Conyer is a hamlet within

Teynham Teynham ( ) is a large village and civil parish in the borough of Swale in Kent, England. The parish lies between the towns of Sittingbourne and Faversham, immediately north of the A2 road, and includes the hamlet of Conyer on an inlet of the Sw ...

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 ...

in the borough of

Swale Swale or Swales may refer to: Topography * Swale (landform), a low tract of land ** Bioswale, landform designed to remove silt and pollution ** Swales, found in the formation of Hummocky cross-stratification Geography * River Swale, in North ...

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 ...

, England. It is located around one mile north of the village of Teynham, and at the head of Conyer Creek, which flows into the

to the north. The

Saxon Shore Way The Saxon Shore Way is a long-distance footpath in England. It starts at Gravesend, Kent, and traces the coast of South-East England as it was in Roman times as far as Hastings, East Sussex, in total. This means that around Romney Marsh the ...

and

National Cycle Route 1 The cycle-path is located in the United Kingdom. Route Dover to Canterbury Dover , Deal , Sandwich , Canterbury Links with National Cycle Route 2, Regional route 16, and Regional route 17 in Dover. Leaves Dover passing Dover Castle. S ...

pass through the hamlet. Amenities in Conyer include a pub and a

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships o ...

History

The hamlet was frequently mentioned in early records, being described as

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

in nature, and often mentioned in relation to

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

. It is said that a quarter of all the vessels engaged in smuggling nationwide were based in Kent and

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

, with Conyer playing its part as a smuggling community in the 18th and 19th century.

Brick making

During the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s were used to move many raw materials and finished goods, which were produced in Kent, into the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, se ...

and on to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and beyond.

Paper mills A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt ...

and

brickfield A brickfield is a field or other open site where bricks are made. Land may be leased by an owner to a brickmaster, by whom the manufacture of bricks may be conducted. Historically, the topsoil was typically removed and the clay beneath was str ...

in the local area, were fed by the barges that brought in sand, mud and household waste such as cinders for

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

making, and took away the newly constructed bricks. The yellow

stock brick London stock brick is the type of handmade brick which was used for the majority of building work in London and South East England until the growth in the use of Flettons and other machine-made bricks in the early 20th century. Its distinctive y ...

s from Conyer were used to create the giant railway

viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...

running from

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...

Greenwich Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...

. Conyer was ideally suited for this purpose (due its closeness to the Thames, via The Swale) and then a successful barge-building industry developed. Conyer also provided much of the employment in the area after the 1920s with its brick works and cement factory. See

Charles Richardson (cement merchant) Charles Richardson (16 February 1817 at Woodford, Essex, United Kingdom 30 January 1890 at Newton Abbot, Devon) was the founder of the family Brick and Cement Firm A & WT Richardson Ltd, which lasted over 100 years. On 18 October 1840 he married ...

. In the mid-19th Century, Conyer had seven large-scale brickfields. This employed many hundreds of workers, who also then frequented the many new pubs in the area. Most of these have, since been closed and converted. Including the Brunswicks Arms in Conyer. A small railway was built from the main London - Sittingbourne line to Conyer, to transfer materials to the brickfields. All traces of this line have been removed, after its use during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Some of the line is now a footpath from Barrow Green, Teynham to Conyer. The brickworks closed in the 1980s, the site since, has been cleared. Part of the site has a planning application for development (for 24 dwellings) after a lengthy planning application process. The rest of the site will be left as a

Nature Reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

Barge building

In 1803, John Huggens built the earliest known barge was built in the area. John Bird (who was born 1832) is reputed to be the first of the barge builders to settle in Conyer. Records exist for a sailing barge built there in 1866, the year he began his work at the yard. The last of the many sailing barges was built at the Conyer yard in 1914, but repair works continued well into the 1930s, with several barge yachts built in the 1920s. Alfred Marconi (who took over John Bird's yard) built many different types of barge. Some continued to exist as house barges, well into the 1960s. The marina near the local pub/restaurant is still popular.

Other notes

Conyer and the surrounding area (mostly farms) is popular with walkers, either following the

along the Swale, or with various footpath links to

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separa ...

and

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 t ...

References

External links

Bored In Swale - an information site listing activities for the youth in Swale.Teynham Parish Council website - of which Conyer is a hamletConyer Cruising Club
{{authority control Villages in Kent Hamlets in Kent