Swanscombe

Swanscombe, England is situated near Dartford, on the north Kent coast, east along the Thames at OS Map Reference: TQ5974. The town's name is said to be derived from 'the camp of Sweyne', a Viking warrior king who settled in the area. The population in 1841 was recorded on the Census as 1703.

Swanscombe man.

Swanscombe is reputed to be second only to Canterbury by way of its contribution to the history of Kent, if not of all England. For example, bone fragments and tools, representing the earliest humans known to have lived in England, have been found from 1935 onwards at the Barnfield Pit about 2km outside of the villge. Swanscombe Man (now thought to be female), was a late Homo erectus/early Archaic Homo-sapien. The 200,000 to 300,000 year old skull fragments are kept at the Natural History Museum, London with a replica on display at the Dartford Museum.

Lower levels of the Barnfield Pit, yielded evidence of an even earlier, more primitive human, dubbed Clactonian Man. Swanscombe archaeology

Swanscombe Invicta

In the year 1066 Swanscombe locals massed an army in defiance of William I, and so won the right to continue their ancient privileges, including the tradition of passing inheritance by 'gavelkind'. The men of Kent met William near Swanscombe, where the Saxons concealed their number with branches, thus intimidating the Norman army. They were offered a truce that left Kent as the only region in England which William did not conquer. Kent County Council have inherited the motto "Invicta", meaning unconquered.

Swanscombe Churches

Norman Shaw built a church at Swanscombe, for the workers of the cement industry, it survives as a rare example of his design.

St Peter & St Paul, the flint-built parish Church of England, partially Saxon, had a spire on its tower until in 1902, the church was struck by lightning causing extensive damage. The parish register dates from 1559.

Swanscombe at war

On November 10, 1940 the Star Inn at Swanscombe was destroyed by German bombing, with the loss of 27 lives during a crowded darts match. On the 30th of July 1940 the second most significant ammount of damage was caused in a devistating attack by the German airforce which led to the death of over a dozen civilians, with 22 further seriously injured. Under the flight path to london Swanscombe was to fall victim to this kind of damage several times during the conflict.

The first Kent miners

The south east of England has abundant resources of clay and chalk. The first mining activity known in the south east was to gather flint, a common substance found across the North and South Downs and in the Weald. Flint was used in the construction of the early tools of prehistoric man. Being easily chipped it can be shaped to provide items such as axes, knives, needles, arrows and spearheads.

Around 100,000 axes have been found in the river gravel at Swanscombe.

Palaeoloxodon Antiquus

The skeleton of an ancient species of elephant has been preserved in the sediment near what was once the edge of a small lake. The skeleton was surrounded by flint tools. Only a few elephant skeletons have been found in Britain. The Swanscombe example was discovered by geological specialist Dr. Peter Allen and has since been identified by the Natural History Museum as the straight-tusked 'Palaeoloxodon antiquus', which became extinct over 100,000 years ago.

Viking history

During archaeological work undertaken at Ebbsfleet, prior to the Channel Tunnel rail link construction, an Anglo-Saxon mill and a Roman villa were found near Swanscombe.

From Crayford east beyond Swanscombe to the Isle of Thanet, the Danes occupied the land and terrorized the Saxon inhabitants, giving rise to the appearance of Deneholes, of which many have survived to this day. These were wells, cut deep into the chalk landscape, thought to be for the purpose of concealing people and goods. They are a built with a simple vertical shaft with short tunnels bearing horizontally from the base.

Vikings would settle throughout the winter along the Thames estuary with their ships, and establish camps in Essex.

Archaeological digs and centuries of tilling have revealed a Danish castle and settlement, with pottery, anchors, weapons and some ships timbers. The settlement was later variously called Suinescamp in the Domesday Book, Sweinscamp and Swanscamp, deriving from a Viking leader named King Sweyn Forkbeard, who landed in East Anglia, and became a King of England in 1013. Father of Canute, Sweyn died at Gainsborough on the Trent in 1014.

In surveying the distribution of the many deneholes along the Thames corridor it would appear that Essex, on the northern shore of the Thames sustained a greater influx of these Vikings than did Kent, their being considerably more recorded deneholes in Essex, particularly around Orsett and Greys.

Other research suggests that deneholes may have been dug as a method of extracting chalk for use on the fields above. Or the mining may have been a byproduct of defense. In any case, the practice reached a peak around the 13th-14th centuries, long after the Viking raids had ceased.

The North Kent cement industry

The first Cement manufacturing works near Swanscombe were opened at Northfleet, around 1792. It was James Frost who first set up production of 'Cement' at Swanscombe, having patented a new cement mix called British Cement.

By 1882 several cement manufacturers were operating across the north Kent region, but the resulting dust pollution drove the townsfolk of Swanscombe to take proceedings against the local cement works. New innovations gradually developed, but the problem persisted into the 1950s, with telegraph lines over an inch thick in white dust. Modern cement kilns in Kent using chimneys 550 feet in height, are now said to be the cleanest in the world, with dust emissions down to 1%.

Nevertheless in places like Sweden there is good cause to worry about the final landing of these particles that are incorporated in 'acid-rain.' It is for similar reasons that the neighboring Medway towns are reported to be the most polluted inhabited area in the UK.

Blue Circle

The APCM, or Blue Circle came to the area in 1900 and by 1920 owned four factories respectively located at Swanscombe, Northfleet, Greenhythe and Stone. By 1970 the North Kent cement industry had evolved to become the largest center for the production of cement in Europe, supporting a long tradition of research and development to perfect the processes used in the manufacture of chalk-based products.

Blue-Circle Barge, Thames Barge Race at Gravesend.

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Other notable industries:

Empire Paper Mills.

F.T. Everard & Sons.

Bluewater shopping complex

Between the 'Watling Street' at the A296, and the village of Stone, in one of the large quarries created as a legacy of the cement industry, the Blue Water shopping complex has been built, one of the largest such projects in Europe.

Gads hill cement monument

See: Higham.