Swanscombe
Swanscombe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England. It is located east of Dartford and north-west of Gravesend, in the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. At the 2001 UK census, the Swanscombe electoral ward had a population of 6,418. Swanscombe was necessary in the early history of cement. The very first concrete manufacturing functions near Swanscombe were opened at Northfleet by James Parker, around 1792, making "Roman cement" from cement stone brought from the Isle of Sheppey. James Frost opened a works at Swanscombe in 1825, using chalk from Galley Hill, having actually patented a brand-new cement called British Cement. The Swanscombe plant was consequently gotten by John Bazley White & Co, which ended up being the biggest component of Blue Circle Industries when it formed in 1900. It finally closed down in 1990. Between 1840 and 1930 it was the largest concrete plant in Britain. By 1882 several concrete manufacturers were running across the north Kent region, yet the resulting dust pollution drove the people of Swanscombe to take lawsuit versus the regional concrete jobs. In spite of various technical innovations, the trouble persisted right into the 1950s, with telegraph lines over an inch thick in white dust. Modern cement kilns in Kent making use of chimneys 170 m (550 feet) in elevation are currently claimed to be the cleanest on the planet. However, the neighbouring Medway communities are reported to be one of the most contaminated lived in location in the UK, as well as the cement sector adds to acid rain in Scandinavia.
