Location:
- Grid reference: TQ81156888
- x=581150
- y=168880
- 51°23'24"N; 0°36'13"E
- Civil Parish: Gillingham, Kent
Clinker manufacture operational: 1902-02/1913
Approximate total clinker production: 88,000 tonnes
Raw materials:
- Upper Chalk (Seaford Chalk Formation: 85-88 Ma) from pit at 580500.167700
- Medway Alluvial Clay
Ownership:
- 1902-1911 Sharps Green Cement Works Ltd
- 1911-1913 BPCM (Blue Circle)
Sometimes called Horrid Hill. The only rationale for the construction of this bizarrely-sited plant was its good barge quay. The quarry opened in 1902 and it is said that the quarry also supplied Queenborough. The plant had a block of seven chamber kilns, later extended to nine. Jackson says it had four bottle kilns but this is clearly wrong. Davis’ 1907 capacity was 200 t/week, and this was also the capacity at the time of closure. Apart from the tramway that brought chalk along the causeway from the chalk quarry, water transport was the plant’s only link with the outside world. The site was abandoned and is now part of the Riverside country park, which preserves the much-overgrown ruins. The quarry is being landfilled.
Power Supply
Raw- and finish-mills were direct-driven by a single 125 HP steam engine.
Rawmills
The plant had two 18' washmills, perhaps followed by flat stones.
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources: