Location:
- Grid reference: TL54933746
- x=554930
- y=237460
- 52°0'50"N; 0°15'28"E
- Civil Parish: Saffron Walden, Essex
Clinker manufacture operational: 1879-1918, 1921-1924
Approximate total clinker production: 115,000 tonnes
Raw materials:
- Upper Chalk (Seaford Chalk Formation: 85-88 Ma) from quarry at 555100,237300
- Boulder Clay from pit at 555800,237800
Ownership:
- 1879-1906 Dix, Green and Co.
- 1906-1913 Bell and Sons Ltd
- 1920-1924 Unit Construction Co. (called the Rom River Cement Works in 1924)
This had five wet process bottle kilns. At some time, the kilns were converted to chamber format. Davis put the 1907 output at 120 t/week. It had no entry in 1914 directories, but ICMA data suggests it continued in a small way through WWI and despatched its last cement in 1918. The plant may have continued for a while after the war making lime, under the ownership of E. Rooke & Sons. It was re-started making cement for concrete products in 1920 but closed in 1924. It was up for sale in 1925, with no takers. Another re-start was announced in 1932, but seems not to have happened, and the site was land-filled from 1933. The plant had no rail link: Saffron Walden station and freight depot was about a mile away. The site is now an industrial park.
Power Supply
Raw- and finish-mills were direct-driven by a single steam engine.
Rawmills
There was a washmill, possibly followed by screeners.
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources: