Building record TQ 77 SW 1070 - British Uralite Factory, Higham

The British Uralite Factory opened in c. 1900 making pipes. Uralite (now called Actinolite) is a mineral related to asbestos that was used for products such as pipes and fittings, window boxes and chimney pots. The factory had its own railway siding and its own station that opened in 1906. The works are now closed but many of the buildings remain in poor condition.(1)

2025 update: the source web page on Subterranea Britannica has been deleted or moved.

Numerous buildings dating to the early 20th century which formed part of the British Uralite asbestos works survive as part of the Canal Road Industrial Estate in Shorne and Higham parishes centred on TQ 70283 73840. The works were established in 1900 to produce asbestos-based products such as pipes and building materials. (2) (3)

In November 1900 the South Eastern and Chatham Railway decided to spend £160 erecting a wooden platform for the works, prior to the opening of the public halt in 1906. (4)

The Ordnance Survey 3rd Edition 1:2500 map published 1908 shows a series of buildings of various sizes connected to themselves and the railway line by a network of tramways and turntables. (5)

The Ordnance Survey 4th Edition 1:2500 map published in 1939 shows that the site had expanded by that date and some of the original buildings had been replaced. (6)

Numerous factory buildings survive ranging in date across the first half of the 20th century. These include a number of large sheds dating to 1900, some with attractive yellow brick shaped gables which suggest lost roof lights and therefore have probably been re-roofed. One of these has a later extension with stepped red-brick gables whilst another has a mansard roof with flat-topped dormers. An elaborate domestic building close to the site entrance, with swept mansard-style tiled roof and dormers, may have been the factory manager's house. Another early building has concrete render and a mansard-style roof with dormers and asbestos tiles whilst a later, possibly mid-20th century, building has corrugated asbestos sheet walls and a flat-topped roof with a very steep pitch and dormers. (2) (7)

<1> Subterranea Britannica, 1998, Subterranea Britannica (Website). SKE31425.

<2> 2014, Untitled Source (Website). SKE59097.

<3> 2014, Untitled Source (Website). SKE59098.

<4> Gray A, 1998, South Eastern and Chatham Railways: A marriage of convenience (Bibliographic reference). SKE59099.

<5> Ordinance Survey, 1908, Ordnance Survey: Kent Epoch 3, 1:2500 1908 (Map). SKE55863.

<6> Landmark, Ordnance Survey 1:2,500 map (OS 4th Edition, 1929-1952): Landmark Epoch 4 (Map). SKE30967.

<7> S Newsome, 2014, Observations from outside industrial estate boundary (Verbal communication). SKE59100.