Visited with Ella.
We had seen a post come up on Facebook about this place so decided to go and have a look. The whole place was wide open, no workers or security of any kind. We wandered around the site popping into various holes, most of which were short dead end shelters. We came to the tunnel where we knew the carts were and saw it had been filled with rocks however, with a bit of wriggling we managed to get in and were glad we gave it a try.
At the other side of the site we came across the kilns and down a ditch full of rubble into another tunnel with what we believe to be air raid shelters. There was a section by this that is sheeted in metal but gave that a miss as a landslip had blocked the entrance a bit and we didn’t want to get stuck by any further slips.
A thoroughly filthy explore and well worth it.
History -
Northfleet’s heritage dates back thousands of years. The Romans settled in the area and quarried chalk, which they combined with water and used to bind bricks and stone. Saxon coins dating from 878 AD were found in Victorian times. In 975 AD records show that Northflyot was the most important manor house in Tollingtrue Hundred being larger and more valuable than Gravesend.
In industrial history James Parker set up kilns on Northfleet creek In 1796 . This was the beginning of a large complex of cement works along the river. The manufacture of Portland cement began in 1846 when William Aspdin acquired Parker’s works and built new kilns. By 1900 Bevan’s Cement Works was the largest in the area exporting cement around the world. Through out the twentieth century Britain’s building industry relied on cement from North Kent.
The cement works closed in 2008 and is currently being redeveloped into housing.
Situated below the Kilns is a maze of tram tunnels, former WW2 air raid shelters and utility tunnels.
The WW2 tunnels were converted from old tram tunnels to protect staff during the war.
We had seen a post come up on Facebook about this place so decided to go and have a look. The whole place was wide open, no workers or security of any kind. We wandered around the site popping into various holes, most of which were short dead end shelters. We came to the tunnel where we knew the carts were and saw it had been filled with rocks however, with a bit of wriggling we managed to get in and were glad we gave it a try.
At the other side of the site we came across the kilns and down a ditch full of rubble into another tunnel with what we believe to be air raid shelters. There was a section by this that is sheeted in metal but gave that a miss as a landslip had blocked the entrance a bit and we didn’t want to get stuck by any further slips.
A thoroughly filthy explore and well worth it.
History -
Northfleet’s heritage dates back thousands of years. The Romans settled in the area and quarried chalk, which they combined with water and used to bind bricks and stone. Saxon coins dating from 878 AD were found in Victorian times. In 975 AD records show that Northflyot was the most important manor house in Tollingtrue Hundred being larger and more valuable than Gravesend.
In industrial history James Parker set up kilns on Northfleet creek In 1796 . This was the beginning of a large complex of cement works along the river. The manufacture of Portland cement began in 1846 when William Aspdin acquired Parker’s works and built new kilns. By 1900 Bevan’s Cement Works was the largest in the area exporting cement around the world. Through out the twentieth century Britain’s building industry relied on cement from North Kent.
The cement works closed in 2008 and is currently being redeveloped into housing.
Situated below the Kilns is a maze of tram tunnels, former WW2 air raid shelters and utility tunnels.
The WW2 tunnels were converted from old tram tunnels to protect staff during the war.
