Remains of WW1 munitions factory, Hoo Peninsula - Kent Options

[R G O'key]

Found this on google maps last week, northwest corner of Hoo Peninsula
Remains of munitions factory

It looks bizarre, there is a grid of what look like large houses divided into four rooms with the roofs missing, there are more of them in ruins if you look closely. Zooming in to the fullest extent and panning around the whole area shows a lot of detail. I was at a loss to explain it...I grew up around the Gravesend area and had done some walking around the Cliffe area but had never come across anything like it.

I asked my dad, he knows that area and he didn't know either.

I did some searching and found this pilot's eye view on secret-bases.co.uk
Pilot's eye view

According to that site and a couple of other it is a ww1 munitions factory. Does anybody have any photos or more details of this place before it fell into disuse and ruin? I'm surprised i've never seen any local history stuff about it.
Looking at the factory site, apart from the weird house structures there are lots of donut shaped earthworks, what are these for? Protection of other buildings in case of accidental explosion?

Eagerly awaiting any information...

Rob

[Jonathan Saunder...]

There was a Fort at Lower Hope Point, which was garrisoned and offered anti-arcraft fire against Zeppellin and I expect later, Gothas. My copy of The Hoo Peninsula states Cliffe was the first Kent village to be bombed - not sure if that is true.

There was a pre-war gunpowder factory at Cliffe - the Curtis & Harvey works - it was actually used for storage rather than production from what I can make out. The book continues "To reduce possible danger from accidental explosions the storage areas were surrounded by earthen walls and the whole site by numerous plantd trees." The works closed in 1921.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Jonathan S

[R G O'key]

Cliffe Fort is still standing and I have to say shamefully neglected...it sits on property owner by a cement company. I've seen it from a little way away, never been inside though. Something like that should be acquired by English Heritage or The National Trust.
Also a few miles west of Cliffe Fort is Shornemead Battery, although it wasn't armed during the Great War. I have been there numerous times and although some agency or other has tidied up the site I did notice that the vertical access shafts to the lower tunnels have been filled with earth where previously you could see ladders going down into a great ball of barbed wire.

The Curtis & Harvey Works sounds like it could well what I'm looking at and will certainly aid me in my quest for info, thanks Jonathan.

[R G O'key]

From an English Heritage website:
Cordite was also produced by private factories, such as Curtis & Harvey at Cliffe
B&W pic

From an archaeology study carried out as part of Cliffe Airport proposals:

Curtis’s and Harvey's Explosives Factory (NMR 15033/46, WA 317) has been
identified as important in English Heritage’s study on the history of gunpowder
and military explosives manufacturing. It is located at the western end of the
Study Area on River Thames frontage. Curtis’s and Harvey absorbed several
gunpowder manufacturers in the 1890s and then founded a purpose-built
explosives factory on the Cliffe Marshes. The facility is ‘nearly one mile (1.6 km)
in length, with two jetties and a loading bay’ (Cocroft 2000:143). At present the
remains of the factory survive relatively intact.

Medway City Council Archives has records:
Property records relating to former HM Cordite Factory, Cliffe [adjacent to the nitrogyclerine factory of Messrs. Curtis and Harvey Ltd.]
Sale particulars (including duplicate) for 234 acres formerly known as HM Cordite Factory in Cliffe, with site plan and key to buildings, 1923 (3 items)


Also found a record in a list of people who died in the great war from Headley parish
"Dorrington, Harry, son of Mr. J. T. Dorrington, of Elm Villas. Killed by an explosion of munitions at Cliffe-at-Hoo, in October, 1917, aged 28. Left widow and child."

That's about it for online results...

[stiletto_33853]

Jonathan & Rob,
Could either of you tell me what battery was at Cliffe with what guns ????

Andy

[R G O'key]

Andy, the forts at Cliffe, Coalhouse and Shornemead formed a triangle of fire through which any invading ships would have to pass as they came around Lower Hope Point...and any that got past would then be in range of New Tavern (Gravesend) and Tilbury Forts.

The only references I can find to the guns at Cliffe are 12.5" & 11" muzzle loaded rifles. Coalhouse had similar armament. I'm not sure if these were still in place during WW1. The Brennan torpedo system at Cliffe had already been removed by that time and replaced by quick firing guns, probably 6" or less breach loaded. Maybe that also replaced the heavier guns. I know Shornemead no longer had any heavy armament by that time.

Grain Tower Battery on the eastern side of the Hoo Peninsula had 4.7" quick firing guns from 1912 so it is likely they were the same at Cliffe.

[stiletto_33853]

Rob,
Many thanks, the reason for the enquiry is that on the night of May 10/11th 1915 Zeppelin LZ38, commanded by Hauptmann Erich Linnarz, made an air raid on Southend-on-Sea. The Zeppelins's were at this time trying to find a route to London and Southend-on-Sea suffered two Zeppelin raids in May 1915, by LZ38.
LZ38 dropped a couple of bombs on Southend and followed the River Thames as far as Canvey Island, where fierce anti-aircraft fire from Cliffe resulted in LZ38 turning back. Linnarz returned to Southend-on-Sea and dropped his remaining bombs over the town, causing considerable damage in the process.

Andy