Monument record TR 06 SW 247 - Ospringe Gunpowder Mills, Faversham

When the mills first began operation is unclear but probably some time in the 18th century. The Ospringe mills when taken over by the Ordnance Officer, along with Chart, Kings and Lower & Bennetts Mills to form the Home Works gunpowder works, consisted of a water powered power mill, and a tenement building in one acre of land. The mill later worked three and then four stones by 1789. The earliest known plan of the site dates to 1806 which shows three pairs of mills, a charge magazine, a watchhouse and two millmen’s houses. The plan remains very much the same for the next 40 years. By 1879 the mills appear to have been reduced to a single pair connected with a single leat. After the site ceased powder production the earthen pond dam, on which the mills stood, and a leat survived into the 1960’s, but both were destroyed to make way for a new housing development. A few reminders of the mills remain; a works boundary stone lies within the garden of 1 Pettitts Row, features were found in a grassed play area (TR00446114) and one of the millmen’s cottages survives. The potential for buried archaeological features remains around the Stonebridge Pond area. (20)

Additional Information and images (1-19, 21)

Ospringe Mills is one of a group of four gunpowder mills situated close to Faversham town centre, which were collectively known as the Home Works. Ospringe Mills were documented in 1779 when the lease to the Ordnance Office was renewed. The works then comprised a water powered powder mill, tenement, building and one acre of land. In 1768 the mill worked three pairs of stone, by 1789 this had increased to four (1). The earliest surviving plan of the Ospringe works dates from 1806 (2) which shows three pairs of mills, the western pair of which were ruined, served by Mill Head pond to the south. Associated with the mills were; a charge magazine, a watch house and two millmen's houses. The plan in 1821 is very similar except for the loss of the westerly mills (3). The plan remains largely unchanged by 1846 (4). By 1879 the mills apparently had been reduced to a single pair of stones served by a central leat. The earthen pond dam on which the mills sat and a leat leading away to the northeast survived into the 1960s but was subsequently destroyed within a housing development. The works were surveyed as part of the RCHME Faversham's Explosive Industry in 1991, few elements of the works were located, within a grassed play area TR 60426100 a well defined scarp marked the eastern edge of Mill Head pond, a general ground fall within the estate may mark a continuation of this feature. A works boundary stone survived within the garden of 1 Pettitts Row (TR 0059961093). On this stone are inscribed the initials W & PB H (William and Peter Brames Hall), indicating a mid-nineteenth century date. The only building to survive was "White House" (RCHME ground photography negative reference 164/H/6) in Lower Road (TR 00446114), a two storey brick built cottage. This was described in 1806 (11e) as
a millman's house. When the mills were demolished to make way for
the housing estate two of the edge runners from these mills were moved to the road side in Chart Close, where they remain adjacent to the Chartmills. (1-5)

Documented. (6)

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
AF00164 Dangerous Energy Project - photographs of miscellaneous sites Photography of miscellaneous sites taken for the Dangerous Energy Project without additional survey material.

The Cranstone Consultancy, 1993, Monuments Protection Programme: The Gunpowder Industry Combined Steps 1-3 Report (Unpublished document). SKE17244.

English Heritage Monuments Protection Programme, 1998, Monuments Protection Programme: Gunpowder Industry (Unpublished document). SKE7298.

<1> Wayne Cocroft/18-NOV-1991/RCHME: Faversham's Explosives Industry. (OS Card Reference). SKE51278.

<2> OS 25" 1907 (OS Card Reference). SKE48258.

<3> Arch J 126 1969 252 (A J Percival) (OS Card Reference). SKE36554.

<4> KAR 20 1970 4-7 photo (A Percival) (OS Card Reference). SKE45259.

<5> KAR 33 1973 89-92 (A H Osborne) (OS Card Reference). SKE45302.

<6> Industrial Arch 1976 220 (K Hudson) (OS Card Reference). SKE44291.

<7> Industrial Arch of SE England 1978 40 photo (A J Haselfoot) (OS Card Reference). SKE44295.

<8> National Trust Guide to our Industrial Past 1983 207 (A Burton) (OS Card Reference). SKE47519.

<9> DOE SAM Record Form 3 Nov 1986 Record Map 22 Nov 1972 (OS Card Reference). SKE40802.

<10> Crocker, G. 1988. Gunpowder Mills Gazetteer SPAB (OS Card Reference). SKE39493.

<11> RCHME/NMR, 1996, RCHME : Faversham Explosives Industry (Collection). SKE6479.

<12> West, J. 1991. Gunpowder, Government and War in the mid-eighteenth century. The Royal Historical So (OS Card Reference). SKE51315.

<13> Selkirk, A. 1967. The Faversham Gunpowder Mills. Current Archaeology 2 51-2 (OS Card Reference). SKE49436.

<14> Public Record Office MPH/857 Plan of the Gunpowder Manufactory at Faversham 1806. (OS Card Reference). SKE48902.

<15> Public Record Office W055/2466 PFNFP 58 Plan of the Gunpowder Manufactory at Faversham 1821 (OS Card Reference). SKE48903.

<16> London, Chatham and North Kent Railway 1846 Plan of the Gunpowder Works. (OS Card Reference). SKE46175.

<17> Eve, D., 1999, A guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Kent (Monograph). SWX9293.

<18> Bennett, C. E., 1977, The watermills of Kent, east of the Medway (Article in serial). SWX7608.

<19> WHITE HOUSE (TR0044 6114) LOWER ROAD, FAVERSHAM. FORMER GUNPOWDER MILLMANS HOUSE. Types: HOUSE (Photograph). SKE838.

<20> English Heritage, 1998, Monuments Protection Programme: Gunpowder Industry (Unpublished document). SWX6799.

<21> Royal Air Force, 1946, Photograph (Photograph (Print)). SWX9548.