More information : TQ 730 785. The Explosives Factory at Cliffe is situated about two kilometres to the northwest of the village of Cliffe on the south bank of the Thames. The factory began life as a Gunpowder Works, established in 1892 by Hay, Merricks and Company, gunpowder makers of Roslin, Scotland. It was a specialised Gunpowder Works engaged only in the finishing operations of gunpowder manufacture, namely blending, dusting and packing. A jetty was constructed to receive and dispatch powder and the original licence plan showed it was intended to construct 14 buildings. However, it appears that only two buildings were erected. An amending licence was issued and the site was used for the storage of explosives and electrical detonators, with a potential capacity of 400 tons. During the Great War Curtis's and Harvey at Cliffe was listed as a place where gunpowder was either manufactured or stored.
In 1898 the site was acquired by Curtis's and Harvey, gunpowder makers of Hounslow who by this date had a controlling interest in 50% of the British gunpowder industry. The flat, open and remote site at Cliffe was ideal for the construction of a new chemical explosives factory for the manufacture of nitroglycerine, and nitroglycerine based products. In June 1901 an amending licence was issued for the manufacture of cordite, blasting gelatine and gelatine dynamite. Further amending licences were granted as the factory expanded including one to manufacture the chlorate based explosive Cheddite. The later documented history of the factory is sketchy and no contemporary plan of the factory has been located. The eastern part of the factory is depicted on the 1908 Ordnance Survey map Kent IV.10, but does not show the functions of the individual buildings. Unfortunately the adjoining sheet to the west does not show the factory layout.
At the end of the Great War Curtis's and Harvey were absorbed into Explosives Trades Limited which later became Nobel Industries Limited. The Cliffe factory was, however, a victim of the sharp downturn in the explosives market at the end of the Great War and the factory closed in 1921.
Extensive remains of the factory survive on Cliffe Marshes with the potential to recover an almost complete plan of the works. The remains comprise earthworks of traverses and the lines of internal tramways, concrete floor slabs and a number of standing but roofless buildings. A row of concrete stanchions also survives on the site, which may represent the line of steam heating pipes or may be an element of a Second World War Bombing Decoy (TQ 77 NW 122).
The factory was approached on the landward side from Cliffe village along a lane ending at the Poplars (TQ 718 785). This group of buildings comprises the derelict remains of three single storied structures, probably representing the factory offices. Immediately to their northwest is an area of concrete floor slabs, their large size and the absence of protective traverses suggests they formed part of the acid factory. Another large area of concrete floor slabs to the southeast of The Poplars may represent another acids section or possibly the remains of a Guncotton Factory.
Returning to the area north of the Poplars the earthworks of a nitroglycerine factory may be identified, centred at (TQ 718 787). This is a distinctive form of monument comprising what may be identified as a nitrator at its southern end with a production flow which worked northwards. If this factory corresponds to a standard type the two circular traverses to either side of the nitrator might be expected to have held washing houses. The next set of traverses to their north might be interpreted as pouring on or mixing houses where the nitroglycerine was mixed with an inert solid. The traverses at the centre of the group might be a wash water settling house where any waste nitroglycerine was floated off the wash waters. A remarkable feature of this group of earthworks is the use of circular traverses around two of the buildings. This is an unusual form and is only known elsewhere at the Royal Gunpowder Factory at Waltham Abbey which might suggest that this plant was closely modelled on the one at Waltham Abbey.
To the north-east of the nitroglycerine factory are a series of long rectangular floor slabs, of building originally divided into bays which may represent cordite processing ranges. Surrounding these former buildings are large groups of earthwork traverses which formerly surrounded single buildings. Without more careful analysis it is difficult to ascribe functions to these buildings. They might be expected to have contained drying houses, storage magazines and process buildings for the mixing and packaging of explosives.
A large group of reinforced concrete stores or magazines and long rectangular buildings arranged in a subrectangular plan to the east suggests that the factory was considerably expanded during the Great War. At the centre of the new area were seven long, reinforced concrete structures, four of which remain. The westerly pair are 60m long, divided in two by a central spine wall, with 30 bays along either side. These very small bays suggests a design to handle small amounts of explosives far more sensitive than cordite. To their east are another pair of ranges, 51m in length, each was originally divided into nine bays. In a block between these and the Thames are 20 untraversed, reinforced concrete magazines or stores. Each measures 16m x 14m and is cruciform in plan, divided into four separate compartments. The sites of other groups of structures erected at this time are marked by concrete floor slabs or earthwork traverses, but it is not possible to say with any certainty whether they were associated with the manufacture of storage of explosives.
An octagonal brick traverse surrounded by a circular earthwork may also be associated with this group. The interpretation of this feature is difficult as it lies away from the main acid processing areas or nitroglycerine factory where explosives mixing might expected to have taken place. But is perhaps not sufficiently removed from the factory to be considered part of the Great War air defences of the factory.
During the Second World War the deserted factory site was used as Bombing Decoy (TQ 77 NW 122). (1-1c)
N.B. THIS MONUMENT RECORD HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED BY DUPLICATE RECORD UID 1517194 / TQ 77 NW 154. Any further updates for this site should be attributed to the superseding record.
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