Location:
- Grid reference: TQ71466015
- x=571460
- y=160150
- 51°18'53"N; 0°27'37"E
- Civil Parish: Burham, Kent
Clinker manufacture operational: 1/1874-1905?
Approximate total clinker production: 250,000 tonnes
Raw materials:
- Chalk by river from the Millbay pit, originally supplied by William Lee. Perhaps supplemented with paper works waste.
- Gault clay (Gault Formation: 100-112 Ma) from the adjoining brickfield.
Ownership:
- 11/1871-1873 Medway Gault Brick and Cement Co. Ltd
- 1873-1885? West Kent Gault Brick and Cement Co. Ltd
- 1885?-1905? West Kent Portland Cement Co. Ltd
The site was similar to Burham in being primarily a brickworks. It was located on the Gault clay outcrop, and a large Gault quarry was developed for brick making from 1859. In 1871, a limited company was launched with the intention of adding cement kilns, but this failed, and the 20 kilns projected were never built. The brick plant was bought from the mortgagee in 1873 by W G Margetts' consortium, and Portland cement production began in 1/1874. An original range of three small wet process bottle kilns (50 t/wk) was expanded to nine (150 t/wk) by 1875. A further six (110 t/wk) were added by 1877. Further development, using chamber kilns, was concentrated at the West Kent site. The plant appears in Kelly’s Directory 1903, but not in Davis’ 1907 list, and presumably it closed around 1905 when the West Kent rotary kilns were installed. If the paper works waste theory is correct, then like South Hylton, it might have closed on conversion of the paper works to the sulfite process. Total capacity 420 t/week. The plant used only water transport. The site was cleared, and is now waste land with a few insignificant foundations still visible. The clay pits are waste and partially flooded.
Power supply
No information
Rawmills
No information
No rotary kilns were installed.
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