Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

One of the Incorporating Mills may have been built c.1793. The Engine House and No. 2 Incorporating Mills buildings were built c.1840, or shortly thereafter. The original function of the buildings had ceased by 1926. A cess pit situated between the two Incorporating Mills post dates this, when the area seems to have become used for temporary accommodation. A WWII Royal Canadian Air force mug was found which may date this change.

Monument Types

• INCORPORATING MILL (Post Medieval to Modern - 1793 AD? to 1926 AD)
• ENGINE HOUSE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1840 AD? to 1926 AD)
• CESS PIT (Modern - 1926 AD? to 1926 AD)

Full description

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Two buildings are shown on the a plan of 1793. It is believed that these later became the incorporating mills which were in use from 1844 to 1926. An engine house was built c.1840 which provided the power not only for the incorporating mills, but also the sawmills and the glazing house. Investigations in 2004 found that No. 1 Incorporating Mills was the earliest of the the three structures (the others being No.2 Incoporating Mills and the Engine House). No precise dating evidence was found, but the surviving fabric of No.1 Mills suggests that it was probably built at the end of the C18th or start of the C19th and therefore could be one of the buildings on the map of 1793. No evidence has been found for its original source of power. No.2 Incorporating Mills and the Engine House were built c.1840, when No.1 Incorporating Mills was modified to contain two sets of incorporating mills which were powered by the steam engine in the Engine House. No.2 Incorporating Mills were built as three sets of under-driven edge-runner incorporating mills, either at the same time as the Engine House, in 1840, or between 1846 and 1863. At some later date, the machinery in the middle of this building was removed and a masonry wall was built across the structure, dividing it into two each of which contained one set of machinery. The reference in an inventory of 1899 to a continuation shaft for two mills would suggest that these alteratins took place before 1899. A relatively recent cess pit, which was probably built in WWII was discovered between Mill nos. 1 & 2. At this time the mills' original function had ceased and the area was used as temporary accommodation.

No.1 Incorporating Mills consited of 3 phases of building. It was 9.04m long by 5.01m wide and contained 2 bases for edge-runner incorporating mills which had been alterted on at least one occasion. To the rear of this building is a small brick wall 27cm wide, 29cm tall and which runs for a length of 8m. It appears to have originally supported a sill beam of a wooden buuilding. Outside the west face of the west wall was a bricke-lined drain. A retaining wall about 2m behind the west wall, was built in 3 different phases - the earliest bieng of red brick. Beneath this building is a vaulted brick channel, thought to be a culvert, now filled mostly with rubble and silt. Phase 2 of this building consisted of the enlargement of the mill base to the north and the south. Phase 3 consisted of the sealing of the openings which had carried the drive for the under-driven mills, with stone slabs, sealed over with a cement-based mortar. This is thought to have been done c.1926.

No 2 Incorporating Mills consisted of 4 phases of building. The original florr measured 12.7m by 5.08m wide. All 4 external walls were timber framed. The irginal floor was of broken red bricks. Outisde the building, to the east and the west, are brick and tile-lined darins. A vaulted undercroft of red brick runs the full length of the building. Phase 2 took place at some uncertain date between 1850 and 1899. An internal brick wall was built across the structure to divide the mill in two, with each area containing a single incorporating mill. A cement basedmoratar floor was laid. During phase 3, at an unspecified date, a thicker (50mm) cement-based mortar floor was laid. In phase 4 the 2 reminaing mill bases were abandoned and the lates and mill bases were rendered over with a cement-based mortar. The only piece of dating evidence for the latter works was part of a Royal Canadian Air Force ceramic mug. Also during phase 4, a cess pit may have been inserted between Nos.1 & 2 mills.

The Engine House. This was not fully investigated in 2004. The earliest features appear to have been the walls forming the culvert. Several walls consisting of a mixture of red and yellow bricks were found. It was probably built c.1840.

A substantial cess pit 1.27m wide was situated between the two mills. It has concrete slabs over the top and an inscpection cover. The construction of the cess pit would have, in part, destroyed any features which may have existed bweteen the two mills such as the culvert and the duct which would have carried the drive to the under-driven No.2 incorporating Mills. (1)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2004, Archaeological Investigations at Oare Gunpowder Works The Early Incorporating Mills & The Engine House (Unpublished document). SKE15679.

Sources and further reading

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