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505:) this had rows of well separated lightweight wooden huts, with trolleyways between the huts with trolleys pushed by hand between the buildings. There were also 3 solidly built explosives magazines for storage. The site was adjacent to both water and rail transport (the now closed Faversham Creek branch had a link to the former brickfields - though it is not clear what means of transporting the products was originally used). Although reduced in size over the years it remains in much the same arrangement as when originally built and is recorded in Kent County Council's "Kent Historic Environment Record (formerly the Sites and Monuments Record)" which has provided most of the details below.
529:. The pressure continues to rise until the point where it ruptures the bursting disk causing an energetic physical explosion (as opposed to a combustion explosion). This is a far safer system than the nitrogylcerin that preceded it. It was authorised for use in British mines in 1932, and it is still used today. The premises still needed to be licensed under the 1875 Explosives Act, as explosives were used in the detonator. The energiser, known as Heatox B, was involved in the only fatal explosion on the site, on 25 March 1939 when the manager Mr J Lapraik and Messrs E Harris and A Boorman were killed. This resulted in a change to a new energiser, Heatox D, in 1940.
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488:, had written to the management of the CPC in 1914, and it is presumed the ELC, informing the workforce on: "the importance of the government work upon which they engaged ... I should like all engaged by your company to know that it is fully recognised that they, in carrying out the great work of supplying munitions of war, are doing their duty for their King and Country, equally with those who have joined the Army for active service in the field".
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people, but the Cardox system has other uses, such as in demolition. The original company, Heaters Ltd, closed the works in 1966, however in the following year the works was bought by
Pikrose and Company (formerly called Cardox (Great Britain) Ltd - the patent holders for Cardox) and the manufacture of the Cardox blasting cartridges was resumed. In 1991 Pikrose merged with Long Airdox (Cardox Ltd) which became part of the
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477:, did not report the explosion until 29 April. Although recognising the need for some censorship, it referred to the reply given in Parliament to an appropriate question as "mystifying and ambiguous" and called for the fullest precautions to be implemented to "prevent another calamity of the kind" occurring again.
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explosive chemicals stored at the works – with one report indicating that a further 3,000 tons remained in nearby sheds unaffected – it is remarkable, and a tribute to those who struggled against the fire, that so much of the nation's munitions were prevented from contributing further to the catastrophe.
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The Oare Works is now a country park, open to the public free of charge all year round. Remains of process houses have been conserved. The site has a visitor centre, signed trails radiate in various directions. An early 20th-century electric-powered gunpowder mill, which was transferred to Ardeer in
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Although not the first such disaster at
Faversham's historic munitions works, the April 1916 blast is recorded as "the worst ever in the history of the UK explosives industry", and yet the full picture is still somewhat confused. The reason for the fire is uncertain. And considering the quantity of
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As it was a Sunday, no women were at work. There were 115 deaths of men and boys, including all the Works Fire
Brigade, in the explosion and in subsequent sympathetic detonations. The bodies of seven victims were never found; 108 corpses were buried in a mass grave at Faversham Cemetery on 6 April.
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The owners of both Swale-side factories had foreseen that they would become superfluous at the end of the First World War, and they closed promptly and permanently in 1919. The
Davington light railway track was lifted; its three steam locomotives found new homes in South America, where at least one
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In its heyday there were 70 to 80 employees, and between 1940 and 1970 a total of 60 million blasting cartridges were made and sold, an average of around 200,000 per month. Modern machinery has reduced the need for blasting, especially in coal mines, and by 1977 the workforce had reduced to just 4
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blasting cartridges produced by the factory were marketed under the names "Klorex" and "Perklorex", and then in 1931 the company changed its name to
Heaters Ltd after changing over to production of the far safer Cardox blasting system, which was patented in 1931 by David Hodge and Cardox (Great
537:. In 2001 Long Airdox was sold to Deutsche Bergbau-Technik (DBT) which is owned by RAG Coal International AG, based in Essen, Germany. In spite of the changes of ownership, production continues still using the original buildings on a site that has seen remarkable little change.
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Nearby is
Stonebridge Pond, today a picturesque beauty spot at the head of the creek. It served to power some of the works' watermills, slender remains of which survive. It still features a network of narrow-gauge canals along which powder was punted from process to process.
426:) had exploded. The weather might have contributed to the start of the fire. The previous month had been wet but had ended with a short dry spell so that by that weekend the weather was "glorious", providing perfect conditions for heat-generated combustion.
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The Marsh Works became a site for mineral extraction, as it remains today, and almost all its buildings were destroyed. Except for Chart Mill, Stonebridge Pond, and a few other buildings, most of the Home Works site was redeveloped for housing in the 1960s.
181:, the government leased its Faversham works back to the private sector – the Home Works in 1816 and the Marsh Works in 1834 – selling them in 1825 and 1854 respectively. Explosives manufacture continued unabated at both sites under private ownership.
193:(ICI), then the owners, believing that war might break out with Germany, and realised that Faversham would then become vulnerable to air attack or possibly invasion. They transferred production, together with key staff and machinery, to
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The 1916 explosion at
Faversham was the worst in the history of the British explosives industry. At 14:20 on Sunday 2 April 1916, a huge explosion ripped through the gunpowder mill at Uplees, near Faversham, when a store of 200 tons of
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and armed guards were mounted. Production facilities were further expanded and many new staff recruited from
Faversham and elsewhere in East Kent. Road access for the workers was poor, so the Admiralty built a metre-gauge railway, the
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With a buoyant market, the factory rapidly expanded, producing each new high explosive as it was formulated. Adjoining it to the west in 1913 an associated venture, the
Explosives Loading Company, built a plant to fill bombs and
672:, David Hodge & Cardox (Great Britain) Limited, "Improvements in and relating to means for effecting discharge of explosive charges such as those of blasting cartridges", published 1933-01-13
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This, however, was not quite the end of high explosives manufacture in
Faversham. In 1924 a new venture, the Mining Explosives Company, opened a factory on the east side of Faversham Creek, not far from the site of
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The manufacturing process was not yet fully understood. On 14 July 1847 a serious explosion killed 18 staff, only 10 of whose bodies could be identified. As a result of the blast, the factory owners shut the plant.
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The munitions factory was in a remote spot in the middle of the open marshes of North Kent, next to the Thames coastline, hence the explosion was heard across the Thames estuary and as far away as
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At this time the British government was buying its supplies from the private sector, but the quality was often poor, and in 1759 it decided it needed its own plant. Rather than build a new one, it
118:). It was rescued from demolition, and then restored by the Faversham Society in 1966. It is now open to the public on weekend and bank holiday afternoons from April until the end of October.
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Guncotton was not made again in Faversham until 1873, when the Cotton Powder Company, independent of the gunpowder factories, opened a new plant on a remote site near
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Britain) Ltd. This used a large reusable steel cartridge containing a detonator and a heating chemical (energiser), and the rest of the space is filled with liquid
102:) and the head of the creek. By the early 18th century, these had coalesced into a single plant, subsequently known as the Home Works, as it was the town's first.
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mains and an internal telephone and tramway systems. Together they occupied an area of 500 acres (two km) — almost as large as that of the
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1934, has been repatriated and is on display. The 18th-century works bell has also been re-deployed and is on display at Faversham's
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the Home Works, upgrading all the machinery. From this phase dates the Chart Gunpowder Mill, the oldest of its kind in the world (at
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plant in the UK was established in the 16th century, possibly at the instigation of the abbey at Faversham. With their estates and
26:, England, has claims to be the cradle of the UK's explosives industry: it was also to become one of its main centres. The first
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Faversham was well placed. It had a stream which could be dammed at intervals to provide power for
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501:, hence its 'Abbey Works' name. Typical of explosive and munitions factories (see for example the
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asylum-seekers alongside another stream about two kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the town (at
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When the First World War started in 1914, the two factories were requisitioned by the
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Abbey Works - Where a non-explosion has a big effect, Faversham News, 5 Aug 1977, p8
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Gunpowder from Faversham was not just used in warfare. It played a key part in the
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644:"Exploring Kent's Past - Long-Airdox (Cardox) Ltd Abbey Works, Faversham"
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Stonebridge pond, water from which powered Faversham's gunpowder mills
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domestic windows and two large plate-glass shop windows were broken.
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The third and last gunpowder factory to open was the Marsh Works (at
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Faversham Gunpowder Mill showing burial plot and list of dead
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Gunpowder Manufacture at Faversham: Oare and Marsh Factories
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The remote site of the Uplees factory (now a nature reserve)
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614:"Tales of horror and heroism after the Great Explosion"
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Explosives industry in Faversham, Kent, United Kingdom
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Government munitions production in the United Kingdom
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List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions
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The Faversham Gunpowder Industry and its Development
508:Its "Mexco" (short for Mining Explosives Company)
340:Oare Gunpowder Worker on a punt approximately 1900
747:Faversham Explosives Personnel Register 1841-1934
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741:Faversham Gunpowder Personnel Register 1573-1840
250:Former cooperage, now the site's visitor centre
862:Former defence companies of the United Kingdom
737:, by Edward Patterson (Faversham Papers No 42)
130:In the 1680s a second factory was started by
38:were keen to invest in promising technology.
725:, by Arthur Percival (Faversham Papers No 4)
189:All three gunpowder factories shut in 1934.
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437:in Faversham Cemetery was unveiled by the
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842:Chemical industry in the United Kingdom
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703:by Arthur Percival: also reprinted in
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151:. It became a leading supplier to the
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912:1847 disasters in the United Kingdom
902:1916 disasters in the United Kingdom
562:Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills
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547:Ballincollig Royal Gunpowder Mills
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760:Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park
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503:National Filling Factories of WW1
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701:The Great Explosion at Faversham
484:The Secretary of State for War,
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795:Chart Mills Gunpowder Faversham
620:. 30 March 2012. Archived from
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591:History Of Faversham, Kent
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153:British East India Company
892:1916 industrial disasters
877:1847 industrial disasters
782:Chart Gunpowder Mill page
603:, accessed 28 August 2020
512:led to it being known as
867:Military history of Kent
791:at The Faversham Society
596:25 February 2013 at the
439:Archbishop of Canterbury
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405:is thought to survive.
395:Davington Light Railway
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648:Kent County Council
527:supercritical fluid
510:telegraphic address
409:The Great Explosion
317:University of Basel
313:Christian Schonbein
177:In the wake of the
82:The first factories
907:Explosions in 1847
887:Explosions in 1916
787:2014-07-27 at the
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718:East Kent Gazette
650:. 25 January 2008
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470:East Kent Gazette
218:Heritage Centre.
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836:Categories
654:22 October
578:References
514:The Mexico
51:watermills
32:endowments
897:Faversham
670:GB 386688
399:Davington
390:Admiralty
374:hydraulic
315:, of the
305:Guncotton
295:Guncotton
149:Davington
126:Expansion
77:Gunpowder
28:gunpowder
20:Faversham
785:Archived
768:Archived
594:Archived
541:See also
199:Ayrshire
171:TR013626
140:TR001623
132:Huguenot
115:TR009612
63:charcoal
806:51°20′N
628:8 April
454:Norwich
444:in 1917
185:Closure
67:sulphur
809:0°53′E
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424:amatol
370:shells
346:Uplees
195:Ardeer
71:Thames
59:willow
460:. In
350:Swale
96:Dover
55:alder
22:, in
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