Earth House (Building 5) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
EARTH HOUSE (BUILDING 5) 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:
- 1389583
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Earth House (Building 5) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
- Statutory Address:
- EARTH HOUSE (BUILDING 5) 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:
- 1389583
- Date first listed:
- 14-Dec-2001
- List Entry Name:
- Earth House (Building 5) At Former Marsh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
- Statutory Address 1:
- EARTH HOUSE (BUILDING 5) 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:
- EARTH HOUSE (BUILDING 5) 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 01318 62775
Details
FAVERSHAM
TR 06 SW HAM ROAD
659/6/10019 Earth House (Building 5) at former Mar
14-DEC-01 sh Gunpowder Works, Workshop Area
GV II
Earth house at saltpetre refinery, part of gunpowder works, now workshop and store. 1800-10. Yellow brick with corrugated hipped roof.
PLAN: Rectangular single-cell plan with central dividing wall.
EXTERIOR: Single storey, formerly with nine openings to each side with rubbed brick flat heads, mostly blocked or altered on the SW side. NE side has original 8/8-pane hornless sashes, two flanking a doorway in the E end, two more closely-spaced wither side of a near-central doorway, and two taller windows to the E end flanking another doorway. Inserted vehicle entrance to NW end.
INTERIOR: Five king post trusses with pairs of ties to end walls and diagonal struts, corner ties, the roof lined with matchboard.
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.
Earth houses stored unrefined saltpetre, imported from the East Indies, previous to treatment in the refinery complex (qv), and this is the earliest and last surviving of six which were built here in the early C19. The relatively elaborate fenestration suggests that it may have also have been intended for or very soon adapted to other purposes. This building 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:
- 488271
- 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 14-Jun-2026 at 21:07:00.
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