GUNPOWDER TRAIL s

l A guide to Faversham’s explosive past! l i M

t We hope you have enjoyed this trail. If you would like to know more about r a h C

Faversham, the history of its gunpowder industry and other aspects of its e d i s extraordinary past, why not browse through the picture postcards, books and n I

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e booklets on sale at the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, Preston Street. l

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M To learn more about Faversham you may like to join a Faversham

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h Walking Tour led by an experienced guide. Tours operate every C

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r Saturday morning April to October inclusive. Meet at the Fleur de Lis o i r e

t Heritage Centre at 10.30am and for a nominal fee history will be x E

: t brought to life as you are guided around the town. h g i r

p o T Faversham’s excellent range of visitor attractions also includes the town’s Fleur Museum, Preston Street, and the Shepherd Neame Visitor Centre, Top: Westbrook Walk along the banks of the stream. Bottom left: Powder barges on Oare Creek circa 1925 Court Street.

This Gunpowder Trail is one in a series of leaflets promoting walking For further information, please contact: Faversham Tourist Information Centre, round Faversham and its environs. Besides being fun, walking is the Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, 10-13 Preston Street, Faversham, ME13 8NS ideal way to explore the unspoilt delights of a town like Faversham Tel: (01795) 534542 Email: [email protected] with its many pedestrian-only areas. In total this circular trail is just over 2 miles and an easy walk with only a couple of small hills. It Located in the beautiful Kent countryside Faversham is a should take between 60 and 120 minutes. picturesque market town waiting to be discovered. The town and surrounding villages have excellent transport links and are easily reached from the M2, M20, A2 and Thanet Way. There are also fast mainline rail links from London, This leaflet has been produced by The Faversham Enterprise Partnership the Medway towns, Canterbury, Dover and Ramsgate. in association with: G Faversham Town Council G Faversham Society G Faversham Website G Shepherd Neame ESSEX M 2 5 A2 LONDON A28 Welcome to Faversham, Kent, one of southern England’s most FAVERSHAM 9 M 29 A253 M 9 A 2 2 2 8 5 2 0 2 A charming towns. Walking its tranquil byways today it’s hard to 2 A 9 A2

M 4 2 A2 THE FAVERSHAM SOCIETY A M2 A257 26 1 believe that for centuries Faversham was at the centre of the M 5

6 2 A 5 A M 2 2 2 0 8 A 5 6 2 nation’s explosives industry, supplying the British army and navy 2 2 A Original text by Arthur Percival. Additional text by Laurence Young. M A Design by Jane Hannath Design: 01795 533005, email: [email protected] KENT as they won an empire. Come and discover among its hundreds 9

A 2 0 2 2 M A2 1 0 2 Portrait of Nelson courtesy of The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich Hospital Collection A 0 7 8

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2 of listed buildings the

A 10/05 A 9 5 2 SUSSEX A traces of a fascinating past. Walk this trail and ignite your www.faversham.org Front cover clockwise: Stonebridge Pond, plaque on Stonebridge Lodge, packing canisters at Oare Works circa 1925, the former Custom House, and one of two cannons, until a few years ago embedded upright as bollards at Official website of the town and rural area. Award-winning the entrance to the Oare Works, now mounted outside the town’s swimming pools in the central car park. interest in Faversham’s heritage. compendium of Faversham’s life and times – community information, business directory, the essential guide for visitors. Visit our website @ www.faversham.org Visit our website @ www.faversham.org s e c o r p

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t Use the numbers consecutively to follow the 5. 93 West Street, another late 17th-century house, was the boyhood

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c Gunpowder Trail or devise your own walk home of William Drayson (1776-1863), son of the builder of the tower and o r p round the town centre and outskirts. m spire of Faversham Church. Following in his father’s footsteps, he was in o r m f

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e charge of building maintenance at the Home and Marsh Works and was later e s d u w M

o 1. Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, promoted to be Clerk of Works at the Waltham Abbey gunpowder factory. p &

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s Preston Street is a good starting n d e a C o

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point, 2 minutes’ walk from the central e 6. 68 West Street William Smith, who lived here 250 years ago, was r g i a e t i h t r

car park and 4 from the mainline head-hunted to pioneer gunpowder manufacture in Bengal. He sailed on the e d H e

t s i n station. Visit its museum to see a video Lord Anson in 1760 accompanied by scale models of works machinery. L u

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on the local explosives industry. r e u t i e l a F

w 7. 65 West Street was on the doorstep of the Home Works, so a succession

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v 2. 76 Preston Street (opposite the of workers lived here, among them in 1832 Thomas Haywood, a millwright. r e S Fleur de Lis) A 15th-century building elegantly refronted in red In former times the most important industries in mathematical tiles in the 18th century by local GP Edward Jacob. 8 & 9. Tanners Street Numbers 50 and 52 were built for factory staff Faversham were brewing, brickmaking and Welfare facilities at the government gunpowder factories were soon after the government nationalised the Home Works in 1759. No expense explosives. Shepherd Neame continue the town’s in advance of their time and staff and their families enjoyed was spared; they have splendid brickwork. Number 49 started life as an m a brewing tradition and there is still small-scale brick cheap healthcare. Dr Jacob was contracted to provide it. oasthouse: hops were grown nearby. Back in the 1770s it became an early h s r e v making; but the manufacture of explosives ceased in 1934 residential conversion. One of the first residents was a Sam Small whose job a F n i To work in this hazardous employ there is never a want of hands. Light when, with the clouds of World War II looming, all the gunpowder factories was to ‘dust’ gunpowder (screen finished grains for powder ‘dust’ that could s l l i

m were closed, much of their machinery and staff transferring to a location at labour and constant pay are two strong inducements, easily prevailing be recycled). Further along the road, numbers 37 to 41 provided homes for e h t Ardeer in Ayrshire less vulnerable to attack from Europe. over the fear of danger, that by use is found to be little dreaded, especially as French refugee Huguenots; around 1700 Solomon Chabrand and Louis m o r f b the labourers are certain of proper care taken of them in all misfortunes. Chatwert were neighbours here. o r c e a d J w Edward Jacob, History of Faversham , 1774 Gunpowder manufacture was established in England at Bermondsey around d o r P a g w n 1530 and in Faversham about 1550. What attracted early gunpowder pioneers d i E t r r o D p to this area was the proximity of the sea for importing sulphur and saltpetre 3. 8 Preston Street (The Book Shop) A 16th-century building where S t s e (two of the three ingredients) and for exporting the finished product; plus members of the Grueber family once lived. Huguenot refugees from Lyon, they B s ’ l l a plenty of low-lying woodland, with alder and willow to make into charcoal played a big part in the local industry for over 100 years from 1684. H (the third ingredient) and streams to power the water-mills. While I was near this town some years ago, a most surprising accident happen’d, namely By the 1680s the Faversham industry was well established and the arrival of the blowing up of a powder-mill, which stood upon the river, close to the town. The blast

skilled Huguenot refugees from France gave it fresh impetus. In 1759 the was not only frightful, but it shatter’d the whole town. Several people were killed in the t e e r t

powder-house itself, tho’ not any, as I remember, in the town. But the most remarkable in S government established a factory of its own here. By 1786 there were three s r e

powder factories in the Faversham area – the Home, the oldest, and the only it all was, that the oldest son of the master of the powder-mill, a youth of about 15 years of n n a T 1 age, who was not in the mill, or near it, when it blew up, but in a boat upon the river, one actually in the town, Oare, second-oldest, situated 1 /2 miles west of the n i

s e town, and the Marsh, about 1 mile to the north west . The government rowing cross for his diversion, was kill’d by a piece of the building of the mill, which fell s u o factories, the Home and the Marsh, were known as the Royal Gunpowder Mills. down upon him in the boat. H When guncotton, the first high explosive, was invented in 1846, the first So recalled Daniel Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe , in 1724 Since 1759 all the several numerous houses, buildings and factory in the world to produce it was the Marsh Works. Later, when huge high works belonging to this manufactory have been rebuilt in explosives factories were added alongside The Swale between 1874 and 1912, In fact the ‘youth’, Francis Grueber, was not the most substantial and expensive manner, so as to render the town became the main centre of the national industry. A special railway quite 13. Poignantly, his grave can still be it as complete and extensive as possible for the purpose.

was built to take workers to the Swale-side factories. seen inside Faversham Church in the centre n o s Edward Hasted, History of Kent , 1798 l e N

aisle of the south transept. His father, also d r o L

In Faversham the explosives industry has left a larger legacy than anywhere Francis, is buried with him. l a

10. The Three Tuns This Shepherd Neame house is home to one r else in the UK and many traces can still be seen. But don’t expect ‘Satanic i m d

of Faversham’s most enigmatic and enduring legends: that Admiral Lord A mills’ or other eyesores. The industry never left scars. To minimise blast 4. 114 West Street (Ardennes Restaurant) Nelson visited the pub to pay off one of his crews. It is known Nelson twice damage in the event of an accident, its factories were often also quiet beauty started life as the Fountain Inn in the late 17th visited Faversham, but research through his own journals has neither proved spots, the various processes taking place mostly in small sheds spread out and century. A hundred years later it provided nor disproved this particular tradition. But the ‘Tuns’ has another, more insulated from one another by earth banks and trees. Water-power was used quarters for some of the senior government certain, claim to fame. A pub since at least 1743, it is the only one of Shepherd as far as possible, and for safety reasons transport from process to process staff involved in running the Home and Marsh Neame’s original three houses still trading, making it the granddaddy of the was mostly by ‘service waiters’ in hand-propelled punts. Works. They organised production, worked brewery’s current estate of almost 400 pubs in South East England. out budgets and monitored safety precautions. 65 West Street

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11. The Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel overlooks the Westbrook, r y o a i u the stream that replenished the millponds that powered the Home Works r Q riory P P R rd d a d watermills. It started life in 1861 as a school for factory workers’ children – n a t S

20 provided free by the owners.

D ts n k 19 e e a r e Downstairs was an armoury for r B r Davington Church k r C 21 e p m H p a the powder mill ‘Volunteers’ U h i l s l l r l i e 23 v (equivalent to today’s TAVR). It H B 25 Fa n r d s to en R nt d g 22 t h e oa was converted into a church in in H rc Br R A av u t b il h n re b D l C ro e e 1937. F ed y lv t P

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B B e c 18 r e

t r S Arden’s House i Stonebridge d y g e 12. Stone walls beyond y e bb a Pond R Q A W 24 d u ge ay Old the church curving into South id 17 t L 27 r G ane it S an Grammar b r L Creek Basin u e e

e a od d m School n

Road mark part of the n lo n a

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t i F C S l C N le 26 h boundary of the Home Works, 7 rd u C e rc Queen Elizabeth’s 6 h y h lo W p r t se e e S S which was extended in 1851/2. e e h w t Grammar School

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Till then the late 18th-century n dg o 28

th e e

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8 o Faversham Church

houses behind it were outside N

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e the factory area. The stone gatehouse was built at the same time. Security was l 4 s

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9 a t d h S p S e tight at the gates (no matches!) and workers wore special clothing without t t l

l R d y o N t 10 e L d 16 e r ne S t s d y o l t R u L br a s o ie i t o idg W b n d w e r S Market Place M n n a m pockets to guard against dangerous articles being brought on site. e e 11 e h e e l R o it r C h c C n c R C d R c - D M r h 15 n o l o r s h o a h i a u t ad 13 a u t ve r s Almshouses e r T 8 r u k h e 14 e r t t 1 o t S S C

n C t a 13. Kosicot A picturesque Victorian cottage forming part of the Home

E d 12 Cr t as n os S t o Works. The big millpond it overlooked was filled in and houses built over it in s L S y R an 3 t e South oad e n b o l the late 1960s. From here to No. 14 take the pleasant streamside walk or t Ja E e s co a S e b's s t m d t t 2 Yd S r oa on S r 1 t a retrace your steps and go in by the former Works entrance gates at No. 12. e R e P C g k in S t pr t n Fleur de Lis n Os a u B o Ga M te W f were a group of two pairs, each pair d fi h o 14. Chart Gunpowder Mills e R ld its y L ta d n a b

a n l operating in tandem off a central water-wheel. One complete mill remains, the o d e e L R x R r d a u S n O oldest of its kind in the world. In 1966, destined for the scrapheap, it was

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h o t c rescued and restored by the Faversham Society. It is open free of charge from S r R d u n h B R C ri o April to October, 2-5 pm, on Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays. It has ton t n

e R d s o h e t d T Fo r R served as a prototype for replicas at Ballincollig, Co Cork, and Launceston in rb P w e e ’s s d Ath Rd N y Recreation Tasmania. Displays inside include a superb scale-model of the mill machinery. elsta r R n Rd a ’s M Ground St n a t h d tio S d n Jo R R Subway R Station d t k s S r e a b P r o P F re sto The contrivance in the erection of n L 29 ane

ll e the mill-houses, though simple is a n Sitt a in M L gb

l very proper, the covering being o e e l ur i n h e v M T o r made with fir boards, lightly L e d ( w A2 o fastened, so that when by accidents, ) Preston Church p Lo n nd u on

G no way to be accounted for, they R L o t o d ad r nd R a on h blow up, the blast, meeting with d r C o C KEY f an (M h te little resistance, hath sometimes 2 - s rbu semi-pedestrianised area Jun A ry done no other injury to the ctio n 6 footpaths ) buildings, than blowing off the roof. 11 numbered sites Do Edward Jacob, ver area of the Home Works History of Faversham , 1774 map is not to scale 15. Boundary Stones just outside the mill. One marks the point where the 24. Ordnance Wharf At the head of the creek, sulphur and saltpetre imports parishes of Faversham, Davington and Ospringe met. (TLF stands for Town and arrived and finished powder was loaded for delivery – originally to the Tower of Liberty of Faversham). The other is a factory boundary stone rescued from the London, once the nation’s main arsenal, and later to Chatham Dockyard, Marsh Works. William Hall was a partner in the gunpowder factories after they Woolwich Arsenal, and magazines in London and Liverpool. For over 100 years were privatised. from 1800 sailing barges dominated the trade. As a warning to other shipping, they flew a red flag at their topmast when they were powder-laden. 16. Westbrook Walk sports another Works’ boundary stone, this time in its original position. The Westbrook, which rose about two miles away in 25. The Brents Church, now deconsecrated, was opened in 1881 to serve Ospringe, was one of the Home Works’ main sources of water-power. a suburb that had developed on the west bank of the creek. The entire cost was met by the widow of William Hall mentioned in 15. h c

Davington Church and Priory before the 1781 explosion r

17. Stonebridge Lodge was built by the government about 200 years ago u h C

as the headquarters of the Powder Mills Volunteers raised to guard the Home h 26. 24 Court Street was the town’s Custom House for much of the 19th s i

20. Davington Priory has been a private house r a P

Works against Napoleonic invasion. Faversham mills probably supplied powder century, its officials keeping a watchful eye on shipping cargoes, including

since the last nun left. Only the Victorian entrance m a h

for both Trafalgar and Waterloo. powder, and beers from Shepherd Neame’s nearby brewery. The present house s r

lodge (now parish rooms) can be seen from the road. e v

is Georgian but in its medieval predecessor in Elizabethan days lived Richard a The priory was severely damaged in the 1781 explosion F 18. Stonebridge Pond, the lowest of the Home Works millponds, and now Gill, a gunpowder dealer. Probably his supplier was his at nearby Stonebridge Pond. Outbuildings and two of its the only survivor, feeds via a sluice into the tidal waters of Faversham Creek. brother Thomas, a manufacturer who lived in Preston six gables were demolished by the blast. Here in 1781 three tons of powder blew up, killing three staff. The huge Street. From here walk via delightful Abbey Street and y

explosion was heard as far away as London and felt like an earthquake in r Abbey Place to No. 27. o 21. Ravenscourt was for many years the home of Edward Wilks’s i r P

Canterbury. So much damage was done to nearby property that in 1786 the n

son Frederick, who followed in his father’s footsteps, starting service in the o t more dangerous processes were transferred to a new factory (the Marsh g dating from 1587, houses

n 27. Old Grammar School, i

Royal Gunpowder Mills in 1788 and rising to be Deputy Storekeeper by 1832. v a

Works) outside the town. D the town’s three Masonic lodges. Some of the gunpowder

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See also the Information Panel by the pond t staff belonged to Harmony, the oldest, formed in 1763. a g

22. Stonebridge Pond, from this vantage-point is seen as a network of n r e t

narrow-gauge canals as well as a millpond. All the process-houses have long s o

The most horrid accident happened in 1781, p 28. Faversham Parish Church Its graceful crown

since gone, but at the creek end of the pond are the stone beds of several n a i when the corning-mill and dusting-house r spire is perhaps its greatest glory and one of only a few in o t

powder mills. c i were blown up. A pillar of flame and smoke V England – most are in Scotland. Completed in 1797, it was caused by it, which ascended a consid - replaced two earlier towers, both of which proved I went through Faversham. A very pretty little town, and just ten minutes’ walk from the erable height in the air before it expanded, unstable, perhaps following exposure to successive explosions at the Home market-place up to the Dover turnpike-road. Here are the powder-affairs that Mr Hume so and was seen in the Isle of Thanet. The air for Works not far away. So to build a new open-work spire was a wise precaution. well exposed. An immensity of buildings and expensive things. Why are not these premises near the space of a mile round was so let or sold? However, this will never be done, until there be a reformed parliament. impregnated with sulphur, as almost to Information Panel at Stonebridge Pond 29. Faversham Cemetery, Love Lane, has a memorial to the 108 victims William Cobbett, Friday 7 December 1821 ( Rural Rides , 1830) prevent persons breathing in it, but with great difficulty. of the Great Explosion of 2 April 1916. Despite precautions, accidents still Edward Hasted, History of Kent , 1798 happened and the Great Explosion was the worst. Fifteen tons of TNT and 150 23. The Lawn, a handsome Georgian house provided by the government to tons of ammonium nitrate blew up at Uplees, north-west of the town centre. house in some comfort the Royal Gunpowder Mills’ Clerk of Cheque 19. Davington Parish Church, the oldest extant building in Faversham, Though little damage was done in Faversham itself, because of the lie of the n o

(treasurer/accountant). i s o served the Benedictine priory founded adjacent to it in 1153. The priory l land, windows were blown out in Southend, 14 miles away, and the shock was p x E

petered out in 1535 after which parts of the church were demolished, leaving t sensed as far away as Norwich. a e r G

today’s nave and north aisle. Inside is a memorial to Bartholomew Bennett, It is a longish walk to and from the cemetery from the town centre. Visitors e h t building works superintendent at the Royal Gunpowder Mills from 1779 till his f with cars may choose to drive there and park outside. o

s m death in 1795. Nineteen victims of an 1847 guncotton blast at the Marsh i t c i v

Works are buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard. e h t

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England has no reason to regret the asylum which she has in all times so freely granted to e v a r g fugitives flying from religious persecution abroad. Least of all has she reason to regret the e h t

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settlement within her borders of so many industrious and intelligent French Protestant a

s n o refugees, who have not only stimulated, but in a measure, created, British industry. i t a n Samuel Smiles, The Huguenots , 1867 i m o n e d

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The aftermath of a powder explosion at the Oare Works in 1867 in which 4 men died. r a v

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