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Uplees
Uplees is a remote hamlet north of Faversham, Kent in southeast England. It was a key part of the Faversham explosives industry during World War I, with the Cotton Powder Company importing raw materials via the deepwater channel of the Swale, and the associated Explosives Loading Company exporting completed bombs and shells. Employees came to work from Faversham on the Davington Light Railway of which Uplees was the northern terminus. It is in the civil parish of Oare. At 2.20pm on Sunday 2 April 1916, a huge explosion ripped through the gunpowder mill at Uplees, when 200 tons of TNT ignited. The blast killed 105 people and many were buried in a mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ... at Faversham Cemetery. References External links Villages in Ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Davington Light Railway
The Davington Light Railway was a narrow gauge railway built to serve the armaments factories near Davington, in Kent, England. It ran between Davington and Uplees. History Munitions have been produced at Faversham since 1561. Three gunpowder factories had been established by 1786, though a serious explosion in 1847 put a temporary end to production. In 1873, the Cotton Powder Company built a factory to produce gun cotton on Uplees Marsh. In 1912, a second factory was built by the Explosives Loading Company, with a third by Eley Brothers Ltd. established nearby at Harty Ferry. The outbreak of the First World War saw a massive increase in the need for munitions. The mills in the marshes near Faversham were a major production centre, sending their output by river barges to the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Hundreds of workers were travelling daily across the marshland from nearby villages and towns to work in the mills. 1916 was a particularly wet year, and these journeys became in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faversham Explosives Industry
Faversham, in Kent, England, has claims to be the cradle of the UK's explosives industry: it was also to become one of its main centres. The first gunpowder plant in the UK was established in the 16th century, possibly at the instigation of the abbey at Faversham. With their estates and endowments, monasteries were keen to invest in promising technology. Faversham was well placed. It had a stream which could be dammed at intervals to provide power for watermills. On its outskirts were low-lying areas ideal for the culture of alder and willow to provide charcoal, one of the three key gunpowder ingredients. The stream fed into a tidal creek where sulphur, another key ingredient, could be imported, and the finished product loaded for dispatch to Thames-side magazines. The port was also near the Continent where, in time of war, demand for gunpowder was brisk. Gunpowder The first factories The first factories were small, near the town, and alongside the stream, between the Lond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oare, Kent
Oare is a village and civil parish north of Davington, Faversham in southeast England. It is separated from Faversham by the Oare Creek. To the north of the village are the Oare Marshes, and the Harty Ferry which once linked to Harty on the Isle of Sheppey. Kent Wildlife Trust manages a nature reserve that is an important stopping place for migratory birds. According to Edward Hasted, in 1798, it was part of the hundred of Faversham. It was once anciently recorded as 'Ore'. Meaning fenny or marshy place in the Saxon language. The manor of Oare belonged to Odo, Earl of Kent (as the Bishop of Bayeux) and was noted so in the Domesday book. After Odo's trial for fraud, the manor passed to the Arnulf Kade who gave it to the Knights Hospitallers. During Edward VI's reign, it passed to Lord Clinton (a relative of Edward Clinton, Lord Clinton). Historically, Oare was the southern terminus of the Harty Ferry, which ran across the Swale channel between the then Isle of Harty and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faversham
Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British trackway which was used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and known as Watling Street. The name is of Old English origin, meaning "the metal-worker's village". There has been a settlement at Faversham since pre-Roman times, next to the ancient sea port on Faversham Creek. It was inhabited by the Saxons and mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ''Favreshant''. The town was favoured by King Stephen who established Faversham Abbey, which survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Subsequently, the town became an important seaport and established itself as a centre for brewing, and the Shepherd Neame Brewery, founded in 1698, remains a significant major employer. The town was also the centre of the explosives industry ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borough Of Swale
Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England and is bounded by Medway to the west, Canterbury to the east, Ashford to the south and Maidstone to the south west. Its council is based in Sittingbourne. The district is named after the narrow channel called The Swale, that separates the mainland of Kent from the Isle of Sheppey, and which occupies the central part of the district. The district was formed in 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, from the Borough of Faversham; the Borough of Queenborough-in-Sheppey, which covered the whole of Sheppey; the Sittingbourne and Milton Urban District; and Swale Rural District. Most of the southern half of the Borough lies within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, whilst Sittingbourne and the Isle of Sheppey forms the concluding part of the Thames Gateway growth area. There are four towns in the borough: Sittingbourne and Faversham on the mainland, and Sheerness and Queenborough on S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces the French department of Pas-de-Calais across the Strait of Dover. The county town is Maidstone. It is the fifth most populous county in England, the most populous non-Metropolitan county and the most populous of the home counties. Kent was one of the first British territories to be settled by Germanic tribes, most notably the Jutes, following the withdrawal of the Romans. Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, the oldest cathedral in England, has been the seat of the Archbishops of Canterbury since the conversion of England to Christianity that began in the 6th century with Saint Augustine. Rochester Cathedral in Medway is England's second-oldest cathedral. Located between London and the Strait of Dover, which separates England from mainla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight. The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Paleolithic period, but takes its name from the Angles, a Germanic tribe deriving its name from the Anglia peninsula, who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in the 10th century and has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century. The English language, the Anglican Church, and Engli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of ecclesiastical parishes, which historically played a role in both secular and religious administration. Civil and religious parishes were formally differentiated in the 19th century and are now entirely separate. Civil parishes in their modern form came into being through the Local Government Act 1894, which established elected parish councils to take on the secular functions of the parish vestry. A civil parish can range in size from a sparsely populated rural area with fewer than a hundred inhabitants, to a large town with a population in the tens of thousands. This scope is similar to that of municipalities in Continental Europe, such as the communes of France. However, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact definition is not unanimously agreed upon. Mass graves are usually created after many people die or are killed, and there is a desire to bury the corpses quickly for sanitation concerns. Although mass graves can be used during major conflicts such as war and crime, in modern times they may be used after a famine, epidemic, or natural disaster. In disasters, mass graves are used for infection and disease control. In such cases, there is often a breakdown of the social infrastructure that would enable proper identification and disposal of individual bodies. History Mass or communal burial was a common practice before the development of a dependable crematory chamber by Ludovico Brunetti in 1873. In ancient Rome waste and dead bodies of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
