Chalk Pits of Northfleet - rare hand drawn record
Res 150 Est 300-500.
[ENGLISH School, 19th-century, possibly R.B. MARSH]. [Four pencil drawings of locations in Northfleet Chalk Pits, Kent, England]. [England: Undated, but circa 1855-75]. 4 sheets (10 7/8 x 14 1/2in; 277 x 368mm), pencil on wove paper, each image within a ruled border, drawn in line only (as if in preparation for transfer to a printing plate), three titled in lower blank margin: ‘Northfleet’, ‘Northfleet’ and ‘Northfleet Chalk Pits’, all numbered in the upper left corner ‘18’, ‘8’, ‘25’ and ‘39’.
Condition: excellent.
A valuable record of a much-changed area on the north coast of Kent, bordered to the east by Gravesend and to the north by the Thames. The drawings have the look of work produced using a camera obscura, but this is not confirmed. They were found loosely inserted in an album of architectural drawings, one of which was signed by R.B. Marsh and dated 1859.
“With its situation on a busy waterway such as the River Thames, at a point where higher land came close to the river, it was an obvious place for industry to be located. The river provided water supplies and the means whereby raw materials and products could be transported. The forests of the area provided timber for various aspects of most industries. It was an area famous for Gun Flint manufacturing as Flint is found in amongst the Chalk. Flint was also used as a local building material. Flint walls can still be found in the area. …
The Romans first began to dig chalk from the area, but the making of cement came later. The industry requires plentiful water supplies, and chalk as its main ingredient, both of which were to hand. When in 1796, James Parker set up kilns on Northfleet creek to make his Roman cement, it was the beginning of a large complex of cement works along this stretch of the river.[6] The manufacture of Portland cement began in April 1846 when William Aspdin, son of Joseph Aspdin, its inventor, acquired Parker's works and built new kilns.
Aspdin's works became Robins & Co in 1853, sold on to the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM) in 1900, which was taken over by the Lafarge Group in 2001. By 1900, there were nine cement works operating on the Thames between Swanscombe and Gravesend. The last cement plant in Northfleet ceased operation in 2008.
Now under water, one of the largest chalk pits … [is] known locally as The Blue Lake… It is about 200 metres south of the access tunnel to the old (now demolished) Lafarge cement plant, that runs under the North Kent / Channel Tunnel rail-link railway lines.” (wikipedia)
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Res 150 Est 300-500.
[ENGLISH School, 19th-century, possibly R.B. MARSH]. [Four pencil drawings of locations in Northfleet Chalk Pits, Kent, England]. [England: Undated, but circa 1855-75]. 4 sheets (10 7/8 x 14 1/2in; 277 x 368mm), pencil on wove paper, each image within a ruled border, drawn in line only (as if in preparation for transfer to a printing plate), three titled in lower blank margin: ‘Northfleet’, ‘Northfleet’ and ‘Northfleet Chalk Pits’, all numbered in the upper left corner ‘18’, ‘8’, ‘25’ and ‘39’.
Condition: excellent.
A valuable record of a much-changed area on the north coast of Kent, bordered to the east by Gravesend and to the north by the Thames. The drawings have the look of work produced using a camera obscura, but this is not confirmed. They were found loosely inserted in an album of architectural drawings, one of which was signed by R.B. Marsh and dated 1859.
“With its situation on a busy waterway such as the River Thames, at a point where higher land came close to the river, it was an obvious place for industry to be located. The river provided water supplies and the means whereby raw materials and products could be transported. The forests of the area provided timber for various aspects of most industries. It was an area famous for Gun Flint manufacturing as Flint is found in amongst the Chalk. Flint was also used as a local building material. Flint walls can still be found in the area. …
The Romans first began to dig chalk from the area, but the making of cement came later. The industry requires plentiful water supplies, and chalk as its main ingredient, both of which were to hand. When in 1796, James Parker set up kilns on Northfleet creek to make his Roman cement, it was the beginning of a large complex of cement works along this stretch of the river.[6] The manufacture of Portland cement began in April 1846 when William Aspdin, son of Joseph Aspdin, its inventor, acquired Parker's works and built new kilns.
Aspdin's works became Robins & Co in 1853, sold on to the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (APCM) in 1900, which was taken over by the Lafarge Group in 2001. By 1900, there were nine cement works operating on the Thames between Swanscombe and Gravesend. The last cement plant in Northfleet ceased operation in 2008.
Now under water, one of the largest chalk pits … [is] known locally as The Blue Lake… It is about 200 metres south of the access tunnel to the old (now demolished) Lafarge cement plant, that runs under the North Kent / Channel Tunnel rail-link railway lines.” (wikipedia)
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