PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS

PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS, 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:: 1389585
Date first listed:: 14-Dec-2001
List Entry Name:: PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS
Statutory Address:: PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS, HAM ROAD

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1389585
Date first listed:: 14-Dec-2001
List Entry Name:: PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS
Statutory Address 1:: PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS, HAM ROAD

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: PROOF HOUSE APPROXIMATELY 10 METRES SOUTH SOUTH WEST OF GATE HOUSE, MARSH WORKS, 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 01341 62363

Details

FAVERSHAM

TR 06 SW HAM ROAD 659/6/10014 Proof House approx. 10m SSW of Gate Ho 14-DEC-01 use, Marsh Works

GV II

Proof house at gunpowder works, disused. 1800-10. Brick with pyramidal slate roof.

PLAN: Square single-cell plan.

EXTERIOR: Segmental-arched doorway and flanking windows with sashes. Roof has a lantern on top.

INTERIOR: Not inspected.

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 which was built in 1789 as part of Congreve's successful drive to improve the ingredients of British powder. This included dedicated proof houses, the first of which were built in 1804, and this is probably the oldest example. It was privatised after the war, and closed in the 1920s.

The proof house, a type of laboratory for testing powder by flashing it, was added in the early C19 refurbishment of the refinery. The roof lantern was intended to admit light and let out the fumes. Associated with the late C18-early C19 saltpetre refinery at the Marsh Works (qv), 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:: 488273
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.