Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Gunpowder mills, part of the Home Works gunpowder factory complex were leased to the Crown in 1779. In 1825 the mills were sold into private ownership and remained in operation until sometime between 1919 and 1934 when gunpowder production at the Home Works ceased. Although the site later made way for a housing development a number of buildings from the works remain and the potential for buried archaeological features remains around the Stonebridge Pond area.

Monument Types

• GUNPOWDER WORKS (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1700 AD? to 1934 AD? (at some time))
• LEAT (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1700 AD? to 1960 AD? (at some time))
• MILL POND (Demolished, Post Medieval to Modern - 1700 AD? to 1960 AD? (at some time))

Full description

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When the mills first began operation is unclear but probably some time in the 18th century. The Ospringe mills when taken over by the Ordnance Officer, along with Chart, Kings and Lower & Bennetts Mills to form the Home Works gunpowder works, consisted of a water powered power mill, and a tenement building in one acre of land. The mill later worked three and then four stones by 1789. The earliest known plan of the site dates to 1806 which shows three pairs of mills, a charge magazine, a watchhouse and two millmen’s houses. The plan remains very much the same for the next 40 years. By 1879 the mills appear to have been reduced to a single pair connected with a single leat. After the site ceased powder production the earthen pond dam, on which the mills stood, and a leat survived into the 1960’s, but both were destroyed to make way for a new housing development. A few reminders of the mills remain; a works boundary stone lies within the garden of 1 Pettitts Row, features were found in a grassed play area (TR00446114) and one of the millmen’s cottages survives. The potential for buried archaeological features remains around the Stonebridge Pond area. (20)

Additional Information and images (1-19, 21)

The Cranstone Consultancy, 1993, Monuments Protection Programme: The Gunpowder Industry Combined Steps 1-3 Report (Unpublished document). SKE17244.

English Heritage Monuments Protection Programme, 1998, Monuments Protection Programme: Gunpowder Industry (Unpublished document). SKE7298.

<1> Wayne Cocroft/18-NOV-1991/RCHME: Faversham's Explosives Industry. (OS Card Reference). SKE51278.

<2> OS 25" 1907 (OS Card Reference). SKE48258.

<3> Arch J 126 1969 252 (A J Percival) (OS Card Reference). SKE36554.

<4> KAR 20 1970 4-7 photo (A Percival) (OS Card Reference). SKE45259.

<5> KAR 33 1973 89-92 (A H Osborne) (OS Card Reference). SKE45302.

<6> Industrial Arch 1976 220 (K Hudson) (OS Card Reference). SKE44291.

<7> Industrial Arch of SE England 1978 40 photo (A J Haselfoot) (OS Card Reference). SKE44295.

<8> National Trust Guide to our Industrial Past 1983 207 (A Burton) (OS Card Reference). SKE47519.

<9> DOE SAM Record Form 3 Nov 1986 Record Map 22 Nov 1972 (OS Card Reference). SKE40802.

<10> Crocker, G. 1988. Gunpowder Mills Gazetteer SPAB (OS Card Reference). SKE39493.

<11> RCHME/NMR, 1996, RCHME : Faversham Explosives Industry (Collection). SKE6479.

<12> West, J. 1991. Gunpowder, Government and War in the mid-eighteenth century. The Royal Historical So (OS Card Reference). SKE51315.

<13> Selkirk, A. 1967. The Faversham Gunpowder Mills. Current Archaeology 2 51-2 (OS Card Reference). SKE49436.

<14> Public Record Office MPH/857 Plan of the Gunpowder Manufactory at Faversham 1806. (OS Card Reference). SKE48902.

<15> Public Record Office W055/2466 PFNFP 58 Plan of the Gunpowder Manufactory at Faversham 1821 (OS Card Reference). SKE48903.

<16> London, Chatham and North Kent Railway 1846 Plan of the Gunpowder Works. (OS Card Reference). SKE46175.

<17> Eve, D., 1999, A guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Kent (Monograph). SWX9293.

<18> Bennett, C. E., 1977, The watermills of Kent, east of the Medway (Article in serial). SWX7608.

<19> WHITE HOUSE (TR0044 6114) LOWER ROAD, FAVERSHAM. FORMER GUNPOWDER MILLMANS HOUSE. Types: HOUSE (Photograph). SKE838.

<20> English Heritage, 1998, Monuments Protection Programme: Gunpowder Industry (Unpublished document). SWX6799.

<21> Royal Air Force, 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9548.

Sources and further reading

Related records