Building record TR 06 SW 1507 - Possible Glazing House, Marsh Gunpowder Works

Possible glazing House, Marsh Gunpowder works. "Glazing Houses were where grains of gunpowder would have been coated in lead and sometimes graphite to make them more water resistant." The building has been there since at least 1877, and possibly since 1790. (1)

A survey as part of the RCHME Faversham's Explosives Industry Project in 1991, found only one wall of the building surviving (Building 9 - RCHME ground photography negative reference 164/K/15-17). The wall was of concrete and measured 35 metres by 26.7 metres, and was 1.8 metres wide and about 7 metres high, with a staggered entrance through the wall at the southern end. The area to the north and and the building interior had been removed by gravel extraction. It was unclear whether this building is the glazing house shown on a plan of of the works by Nobels Explosives Co. Ltd in 1920 as building 58 or whether it was constructed during the 1926 reconstruction of the works and formed part of a different process. (1-2)

Historic England archive material: 662290 Faversham Explosives Industry, Kent In 1991, RCHME Keele carried out a basic investigation of the remains of the gunpowder and explosives industry in Faversham as a background to the Oare Gunpowder Works survey and to enhance the NMR record.Contents : 4 plans, ground photography, 68 prints, supporting materialCondition : SATISFACTORY
943688 Marsh Gunpowder Works/ink survey Antiquity Model: Surveyed

<1> Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd, 2019, Historic Building Recording of the Marsh Gunpowder Works within the Former Oare Mineral Works, Faversham, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE54278.

<2> 1992, KAR 108, 1992, p 190 (Article in serial). SKE54237.