Swanscombe
Swanscombe is a small town 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 electoral ward had a population of 6,418. Swanscombe was essential in the early history of concrete. The first concrete production works near Swanscombe were opened at Northfleet by James Parker, around 1792, making "Roman cement" from concrete rock brought from the Isle of Sheppey. James Frost opened a works at Swanscombe in 1825, utilizing chalk from Galley Hill, having patented a new concrete called British Cement. The Swanscombe plant was ultimately gotten by John Bazley White & Co, which came to be the largest component of Blue Circle Industries when it developed in 1900. It finally shut down in 1990. In between 1840 and 1930 it was the biggest cement plant in Britain. By 1882 numerous concrete manufacturers were running throughout the north Kent region, but the resulting dirt air pollution drove individuals of Swanscombe to take legal action against the local cement jobs. In spite of numerous technical developments, the issue lingered right into the 1950s, with telegraph lines over an inch thick in white dirt. Modern concrete kilns in Kent using smokeshafts 170 m (550 feet) in elevation are now said to be the cleanest worldwide. Nonetheless, the adjoining Medway communities are reported to be the most contaminated populated area in the UK, and also the concrete market contributes to acid rain in Scandinavia.