Location:
- Grid reference: TQ61457538
- x=561450
- y=175380
- 51°27'16"N; 0°19'26"E
- Civil Parish: Northfleet, Kent
Clinker manufacture operational: 1874-1902
Approximate total clinker production: 260,000 tonnes
Raw materials:
- Upper Chalk (Seaford Chalk Formation: 85-88 Ma) from the NCBC quarries
- Thames and Medway Alluvial Clay
Ownership:
- 1874-1879 Onward Cement Company Ltd
- 1879-1900 Weston and Co.
- 1900-1902 APCM (Blue Circle)
Sometimes referred to as Onward Works. The Onward company was floated in 1/1874, and the plant was constructed with nine bottle kilns, capacity 180 t/week. The company was bankrupt in 1879 and the plant was auctioned and bought by Weston & Co. The Onward company was liquidated in 1883. Westons had previously made Roman Cement and later Portland cement at Millwall. The plant continued to be known locally as "Onward". The plant was reconstructed with nine small chamber kilns (capacity 180 t/week). Three more sets of three were added – 85 t/week around 1881, 95 t/week around 1888 and 75 t/week around 1899. The plant used water transport, although a rail link was later made. After closure, the site stood derelict until in the 1930s it was absorbed into the adjacent Britannia Lead Works. It is currently under port facilities.
No rotary kilns were installed.
Sources:
- Primary Sources:
- Greenhithe Archive
- Ordnance Survey 1:2500 mapping
- BGS mapping and monographs
- Confirmatory Sources: