Dartford Creek in Old Pictures

This post follows on from my last which covered the final leg of my Darent Valley Walk from Dartford town centre through to the mouth of Dartford Creek.

I came across these old photographs of Dartford Creek which I guess were probably taken in the early 1950's or possibly a bit earlier.

Above is an aerial shot of the Burroughs Wellcome & Co pharmaceutical factory in the foreground and London Paper Mills in the background.

Burroughs Wellcome & Co through various mergers and acquisitions finally evolved into Glaxo Smith Kline and was once one of the biggest (if not the biggest) employers in Dartford.

Burroughs Wellcome & Co was founded in 1880 by two London based American pharmacists, Silas Burroughs and Henry Wellcome. In 1889 they purchased the site of the Phoenix paper mill in Dartford and set up their own factory which went from strength to strength with up to 1300 employed at it's peak.

Raw materials for the factory were transported up the Creek by barge and the company had it's own wharf.

Over the years many important drugs including insulin for the treatment of diabetes, Zovirax for the treatment of herpes and Retrovir used by HIV/AIDS sufferers around the world were developed.

Unfortunately pharmaceutical manufacturing in Dartford ceased a few years ago and the factory site has now been demolished and is awaiting redevelopment.

London Paper Mills operated from Riverside Mill. The company was formed in 1889 and initially produced 250 tons of paper per week. In 1909 the company was taken over by Albert Reed and production increased to 400 tons per week. The company mainly specialised in the manufacture of printing paper. The mill remained open until 1968.

In the picture above barges are seen on the Creek loaded with wood pulp and esparto grass. The esparto grass came from the Mediterranean by ship to the London Docks and was then put into barges and towed up to Dartford Creek.

The esparto grass was then transported by lorry to the Horton Kirby Paper Mills (mentioned in My Darent Valley Walk Part 4). It was used to manufacture fine quality writing paper.

Further down the Creek, the Ettrick Forest Mill was established in 1862. In 1868 this was taken over by the Daily Telegraph and known as Dartford Paper Mills. Newsprint was produced for the Fleet Street presses and in it's heyday 700 staff were employed.

The mill later passed into the ownership of Wiggins Teape and paper production continued on the site until 2009 when it was closed and demolished. The site is currently waiting redevelopment (a familiar theme).

The Greaseproof Paper Mill seen above was established in 1933. At this time greaseproof paper was used extensively to wrap foodstuffs such as cheese or meat which were weighed and sold loose in small local shops.

The mill only had a short life operating until 1957. Demand for greaseproof paper presumably plummeted with the establishment of supermarkets in the 50's and the introduction of packaged foods.

J & E Hall Ltd was another major employer in Dartford. They were involved in engineering but I will write more about them in another future post when time permits.

In the late 1970's ships were broken up in Dartford Creek below the lock. One of these ships was the Royal Navy Type 41 frigate HMS Leopard. She was built in Portsmouth in 1955.

In October 1977 she was sold for scrap. At 100 metres in length she was too long to navigate Dartford Creek. To get around the problem the breakers towed the Leopard from the Naval Dockyard at Chatham to Beckton on the Thames were the stern section was removed.

The remaining forward three quarters of the ship could then be towed down to Dartford Creek for demolition.

The Leopard was the largest ship to be scrapped at Dartford. The breakers mainly disposed of trawlers and Thames barges. The business later transferred from Dartford Creek to Gravesend - probably a good thing for the water in the Creek.

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My Darent Valley Walk Part 6 - The Final Leg

Readers of this blog will know that I have been walking the long distance Darent Valley Park in handy bite sized chunks as and when time permits.

I am pleased to report that I have finally completed the last section from Dartford Central Park where my last blog post finished off through to the River Thames at the mouth of Dartford Creek.

After passing by the Dartford War Memorial I walked through the centre of Dartford to the church and then along the River Darent once more.

At this point I should warn you that this is definitely not the most scenic part of the Darent Valley.

The path passes by the delightful Wickes D.I.Y superstore and emerges at the demolition site of the former Glaxo Wellcome pharmaceutical factory.

From here I walked along to Lower Hythe Street. This dead end road once contained two pubs - the unusually named Huffler's Arms (more about that later) and the Phoenix.

Now only the Huffler's Arms remains open. The area is currently earmarked for regeneration...

The Phoenix pub was named after the Phoenix Mills which manufactured paper until 1889 on the site later occupied by Glaxo Wellcome.

The pub now appears to be used as a private residence. I took the adjacent path which leads to a footbridge across the Darent. From this point on the Darent is known as Dartford Creek.

The view looking back towards Dartford town centre and the footbridge.

In the 18th century the Creek could be navigated for 3.5 miles by barges of up to 50 tons on Spring tides. At other times cargo had to be transferred to smaller craft of only 10 to 12 tons capacity.

Where there were no tow paths suitable for horses, men known as hufflers were employed to pull the barges along the Creek up to their respective unloading wharves. Very laborious and thirsty work - hence the need for the two pubs!

Due to the increase in river traffic in the 1840's it was decided to canalise the Creek. This enabled navigation for barges of up to 150 tonnes. In 1895 a lock was built to maintain a constant water level at the top end of the Creek making it easier to unload cargo.

Barge traffic peaked in the mid 1930's but the lock is now disused and the Creek is once more tidal. The whole area has an air of dereliction and abandonment. All the riverside industry has disappeared no doubt soon to be replaced by yet more housing.

Cargoes handled on the Creek included esparto grass and wood pulp for the paper mills.

I have some old pictures of the Creek in it's heyday which I will put in a future post.

A little further along the Creek is crossed by a modern road bridge (Bob Dunn Way). Nearby I saw two bright green ring necked parakeets sitting in a tree - not really what I was expecting but they are apparently quite common in Kent nowadays.

Beyond the bridge the Creek meanders it's way slowly through the Dartford Marshes, a desolate flat landscape. Due to it's remote location the Marshes were used for the storage of ammunition during World War II.

A number of the concrete bunkers are still standing. Interestingly they have no roofs presumably to ensure that blast would be directed upwards in the event of an explosion.

A fireworks factory also operated on the Marshes for many years but has now closed.

The River Cray joins the Creek at this point. It was also navigable and barges would transport wheat transshipped from vessels in the London Docks up to the flour mill at Crayford.

Here I saw a heron doing a spot of fishing. An indication that the water must be getting less polluted.

The Marshes (and indeed Dartford itself) are dominated by the 705' chimney of Littlebrook Power Station.

It seems hard to believe now but the damp fields in the foreground were used as an airfield in the early days of aviation and during World War I. The airfield has an interesting history and I will write a separate post about that another day.

The Dartford Creek Barrier was built in 1981 and is a defence against flooding. Two steel gates each weighing over 160 tonnes can be positioned to withstand flood waters up to 6 metres above local ground level.

In 1953 there was terrible flooding along the Thames Estuary including the Dartford Marshes and many people lost their lives. The Barrier marks the official end of the Darent Valley Path.

The Thames looking downriver. Littlebrook Power Station to the right, the QEII bridge in the background and ships at Purfleet (Essex) to the left.

A bit superfluous.... since construction of the barrier effectively put paid to navigation on the Creek!

The Thames looking upriver towards London.

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My Darent Valley Walk Part 5 - Darenth to Dartford Central Park

Regular readers of this blog will know that over the last year or so I have been walking the Darent Valley Path in bite sized chunks.

This post follows on from my last walk which ended near the village church in Darenth. The path passes through meadows closely following the bank of the river itself. The area is dotted with worked out gravel pits which are now used as private fishing lakes.

The path passes under the M25 motorway in the village of Hawley and eventually emerges onto the busy A225 (Dartford to Sevenoaks road).

Thankfully the path only follows the A225 for a short distance before returning to the river bank.

The river at this point flows quite rapidly despite being shallow and weed filled.

The Darent was once renowned for an abundance of trout but years of pollution by the riverside industries and over-extraction by water companies put paid to that. Efforts are now being made to rehabilitate the river but it will take many more years to reverse.

I came across this impromptu rope swing hanging from a tree over the river. It brought back memories of the sort of mischief I used to get up to when I was a kid! I used to spend much of my school Summer holidays mucking about in the river at Horton Kirby, catching tadpoles and getting wet and muddy.

One of the industries that used to operate on this stretch of the Darent was the manufacture of gunpowder. The water from the river was channelled through sluices to provide power for the powder mill machinery.

The first powder mill was established in 1732 and by 1810 Dartford had become the largest centre of production in the UK. Dartford powder was known for it's high quality. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the safety standards at the mill. There were frequent explosions and many fatalities.

A news report from November 1790....

" The 12th, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the inhabitants of Dartford and of the country for several miles around were alarmed by a dreadful concussion occasioned by the explosion of seventy barrels of gunpowder at the works of Messrs. Pigou and Andrews. Six men were destroyed in the dreadful havoc, most of whom have left wives and families behind them. The foreman of the works has left a wife and seven children."

The path continues on passing through Brooklands Lakes, another former gravel pit, used as a fishing lake since the 1930's. It was originally known as Ellingham's Ponds. During the Second World War it was camouflaged to prevent German bombers from locating a nearby Vickers armaments factory.

The path and river pass through the Princes Tunnel into Dartford Central Park. The tunnel was built in 1923 and passes under the Dartford by-pass. The road was officially opened on 19th November 1924 by the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII).

Dartford Central Park which dates back to 1905 is well worth a visit. The ornamental flower beds are maintained to a very high standard and provide a sea of colour during the Summer months.

A replica Edwardian bandstand and cafe have recently been opened and there is an excellent children's play area.

At the other end of the park (and the end of this particular walk) are Dartford Central Library and the war memorial.

My fellow blogger Emm (a South African ex pat living in the UK for the last few years) wrote a post on her blog about the park and library.

The war memorial designed by Arthur Walker was unveiled on 7th May 1922 and originally contained the names of 345 local men who perished in the Great War. Additional names were added after World War II and subsequent conflicts.

Strangely one of the men listed on the memorial has exactly the same initial and surname as me but is not a relation....

On a lighter note, when I was very young I used to think the statue was a postman carrying a bag of letters on his back. The innocence of youth.

I will shortly be writing up the last leg of my Darent Valley Walk which covers the section from Dartford Central park to the Thames.

UPDATE - for the final leg of My Darent Valley Walk please see here

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