank of lime kilns still remains to the north of the plant site. Later called the Kirton Tunnel lime works, it was established where the Gainsborough-Brigg line of the Great Central Railway cuts through the Oolite ridge, and used the railway for transport. Mainly high-grade Hibaldstow Limestone was burned.
The setting up of a cement plant seems to have been planned before WWI, and G & T Earles, who were installing FLS kilns at Wilmington, seem to have provided surreptitious consultancy. FLS's commissioning engineer, Erik Elmquist, subsequently set up the Parry & Elmquist consultancy here. The plant began by burning Hibaldstow Limestone with the underlying shale, but later used progressively more of the limestone and shale beds below. Although the raw materials were ideal for dry process, this technology was not available from British suppliers or FLS, and the plant continued making slurry with 40-42% water content until the belated introduction of defloculants in 1973.
With the plant in decline, the installation of kiln 5 (a kiln of obsolete design) in 1968 remains a mystery to me. The plant closed with the first post-oil-crisis contraction in1976. The site now functions as a recycling depot. Many buildings are intact, and some of the kiln section foundations are still visible.
Please contact me with any relevant information or corrections. I am particularly interested in firmer dates and statistics.
Power Supply
The plant was electrically driven, originally from on-site turbo-generators. From 1935, power was purchased from the grid, and on-site generation ceased in 1937.
Rawmills
? unknown but presumably ball mills
Five rotary kilns were installed:
Kiln A1
Supplier: FLS
Operated: 10/1920 -13/01/1967
Process: Wet
Location: hot end 495006,401123: cold end 495051,401127
Dimensions: Metric 45.00 × 2.400B / 2.100CD
Rotation (viewed from firing end): ?
Slope: 1/25 (2.292°)
Speed: ?
Drive: ?
Cooler: originally “double-back” concentric rotary metric 10.05 × 1.350 / 1.200 / 1.800 beneath the kiln: replacement origin? date? 51’0” × 4’7” (metric 15.54× 1.397) beneath kiln.
Cooler profile:
- Original concentric 0×1350: 3900×1350: 3900×1200: 9600×1200: 10050×1800: 4200×1800: tyre at 2400 with trunnion end bearing: turning gear at tail end.
- From ?: 0×1397: 15545×1397: tyres at 3048, 11278
Coal mill: indirect: ball mill, ?shared by kilns 1 & 2
Exhaust: initially direct to stack: ID fan added in the 1930s: APCM "Unit" electrostatic precipitator added in the 1960s.
Typical Output: 1920-1934 83 t/d: 1934-1967 108 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1920-1934 8.5 MJ/kg: 1934-1967 7.97 MJ/kg
Kiln A2
Operated: 12/1924 -13/01/1967
Location: hot end 495005,401133: cold end 495051,401136
Dimensions: 46.00 × 2.400B / 2.100CD
Kiln profile: 0×1725: 711×1725: 711×2085: 2108×2085: 2108×2400: 9544×2400: 11265×2100: 46000×2100: Tyres at 1346, 12802, 24835, 39256
Typical Output: 1924-1934 92 t/d: 1934-1967 118 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1924-1934 8.27 MJ/kg: 1934-1967 7.88 MJ/kg
Identical in all other respects to A1
Kiln A3
Supplier: FLS
Operated: 1936-19/09/1976
Process: Wet
Location: hot end 495011,401091: cold end 495018,401000
Dimensions (from cooler ports): Metric 91.44 × 2.692B / 2.250CD
Rotation (viewed from firing end): ?
Slope: 1/25 (2.292°)
Speed: ?
Drive: ?
Kiln profile (from cooler ports): -2743×2692: 33147×2692: 35154×2250: 91440×2250: Tyres at 1905, 12675, 29083, 43891, 60960, 82906
Cooler: Unax planetary 11 × 5.36 × 1.067
Fuel: Coal
Coal mill: initially indirect with a ?shared FLS ball mill: later (late 1940s?) direct, 110 kW No18 Atritor
Exhaust: via ID fan direct to stack: APCM "Unit" electrostatic precipitator added in the 1960s.
Typical Output: 1936-1953 243 t/d: 1953-1972 229 t/d: 1973-1976 268 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1936-1953 6.92 MJ/kg: 1953-1965 6.86 MJ/kg: 1965-1972 7.25 MJ/kg: 1973-1976 6.44 MJ/kg
Kiln A4
Operated: 1937-29/03/1976
Location: hot end 495022,401092: cold end 495029,401001
Typical Output: 1937-1953 245 t/d: 1953-1972 236 t/d: 1973-1976 265 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1937-1953 6.88 MJ/kg: 1953-1965 6.84 MJ/kg: 1965-1972 7.21 MJ/kg: 1973-1976 6.32 MJ/kg
Identical in all other respects to A3
Kiln A5
Supplier: Vickers Armstrong
Operated: 23/10/1968-06/12/1976
Process: Wet
Location: hot end 495031,401098: cold end 495037,401018
Dimensions: 263’0”× 10’6”/ 9’3”/ 13’6” (metric 80.16 × 3.200 / 2.819 / 4.115)
Rotation (viewed from firing end): ?
Slope: ?
Speed: ?
Drive: ?
Kiln profile: 0×2819: 610×3200: 25603×3200: 27737×2819: 68275×2819: 71933×4115: 79096×4115: 79705×2286: 80162×2286: Tyres at 7315, 22860, 38405, 54864, 73457: turning gear at 42062 ?
Cooler: rotary beneath kiln?
Cooler profile: ?
Fuel: Coal
Coal mill: direct: one 56 kW No16 and one 110 kW No18 Atritor
Exhaust: via APCM "Unit" electrostatic precipitators and ID fan.
Typical Output: 1968-1972 349 t/d: 1973-1976 378 t/d
Typical Heat Consumption: 1968-1972 7.82 MJ/kg: 1973-1976 6.95 MJ/kg
Sources:
- Primary Sources:
- Greenhithe Archive
- Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping
- BGS mapping and monographs
- Confirmatory Sources: