Melting House (Building 20) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
MELTING HOUSE (BUILDING 20) 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:
- 1389582
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Melting House (Building 20) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
- Statutory Address:
- MELTING HOUSE (BUILDING 20) AT FORMER MARSH GUNPOWDER WORKS, WORKSHOP AREA, HAM ROAD
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1389582
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Melting House (Building 20) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
- Statutory Address 1:
- MELTING HOUSE (BUILDING 20) 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:
- MELTING HOUSE (BUILDING 20) 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 01293 62773
Details
FAVERSHAM
TR 06 SW HAM ROAD
659/6/10018 Melting House (Building 20) at former
14-DEC-01 Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
GV II
Melting house at saltpetre refinery, part of gunpowder works, now store. 1800-10. Red brick with corrugated iron hipped roof.
PLAN: Rectangular single-cell plan.
EXTERIOR: Single storey, a wide full-height opening to the SE with a louvered light to the right, rear has two cast-iron windows; two buttresses to the NE end.
INTERIOR: 2 king post trusses with ties to end walls and diagonal struts; corner ties.
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 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 melting house was where saltpetre was boiled in solution before being taken to the adjoining refining and crystallising house (qqv). 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 and 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:
- 488270
- 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 29-Jun-2026 at 01:59:42.
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