Faversham explosives industry The Faversham explosives industry : Faversham , in Kent , England , has claims to be the cradle of the UK ' s explosives industry : it was also to become one of its main centres . The first gunpowder plant in the UK was established in the 16th century , possibly at the instigation of Faversham Abbey . With their estates and endowments monasteries were keen to invest in promising technology . The Faversham was well - placed for the industry . It had a stream which could be dammed at intervals to provide power for watermill s . On its outskirts were low - lying areas ideal for the culture of alder and willow to provide charcoal — one of the three key gunpowder ingredients . The stream fed into a tidal Creek where sulphur , another key ingredient , could be imported , and the finished product loaded for dispatch to Thames - side magazines . The port was also near the Continent where in warfare demand for gunpowder was brisk . Gunpowder . The first gunpowder factories . The first factories were small , near the town , and alongside the stream , between the London to Dover road ( now the A2 road ) and the head of the creek . By the early 18th century these had coalesced into a single plant , later to be known as the Home Works , as it was the town ’ s first . At this time the British government was buying its supplies from the private sector ; but the quality was often poor , and in 1759 it decided it needed its own plant . Rather than build a new one , it nationalised the Home Works , upgrading all the machinery . From this phase dates the Chart Gunpowder Mill , the oldest of its kind in the world ( ) . This was rescued from the jaws of the bulldozer , and then restored , by the Faversham Society in 1966 . ( It is now open to the public on weekend and bank holiday afternoons from April till the end of October . ) Nearby is Stonebridge Pond , today a picturesque beauty spot at the head of the creek . It served to power some of the works ’ watermills , slender remains of which survive . It still features a network of narrow - gauge canals along which powder was punted from process to process . Expansion . In the 1680s a second factory was started by Huguenot asylum - seekers alongside another stream about 2 km west of the town ( ) . This had its own access to the sea via Oare Creek and so became known as the Oare Works , though it was wholly in the parish of Davington . It became a leading supplier to the East India Company and it could be argued that without its product English would not have become the lingua franca of India , Pakistan and Bangladesh . Gunpowder from Faversham was not just used in warfare . It played a key part in the Industrial Revolution , by enabling routes to be blasted for canals and railways . The third and last gunpowder factory to open was the Marsh Works ( ) , built by the British government 1 km northwest of the town to augment output at its Home Works and opened in 1787 . This also had access to the sea via Oare Creek . In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars , the government leased its Faversham works back to the private sector - the Home Works in 1816 and the Marsh Works in 1834 - selling them in 1825 and 1854 respectively . Explosives manufacture continued unabated at both sites under private ownership . Closure . All three gunpowder factories shut in 1934 . ICI , then the owners , sensed that war might break out with Germany , and realised that Faversham would then become vulnerable to air attacks or possibly invasion . They transferred production , together with key staff and machinery , to Ardeer in Ayrshire , Scotland . The sites today . The Marsh Works then became a site for mineral extraction , as it remains today , and almost all its buildings were destroyed . Except for Chart Mill , Stonebridge Pond , and a few other buildings , most of the Home Works site was redeveloped for housing in the 1960s . The Oare Works is now an attractive country park , open to the public free of charge all year round . Remains of process houses have been carefully conserved . From an informative visitor centre , signed trails radiate in various directions . An early 20th century electric - powered gunpowder mill which was transferred to Ardeer in 1934 has been repatriated and is on display . The 18th - century works bell has also been repatriated and is on display at Faversham ' s Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre . With their streams , watermills and forest trees planted to minimise blast damage in the event of an accident , all traditional gunpowder factories were places of beauty , even during their working lives , and this one is no exception . Guncotton . Gunpowder is a " low explosive " , best used as a propellant . Guncotton , the first " high explosive " , more useful for its destructive powers , was invented by Dr Christian Schonbein , of the University of Basel , in 1846 . Under licence from him it was first manufactured at Faversham ’ s Marsh Works in 1847 . 1847 Explosion at Faversham . The manufacturing process was not yet fully understood . On 14 July 1847 a serious explosion killed 18 staff , only 10 of whose bodies could be identified . Due to this , the factory owners shut the plant . New factory . Guncotton was not made again in Faversham till 1873 , when the Cotton Powder Company , independent of the gunpowder factories , opened a factory on a remote new site . Near Uplees , about 4 km northwest of the town centre but still within the parish , this was alongside the Swale , the deep - water channel that divides mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey . Deliveries of raw materials — cotton waste and sulphuric and nitric acids — could readily be made , and the product readily dispatched by water . With a buoyant market the factory rapidly expanded , producing also each new high explosive as it was formulated . Adjoining it on the west in 1913 an associate venture , the Explosives Loading Company , built a plant to fill bombs and shells . Both plants were high - tech state - of - the - art , with a power station , hydraulic mains , and internal telephone and tramway systems . Together they occupied an area of 500 acres ( 2 km² ) — almost as large as that of the City of London . World War I . When the First World War started in 1914 , the two factories were requisitioned by the Admiralty and armed guards were mounted . Production facilities were further expanded and many new staff recruited from Faversham and elsewhere in East Kent . Road access for the workers was poor , so the Admiralty built a metre - gauge railway , the Davington Light Railway , to transport them from a terminus at Davington , near the Home Works , to Uplees . The owners of both Swale - side factories had foreseen that they would become superfluous at the end of the First World War , and they closed promptly and permanently in 1919 . The Davington light railway track was lifted , and its three steam locomotives found new homes in South America , where at least one is thought to survive . The Great Explosion at Faversham . The 1916 explosion at Faversham was the worst in the history of the British explosives industry . At 14 : 20 on Sunday 2 April 1916 , a huge explosion ripped through the gunpowder mill at Uplees , near Faversham , when a store of 200 tons of TNT was ignited when some empty sacks caught fire , and the TNT and ammonium nitrate ( used to " stretch " the TNT ) exploded . The weather might have contributed to the start of the fire . The previous month had been wet but had ended with a short dry spell so that by that Sunday the weather was " glorious " . . . but provided perfect conditions for heat - generated combustion . As it was a Sunday , no women were at work . There were 115 deaths of men and boys , including all the Works Fire Brigade , in the explosion and in subsequent sympathetic explosions . The bodies of 7 victims were never found , and 108 bodies were buried in a mass grave at Faversham Cemetery on the 6th of April . The munitions factory was in a remote spot in the middle of the open marshes of North Kent , next to the Thames coastline , hence the great explosion was heard across the Thames estuary as far away as Norwich and Great Yarmouth . In Southend - on - Sea domestic windows were blown out and two large plate - glass shop windows shattered . The " East Kent Gazette " published in Sittingbourne did not report the explosion until the 29th of April . Although recognising the need for some censorship , it referred to the reply given in Parliament to the question as " mystifying and ambiguous " and called for the fullest precautions to be implemented to " prevent another calamity of the kind " occurring again . Although not the first such disaster at Faversham ’ s historic munitions works , the April 1916 blast is recorded as " the worst ever in the history of the UK explosives industry " , and yet the full picture is still somewhat confused . The reason for the fire is uncertain . And considering the quantity of explosive chemical stored at the works — with one report indicating that a further 3 , 000 tons remained in nearby sheds unaffected — it is remarkable , and a tribute to those who struggled against the fire that so much of the nation ' s munitions were prevented from contributing further to the catastrophe . The Secretary of State for War , Earl Kitchener , had in 1914 written to the management of the CPC , and it is presumed the ELC , informing the workforce on The Abbey works . This was not quite the end of high explosives manufacture in Faversham , however . In 1924 a new venture , the Mining Explosives Company , opened a factory on the east side of Faversham Creek , not far from the site of Faversham Abbey — hence its Abbey Works name . Its Mexico telegraphic address led to it being known as " The Mexico " by local people . After a fatal accident in 1939 the proprietors decided to abandon the manufacture of high explosives and instead make an explosive - substitute based on a large reusable steel cartridge filled with carbon dioxide . The premises still needed to be licensed under the 1875 Explosives Act , as gunpowder was used in the detonator . Under the name Long Airdox , production continues today . Unusually , the company is owned by its main customers . Its appearance is still that of a traditional high explosive factories , with no big buildings but many small ones widely spaced for safety . It boasts one of the UK ' s few surviving manumotive railways . External links .