Richard Cork operated a cement works in 1847 of which no details are known. It may have been part of the site taken over by K. Johnson and George Burge when they established their works at Frindsbury in 1848, using David Samuels disused oil seed crushing mill and renovating the Boulton & Watt engine left there (one of the first in Kent) for the grinding machinery.(1) The works were operating by 1851. Johnson left the partnership in 1853 and Burge operated it alone until 1856 when he sold it to William Tingey & Son. The site became known as Crown Works.(2) It became part of APCM in 1900 and was modernised with the installation of a rotary kiln producing 100 tons of clinker per week and grinding mills for this and clinker brought down the Medway from from the Burham Works.(3) In the 1870s the works consisted of a single building with several wash backs on the north side. Later, c1900, this had been replaced by a block fronting the river and an elongated building behind, in formerly quarried area.(4) The amalgamation of the crown works with Quarry works under APCM lead to the destruction of part of the works, including the rear section of the main works. This perhaps represented a shift production facilities to what had formerly been the Quarry Works building.

<1> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Brace,HW 1960 The History of Seed Crushing in Great Britain (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<2> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Francis, AJ 1977 The Cement Industry 1796-1914,p150,190 (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<3> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, Preston, JM 1977 Industrial Medway, p 202 (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<4> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, OS 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th ed. maps (1868,1897,1908 & 1933) (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.