Introduction
Hopefully it is now rare for locally significant, former industrial sites to be forgotten and swept away in ignorance of their existence and importance. However, this nearly occurred recently near Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, had it not been for the appreciation of the site by the new owners, leading to their search to learn about the site and seek advice regarding the preservation of the buildings.
Renewed interest in this site of a chalk quarry was stimulated by a planning application for change of use to an animal rescue centre (ARC) – the existing site of the ARC being needed for major house building developments. In May 2017 investigations began, first checking with Hertfordshire County Council’s Historic Environment Advisor what was known about the site. The HER entry was very brief and mentioned just one building on the site. Access was gained to the site from an adjacent farm track, an on-site caretaker and his large dog gave a tour of the site, which turned out to be the former Stortford Lime Works on Farnham Road, Bishop’s Stortford at NGR TL 487 235. The important, virtually in-tact, surviving buildings re-discovered here, led to a period of field work, documentary research and oral history to record the history of this industrial site.
History
There had been a small chalk pit on this site for some years, from which local farmers would gather chalk for their own use, prior to it becoming the Stortford Lime Works. In the early 1940s Eddie Green, who owned lime works in Dunstable and St Albans, bought the land on which this chalk pit lay with a view to opening another lime works. He approached Reg Curtis, landlord of the Red, White & Blue public house (now an Indian Restaurant) at the Bishop’s Stortford end of the road to Farnham, and who also ran a timber business, for assistance. At this time the Government were providing grants to stimulate the national agricultural sector during the war years. Reg Curtis built the lime works for Eddie Green, it opened in 1942/3 and Reg then worked at the works, his wife working in the office. They eventually became Directors of the works and Reg’s son John went to work there in 1948.
John Curtis eventually became a Director of the firm along with his mother and wife, and latterly his son and daughter. Lime production ceased in the 1970s and the site was then used for gravel extraction and waste tipping. John ceased operations and sold up in 1990. After that the site had several owners before being sold to the present owners for use as an Animal Rescue Centre.
(The Stortford Lime Works also owned a chalk pit and kiln at Little Hadham which continued after the 1970s to provide open cast, screened chalk for agricultural use.)
Process
There were three draw kilns each with a draw hole – these are the three kilns under three loading holes which can be seen at the top of the kilns. Between each kiln was a drying vessel with a draw hole, hence the five draw holes in total still to be seen, used for drying chalk for use as an additive for cattle feed when crushed. The three arched, but bricked-up ‘openings’ to the left of the five draw holes, i.e. beyond the buttress wall added at a later date, were not further draw holes as first thought and seemly had no particular purpose.
Chalk was loaded in alternating layers with coke, some of which was sourced from the gas works in Bishop’s Stortford. The kilns had a capacity of 30 tons, and were fired continuously when in use. The lime was drawn out of the kilns in barrows pushed into the draw holes. It was then tipped into a pan mill located between the kilns and the storage building, this area being covered over to protect the lime from rain. Two vertical edge grinding rollers crushed the lime which dropped into a pit.
From here a belt with scoops attached scooped the crushed lime from the pit up through the hopper housing on the roof of the storage building into a hopper from where it was bagged. The rollers and belt were electric and the switch gear for them was in the workshop, which was the ground floor of the office building. Initially the bags were of strong paper each carrying 1cwt of lime, latterly plastic bags were used. The bags of lime were stored in this building awaiting collection.
The opening which is now filled with a large window was originally a door for the loading bay. A corrugated iron door was swung open and lorries could back up the loading bay, planks put across the gap and bags of lime barrowed onto the lorry. The chalk was being calcined into quicklime for agricultural and building uses: the works are in an agricultural area, but also close to the town of Bishop’s Stortford and various villages. Customers for the lime included the Benskins’ maltings, Station Road in Bishop’s Stortford where it was used to white-wash the walls.
In the early days when the chalk face was close to the kilns there was a tramway incline to the left of the storage building. Wagons of chalk were rope hauled up the incline, by a petrol engine, to the kiln tops where there was a turntable for turning the wagons so they could be rolled along to the kiln loading holes for tipping the chalk into the kilns.
Also on the site was a building to the left of the kilns, with now just parts of the walls surviving, which was built with crushing machinery on the roof for crushing un-burnt chalk, but this was never used. A water tank and pump were situated at the left front of the storage building, the water being for general use, such as washing down vehicles etc. There was an earth toilet near the entrance on the bend of the road to the site, and along from that diesel and petrol tanks.
Buildings
The building mentioned in the HER entry is a two-storey building, very square in shape, originally flat-roofed, of grey brick, with metal framed windows. There was an office on the top (road) level and a workshop/store underneath at works level. However, next to this office/workshop was a more interesting building, not so obvious from the road which may explain its absence from the HER. This is a red-brick building with an iron-ribbed barrel roof of corrugated iron. On the south side of the roof is the hopper housing at the top of the scoop belt used to move the lime into the building for bagging. The large window in the north wall is where the original loading dock was situated, the bottom of the window being at the level of a formerly raised internal floor and compatible with the floor of a truck backed up to the building for loading.
Between the office and the storage building was a wall with a door which led to an open area with the office to the west, storage building to the north and on the south a bank of red-brick faced, lime draw kilns, five draw holes being visible. Climbing steps up to the top of the kilns initially just revealed a mass of overgrown brambles etc., but after these had been removed, the rims of the three loading holes were revealed. The kiln rims are lined with bricks with the maker’s name – ‘DOUGLAS X’ – indicating that the bricks were made by Douglas Firebrick Co. Limited of Dalry, Ayrshire, which operated during the late nineteenth and throughout much of the twentieth century.
Although the Douglas family were involved with the industry during the late nineteenth century it was not until 1914 that the Douglas Firebrick Co. Limited was incorporated and it continued until 1982. Scotland seems a long way away to source these bricks, but Morgan of Battersea was the sole selling agent of the Douglas Firebrick Company in the UK and elsewhere from 1918 to 1944. The need for firebricks is obvious considering the heat – 900 deg C or more – that the kilns were heated to. These are quarry-based, vertical commercial kilns, mixed-fed on a continuous basis. They are in good condition externally and provide support to the land into which they are built, so it is not likely that they will be easily removed, and the new owners would prefer to preserve them. National listing of them has not been explored as yet, but an inquiry about Local Heritage Listing was received with a statement that there was ‘no prospect of [the District Council] creating a Local List’!
The office building has been refurbished for use as the office and staff facilities for the ARC, now with a pitched roof, but otherwise maintaining its external industrial character. The storage building has also been refurbished as animal facilities, with new iron ribs supporting a modern corrugated barrel roof, and a new hopper housing providing natural light from above. The kiln draw holes have been bricked up and rendered for safety while decisions are made about the future presentation and interpretation of the kilns, including the loading holes above.
With thanks to John Curtis; Ronan Falsey and Jan Rose of the ARC; and Michael James of Bishop’s Stortford Museum.
