The production of maps by the Board of Ordnance began around the start of the 19th century, initially for defence purposes, resulting in maps at 1 inch ≡ 1 mile (1:63360) scale. These maps had far too small a scale to represent the detailed outline of buildings, and after the mapping function was transferred to the War Department in 1855, the decision was made to make much more detailed maps for most of the country as a "base-scale" from which other smaller-scale maps could be derived. In 1858, it was decided that the base-scale should be 1:2500 (although 1:500 was used in some urban areas). Surveying at these scales began in 1863. The 1:2500 maps were produced for individual counties - and, in fact, in its first edition, for individual parishes. These maps are today referred to as the First Edition County Series. The results of the initial surveys began to be published in the late 1860s. At the time of these developments, the production of Portland cement was in its infancy, so a rather limited set of Portland-cement-making sites are depicted on the maps published in the 1860s.
All the plants depicted here used soft raw materials, and used the classic process developed by William Aspdin. Raw materials were ground to a wet slurry in a washmill. The slurry was transferred to slurry backs to settle. The resulting "slip" was dried on drying flats. The dried material was placed in bottle kilns with alternate layers of coke and burned to a clinker. The clinker was then crushed and ground to cement using flat stone mills.
Here, maps are shown as presented on the original print, edited and re-aligned to conform with the modern National Grid coordinate system, at a scale of 2 pixels per metre. Grid lines are shown at 100 m intervals. The sites are placed in chronological order of start-up, and an attempt is made to describe the path of technology transfer.
Surveyed at 1:1000 in 1868. Redrawn from the OS County Series first edition 60 inch map sheets London VII.79&80, surveyed 1868, and adjusted to National Grid orientation as on OS 1:2500 TQ3680 surveyed 1949. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland, subject to this Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC-BY-NC-SA) licence.
At this site, William Aspdin first made Portland cement (as we know it today) commercially. No detailed map appears to have been produced of the area prior to 1868, and Aspdin left 22 years earlier. The wharves were on a narrow strip of land served by Rotherhithe Street, between the Thames to the north and the timber ponds of the Surrey Docks to the south. There is no obvious remnant of Aspdin's activities shown. Some contemporary small scale plans indicate that the area towards the wharf was largely clear, and his three kilns were probably midway between the wharf and Rotherhithe Street.
The site was originally developed in 1825 by James Frost as a source of chalk for making his British cement as a substitute for Roman cement. In 1833, Francis and White took over the plant and continued making those products. In 1845, their manager I C Johnson finally managed to copy Aspdin's product. Johnson left in 1851, and the plant came under the management of William Goreham. By 1864, the plant was making 30,000 t a year, mainly for export.
This site was originally used by Parker & Wyatt for their Roman cement; they were attracted to the site by the availability of the tidal mill on the Ebbsfleet Creek for grinding the product. The mill itself was of medieval origin. William Aspdin relocated to this site from Rotherhithe to make Portland cement in 1846, attracted by the existing grinding equipment and the availability of chalk on-site. He constructed his plant to the east of the old mill, erecting five kilns, and eventually transferring a steam engine from the Rotherhithe site for wet and finish milling. After Aspdin was ousted in 1851, R A Gibbons became manager. By 1863, he had erected two more kilns at the old plant, and had begun relocating the main plant operations to the west side of the creek with another bank of kilns.
I currently have no early map of this plant. Joseph and James Aspdin were driven out of their Pear Tree Close plant site in 1848 by a compulsory purchase order to expand the railway station sidings, and moved to Ings Road. James presumably got the technology for the new product from his brother William, but this may have happened much later, and at present it can only be said that production of "Portland cement as we know it" was introduced here some time between 1848 and 1870.
I C Johnson left John Bazley White in 1851. He was presumably already acquainted with George Burge and his son, and with them had selected this site. There was an existing steam powered oil mill, and existing chalk quarries, so slurry backs, drying flats and kilns were erected. Having set up the plant and put it in the hands of Burge junior, Johnson left in 1854 to set up the Cliffe Creek plant. Burge commenced expanding the plant in 1858, adding a fifth slurry back and more kilns by 1862, and took up residence at Quarry House. He went on to install the technology he learned from Johnson at many other sites in the area.
A tidal mill was erected on the site in the 1790s for the owners, Queen's College, Oxford. The mill was leased by Francis & Son to make Roman cement from locally-dredged septaria, around 1840. They commenced Portland production in 1852, using the technology developed by Johnson for John Bazley White. By 1862, the plant was still focused on the tidal mill, but had expanded with steam power and large areas of slurry backs. The old mill, capable of producing 100 kW or so for short bursts on spring tides, was probably reserved for Roman cement grinding.
This tiny site was taken by Henry Reid with the backing of John Winkfield to make Portland cement in 1852. How Reid obtained the technology is uncertain, but it is possible that Reid was one of the "persons unknown" with whom William Aspdin conspired, according to John Henry Cox. Reid remained in place until 1867, when the plant was bought by Ashby & Son.
I currently have no early map for this site. The First Edition Durham Sheet III.3 was surveyed as early as 1857, and there may be a Town Plan as well. The NLS catalogue for this area is incomplete. Next time I'm in London.
