Swanscombe
Swanscombe is a village in the District 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 selecting ward had a population of 6,418. Swanscombe was necessary in the early history of concrete. The initial cement manufacturing works near Swanscombe were opened at Northfleet by James Parker, around 1792, making "Roman cement" from concrete stone brought from the Isle of Sheppey. James Frost opened up an operate at Swanscombe in 1825, making use of chalk from Galley Hill, having actually patented a new cement called British Cement. The Swanscombe plant was ultimately acquired by John Bazley White & Co, which came to be the biggest element of Blue Circle Industries when it formed in 1900. It ultimately closed down in 1990. Between 1840 and 1930 it was the biggest concrete plant in Britain. By 1882 numerous concrete producers were running throughout the north Kent area, but the resulting dust pollution drove the people of Swanscombe to take legal action against the neighborhood concrete works. Despite various technological developments, the trouble continued right into the 1950s, with telegraph lines over an inch thick in white dirt. Modern cement kilns in Kent using smokeshafts 170 m (550 feet) in elevation are currently stated to be the cleanest on the planet. Nevertheless, the neighbouring Medway communities are reported to be the most contaminated lived in area in the UK, as well as the cement industry adds to acid rain in Scandinavia.
