Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Two-storey L-shaped building, the main surviving element to the Dukes cricketing equipment factory site. This L-shaped building was the ball factory. Built by 1841 and extended after 1871.

Monument Types

• FACTORY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1841 AD to 2050 AD (between))

Full description

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The building consists of a long north-south range and a later wing added at right angles, after 1871. The walls are of brick, pebbledashed in the late 20th century, with a roof of plain tiles. The original chimney stacks have been taken down, the majority of the windows altered. The original open-plan workshops have now been subdivided, the original staircase does survive, along with a series of exposed queen-post trusses supporting the roof.

The building was the headquarters and main factory space for the Dukes firm, one of the best known names in cricketing equipment manufacture throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries. The company occupied the building for almost a century and a half (see also associated record for the original Dukes workshop in Leigh). The building was purpose built for the company in 1841, the site employing 72 people-turning the hamlet of Chiddingstone Causeway into a sizeable village. Cricket ball production continued on the site until the 1970s. More recently the building has been used a small medical laboratory. English Heritage note that the building is important as a prominent reminder of what was once a key industry in the district.

This building was considered by English Heritage for Listing in 2010 and not recommended for the following reasons: the degree of alteration to the building and the context of the building, the rest of the factory complex having been demolished or substantially altered. (1)

The building was recorded prior to proposed demolition. (2)

<1> English Heritage, 2010, English Heritage (Listing) Advice Report Dukes Cricket Ball Factory (Unpublished document). SKE16758.

<2> Archaeology South-East, 2012, Former Dukes Factory, Chiddingstone Causeway, Kent: Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment (Unpublished document). SKE17970.

Sources and further reading

Related records