Location:
- Grid reference: TL39074831
- x=539070
- y=248310
- 52°6'56"N; 0°1'52"E
- Civil Parish: Shepreth, Cambridgeshire
Clinker manufacture operational: 1893-1931
Approximate total clinker production: 153,000 tonnes
Raw materials: Chalk Marl (West Melbury Marly Chalk Formation: 97-100 Ma) from quarry at 539100,248400: Grey Chalk sweetener was also used, at one time from 539900,247600
Ownership:
- 1888-1910? Rhee Valley Portland Cement Co. Ltd
- 1910?-1927 Wiggins and Co. (Hammersmith) Ltd
- 1927-1931 Red Triangle
The company was launched in 1891, and the plant started early in 1893 with two dry process bottle kilns, using a pit originally opened for "coprolite". The company was wound up and re-launched in 1895. It had expanded to four kilns (output 100 t/week ) by 1903, and eight (200 t/week) by 1914. It remained in this state until closure. Having been acquired by Red Triangle, following the latter’s demise, Eastwoods briefly took control and shut it down in January 1931. Blue Circle was not interested in acquiring it from the liquidator, and it reverted to its previous owners, who got it for nothing. There are suggestions (Cook, Jackson) that it ran until 1934, but there is no evidence for this. The plant had a siding on the Great Northern railway. Some of the buildings still stand, and foundations of the rest are visible. The marl pit is flooded.
Power supply
No information
Rawmills
No information
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources: