An Intro
A cement works is up there with some of the best forms of industrial architecture, mainly due to the sheer scale, for exploration. Although it may be a graffiti shitstorm inside, Shoreham cement is simply amazing to see in my opinion.
A cement works is up there with some of the best forms of industrial architecture, mainly due to the sheer scale, for exploration. Although it may be a graffiti shitstorm inside, Shoreham cement is simply amazing to see in my opinion.
Side note: This report might be slightly picture heavy.
Quick History
With operation starting in 1883 the works' began life as the Beeding Portland Cement Company with a production of over 140 tonnes of cement per week. The strategic location of this works allowed for supplies to be bought in via the Adur such as, Coal - for powering the works, Sand, Clay and Gypsum - for production of cement, by boat.
The early 1900's saw the first of many expansions to the cement works with the introduction of new kilns (A1 and A2 Installed in 1900), rawmills and washmills. These first years also saw the extension and addition of railway lines to the works heading further inland with some of them still visible if you walk along the river today. These modifications allowed for the plant to kick out around 800 tonnes of cement product weekly. A third cement kiln (A3) was added in 1911 supplied by Krupp rather than the first two provided by FLSmidth.
As the 1930's came around pressure from the Second World War forced the works to close during these times. Following the war the cement works were demolished and completely rebuilt re-opening as Shoreham Cement Works. The works now had a new design with a, Chalk crushing plant, Kiln house (housing Kilns C1 and C2), Chalk crushing plant, storage warehouse for raw materials shipped in, cement mill and storage silos. This new design created many job opportunities within the area and allowed the works to produce over 500 tonnes of cement a day. The works continued in this state on wards to the closure in 1991 with minor modifications to increase efficiency but after so many years its time was up with the high pollution levels and outdated design a plant like this could no longer operate in a modern age.
Since closure not much has happened. The area surrounding the plant has become home to numerous lorries which are surplus to their requirement or simply require repairs. The quarry which now scars the landscape has remained relatively untouched providing habitats to animals along its edge.
The Explore
Meeting up with another group and some others (there's quite few to tag so I'm not going to bother) late the night before we set up camp and waited until dawn as driving such a distance at early morning didn't really appeal to me. After some faffing about we headed down towards the works where we discovered that a handful of demolition workers were busy preparing the chalk crushers at the bottom of the quarry for demolition.
It appeared we had to find a way of not getting seen.....
Eventually we had all made it inside and quickly got to the point we wanted to be at.
The Kilns.
For those wondering what these do or did they formed the pyro-processing stage of cement production. Clay and other materials are loaded into the top of the kiln as a slurry, as these are wet-process kilns, and are heated to around 1500 degrees C before leaving at the bottom of the kiln as "cilnker".
At the top of the kilns where the slurry is loaded into the exhaust system is found where the gases will travel via the precipitators to the chimney.
Photo taken looking down the Kilns.
At the base of the kilns the cilnker product will travel onwards once exiting. At this end the burner pipe is found which acts as a sort of flamethrower inside creating the immense heat.
Underneath the cilnker falls into the coolers which cools the product down. These can be seen quite clearly at shoreham creating a brilliant photograph.
Once exiting the coolers, the cilnker travels onwards to the mill where it will be ground up and formed into cement.
Enjoy some other images of the kilns.
Control room.
This was used for controlling operation the kilns s well as other components.
Moving on through numerous conveyors and walkways.
The storage warehouse was used for raw materials which had been imported to the works. A large roof crane was used to organised materials to their destination.
Moving on we found ourselves at the former cement mill which had be stripped bare, apart from some walkways.
You could still make out some foundations used for the giant mixers which once sat inside.
Just behind the mill was a small segment used for rotating these giant drums which somehow remained.
Easily mistaken for other such equipment these are motors attached to gearboxes used for driving the mill. Unfortunately graffitiers and taggers had beat us to it.
From now we had covered most the main sections of the works production areas. We deiced to head upward for a final view visiting some smaller areas en route.
Some machinery used for processing coal I think.
And. The roof.
That'll be all.
