With its situation on a busy waterway such as the
River Thames, at a point where higher land came close to the river, it was an obvious place for industry to be located. The river provided water supplies and the means whereby raw materials and products could be transported. The forests of the area provided timber for various aspects of most industries. It was an area famous for Gun Flint manufacturing as Flint is found in amongst the Chalk. Flint was also used as a local building material. Flint walls can still be found in the area. The Springhead/Ebbsfleet Valley area was used for the growing of Watercress much of which supplied the London market.
Cement in Dec 2008 The Romans first began to dig chalk from the area, but the making of cement came later. The industry requires plentiful water supplies, and
chalk as its main ingredient, both of which were to hand. When in 1796,
James Parker set up kilns on Northfleet creek to make his
Roman cement, it was the beginning of a large complex of cement works along this stretch of the river. The manufacture of
Portland cement began in April 1846 when
William Aspdin, son of
Joseph Aspdin, its inventor, acquired Parker's works and built new kilns. Aspdin's works became Robins & Co in 1853, sold on to the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (
APCM) in 1900, which was taken over by the
Lafarge Group in 2001. By 1900, there were nine cement works operating on the Thames between
Swanscombe and Gravesend. The last cement plant in Northfleet ceased operation in 2008. Now under water, one of the largest chalk pits, known locally as The Blue Lake, can be found between the A226 and the North Kent Railway line. It is about 200 metres south of the access tunnel to the old (now demolished) Lafarge cement plant, that runs under the North Kent / Channel Tunnel rail-link railway lines.
Paper Kimberly-Clark's paper mill, previously
Bowaters and Bowater-Scott, was established in 1923 and makes
Andrex toilet tissue.
Metals Britannia Refined Metals, now part of
Glencore, has a refinery producing lead and silver in Northfleet.
Shipbuilding Northfleet developed into an important shipbuilding centre on the south bank of the River Thames in Kent by the late 18th century. By 1800, several shipyards were operating there, including that of
Thomas Pitcher, established in 1788, which built East Indiamen and vessels for the Royal Navy.
Thomas Pitcher's Yard Pitcher's yard launched at least 25 merchant ships for East and West Indies trade, plus a similar number of naval vessels. The first was
Royal Charlotte, a 1,252-ton East Indiaman completed in 1789 for the East India Company. A scale model survives at St. Botolph’s Church, Northfleet.
Naval Dockyard Proposals Northfleet’s position on the River Thames led to proposals for a Royal Navy dockyard during the Napoleonic Wars. The engineer John Rennie prepared plans between 1805 and 1807 for a large yard at Northfleet Hope, intended to replace older facilities such as those at
Chatham Dockyard. The scheme included extensive basins, dry docks and building slips, and land was acquired. The project was not carried out, owing to its cost, improvements at Sheerness Dockyard, the end of the war in 1815, and alternative approaches such as dredging. A separate proposal in the early 19th century planned a dockyard on the nearby
Swanscombe Peninsula, but this was also abandoned.
Henley’s Cable Works Henley’s cable works at Northfleet, later operated by
AEI, was established in 1906 on land formerly occupied by the
Rosherville Gardens, a Victorian riverside pleasure ground. The company acquired the remaining portions of the gardens in 1939, and the site expanded significantly during the 20th century, becoming a major local employer. During the Second World War the works contributed to the construction of pipelines for
Operation PLUTO, and an underground air-raid shelter capable of accommodating approximately 2,500 people was built for the workforce. Production at the site continued into the early 21st century before ceasing in 2008. The works were subsequently demolished by 2010. As of the mid-2020s, the area is being redeveloped for residential use by
Keepmoat Homes under the name Cable Wharf, with construction ongoing and scheduled to continue into the 2030s. ==Transport==