West Crystallising House (Building 18) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
WEST CRYSTALLISING HOUSE (BUILDING 18) AT FORMER MARSH GUNPOWDER WORKS, WORKSHOP AREA, HAM ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1389580
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- West Crystallising House (Building 18) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
- Statutory Address:
- WEST CRYSTALLISING HOUSE (BUILDING 18) AT FORMER MARSH GUNPOWDER WORKS, WORKSHOP AREA, HAM ROAD
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1389580
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- West Crystallising House (Building 18) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
- Statutory Address 1:
- WEST CRYSTALLISING HOUSE (BUILDING 18) AT FORMER MARSH GUNPOWDER WORKS, WORKSHOP AREA, HAM ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WEST CRYSTALLISING HOUSE (BUILDING 18) AT FORMER MARSH GUNPOWDER WORKS, WORKSHOP AREA, HAM ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Kent
- District:
- Swale (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Faversham
- National Grid Reference:
- TR 01302 62758
Details
FAVERSHAM
TR 06 SW HAM ROAD
659/6/10017 West Crystallising House (Building 18)
14-DEC-01 at former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Work
shop Area
GV II
Crystallising house at saltpetre refinery, part of gunpowder works, now store.1800-10. Timber framed, clad with weatherboard, the SE and SW walls filled with brick nogging, with slate hipped roof.
PLAN: Rectangular single-cell plan.
EXTERIOR: Single storey, with double doors in SW end and NW side, 3 tall 5/5-pane casements each side and 1 in the end.
INTERIOR: 3 king post trusses, the outer ones with ties to end walls, and stone flagged floor.
HISTORY: The Marsh works were part of the Royal Gunpowder Factory which was established outside Faversham in 1786 after an explosion in the town, to remove some of the more dangerous processes. They played an important part in the improvement of the British gunpowder leading up to and during the Napoleonic Wars, under William Congreve. The saltpetre refinery was built in 1789 as part of Congreve's successful drive to improve the ingredients of British powder. It was privatised after the war, and closed in the 1920s.
The crystallising house was where saltpetre was crystallised out of the solution which had been treated in the nearby refining house (qv), by placing it in racks of vats to cool, hence the open structure. This is one of two original refinery buildings on this site, and is a particularly impressive through the close relationship between the structure and the process, and is little altered. It forms part of a discrete, coherent group of late C18-early C19 industrial buildings for refining saltpetre, the best preserved of this type in the country comparable with French and Swedish examples.
(Wayne Cocroft, Dangerous Energy. The archaeology of gunpowder and military explosives manufacture. Swindon (English Heritage), 2000, pp. 54-67)
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 488268
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Cocroft, W, Dangerous Energy The Archaeology of Gunpowder and Military Explosives Manufacture, (2000), 54-67
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 19-Jun-2026 at 05:39:25.
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