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==Industry==
For a hundred years, Wouldham was synonymous with [[cement kiln|cement]]. The Wouldham
n 1856, to the Wouldham Patent Portland Cement Co . They built a tramway to connect the works with the quarry, which was 1,380ft away. <ref>{{cite web|title=Wouldham - Wouldham Court Cement Works|url=http://www.wouldhamvillage.com/wouldhamcourt.html|website=www.wouldhamvillage.com|accessdate=3 April 2018}}</ref> The tramline had six engines on it. The Wouldham Hall Cement Works also fronted the river, and took in some land in Burham. It was owned by the Peters Brothers. and before the first west process bottle kilns were installed in the 1870s they had been making [[hydraulic lime]]. They had 18 lime kilns.<ref name="Moore">{{cite web|last1=Moore|first1=Dylan|title=Cement Kilns: Peters|url=http://www.cementkilns.co.uk/cement_kiln_peters.html|website=www.cementkilns.co.uk|accessdate=3 April 2018}}</ref>
The cement started with [[bottle kiln]]s, there were 24 in 1879, making 720 tons a week. The raw materials, were obtained on site and the finished product was taken to London in capacious [[Thames sailing barges]], that would be about 5 barge loads. A photograph, in the care of [[Maidstone Museum & Art Gallery|Maidstone museum]] shows the waterfront with 11 moored barges. The Peters operation owned 80 barges, and employed 1000 men. In the 1880s these were replaced by [[Batchelor chamber kiln]]s (each with a capacity of 30 tons per week)- and further were added to bring up the production to 990 tons per week. In 1898 seventeen more were added, and in 1903 thee [[Schneider kiln]]s (at 330 tons) giving a total capacity of 1850.<ref name="Moore"/> The London demand for cement was voracious. Two [[Hoffmann kiln]]s were installed, and then two [[rotary kiln]]s. The first chamber kiln block was demolished, and the remaining chamber kilns were only used up to 1915, though six memained in commission until the sites closure.
The site was obtained by [[Blue Circle Industries|BPCM]](Blue Circle) in 1911, who combined operations with the nearby West Kent works further along Hall Road. The works closed in 1925/26 for good. There was no railway on this side of the river, so getting to the railway at Snodland involved taking the cement by barge across the river and then hauling it by horse and cart. This was far uneconomical compared to the works across the river at [[Snodland]], and [[Halling|Cuxton and Halling]], with its rail connection to the [[Medway Valley line]]<ref name="WVpeters">{{cite web|last1=Wouldham|title=Wouldham - Peters/Wouldham Hall Cement Works|url=http://www.wouldhamvillage.com/peterswouldhamhall.html|website=www.wouldhamvillage.com|accessdate=3 April 2018}}</ref>
The Wouldham Court Cement Works was the earliest cement works in the area, opening in 1847, and was based on the riverside in the centre of the village, now replaced by Trafalgar Close, where relatively modern housing (1970s) now stands.
In 1855, the first owners of the cement works, Thomas Freen and Co, became bankrupt.
In 1856, the Wouldham Patent Portland Cement Co (who had taken over the works) leased the land necessary to build a tramway to connect the works with the quarry, which was 1,380ft away. Today, over one hundred years later, the path connecting the cement works and the quarry is still referred to locally as the tramway. The tramline had six engines on it.
==Peters Village==
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