Monument record TQ 67 SW 1696 - Former site of Lawn Road quarry/cement factory, Northfleet

Former site of a chalk spine, known as Lawn Road Spine, which lies between the
town of Northfleet, Kent and the southern shore of the River Thames. The chalk spine was left following the quarrying of land on both sides. The cement factory buildings were demolished in 2010 – 2011 but part of a wash mill building and tunnel are still present at the site. They were originally associated with chalk quarrying and earlier cement factories which were largely demolished in 1968. The Lawn Road Spine now forms an irregular sided remnant of the pre-18th century landform and has evolved in a piecemeal fashion between the late 18th and the late 20th century when it lay within the Northfleet Cement Works. The later cement factories on this site occupied formerly open chalk quarries which were enlarged as the demand for raw materials to produce ever larger quantities of cement grew. It is as a result of this quarrying that a series of chalk spines was left, giving access from the chalk ridge along which Northfleet High Street now runs and where many of the employees lived, down to the shore level from where the quarries were cut. When quarrying activities moved away from this area, many of the surviving tunnels were reused as stores, or extended to provide access through the spines of chalk which continued to provide access to the shore from the high ground to the south. During the second half of the 19th century, the OS maps indicate a complex arrangement of quarries with railway lines to remove the extracted chalk on either side of Lawn Road. By 1898 a significant part of the western side of Lawn Road had been quarried and further excavation eastwards was probably constrained by the presence of a public highway and the development of the housing on the high ground above. On the quarry floor, a complex of uniform structures, each comprising five circular structures in a line, headed by a square building in the east had been erected. To the east of the spine, the quarrying appears to continue and part of the quarry floor has been used to accommodate a brickworks. This arrangement continues through into the 20th century, as shown on the OS maps of 1909 and 1923. (1)

<1> Heritage Collective, 2013, Heritage statement, Lawn Road Playing Field, Northfleet, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE31499.