Site Records

SiteName: Beddingham Experimental Shaft Kiln

Beddingham
East Sussex
TQ441064

Sub Brit site visit Autumn 1991

For the next 15.7 m below level 3 the kiln lengthens from 3.9 m to 5.1 m with oversailing courses. The kiln walls are lined with firebricks, laid on end, with special culvert bricks to the curved ends. Below this both long sides are shouldered to reduce the width of the kiln to 1.1 m and the inside of the kiln is lined with brick.

This shouldered portion shows considerable signs of striation and erosion. There is no access to the interior of the kiln below level 1 as the bottom is filled with rubble. At the south end of the kiln, immediately below level 5, there are three chambers with concrete walls, floors and tops and with access to the centre one from the side of the kiln. There appears to be no purpose for these chambers and they may relate to the original construction

At level 1 there are fire boxes and both ends of the kiln with 'stoking holes' in two parts and a cast iron z-section beam across the centre of the openings, below which was probably some form of mechanical stoker, as the brickwork was neatly cut around some item of machinery, now missing. There are horizontal ducts in the thickness of the walls running along both sides of the kiln and fire boxes, with vaults over and access holes into the kiln (six each side) and into both fire boxes (two each side). There are also openings cut from the horizontal ducts into the service passages and at both ends.

Outside the kiln there are service tunnels on levels 1 and 2. These areas are lined with brick and the chalk soffit is supported by steel joists with brick pinning walls over. The floor of level 2 consists of sheet steel supported by steel joists and covered by softwood flooring on bearers. From level 2 an unlined tunnel cut in the solid chalk runs westwards along which is laid a 2 foot gauge railway line on steel sleepers. There is an aperture in the floor beside the railway track connected to a timber chute discharging into a steel hopper with two outlets. A ramp leads down from level 2 to 1.2 m above level 1 with a ladder below this and there are also two vertical shafts with ladders between the two levels; a heap of coke lies in the southwest corner of level 2.

At level 1 there are various machine bases with holding down bolts. Located adjacent to the fuel hopper but unfixed is a steel cylinder with a conical top. There is a rectangular outlet at the base presumably previously connected to an air duct.

Level 0 is accessed by a part-vertical part-sloping shaft and ladder. This comprises an area that tapers at one end with brick walls and a brick dividing wall. The support to the soffit is as the upper levels. At one side of the dividing wall there is a discharging machine that is situated immediately under the centre of the kiln. The lower part of the kiln is blocked with rubble but it is presumed that there is an even taper from level 1 down to 2.0 m above level 0.

The machine under the kiln consists of a shaft with a series of cast iron hook-shaped claws at the end, operated via a system of gears by a hand-operated crank. Burnt clinker would be discharged through the bottom of this machine into railway trucks which ran on another 2 foot gauge railway.

One railway line ran straight from the bottom of the kiln down an unlined tunnel of which there is still about 100 m extant. The line stops at 40 m from the far end at a timber sleeper that has apparently been used as a buffer stop. At the end one of the tipper trucks was buried beneath the end of the blocked tunnel that has now been cleared and the truck removed. There was a branch line that ran down the north side of the dividing wall and a length of curved track is extant but not in position. There is a gate located close to the discharge machine but not in its original position. This was top hung from a steel joist and operated by a rope and tackle. There are two cut outs where the gate is closed over the railway tracks.

The upper 7.2 m of the kiln is divided laterally by a brick wall supported on two steel joists with a concrete hopper on one side, from the bottom of which there is a steel tube that extends downwards for at least 14.5 m. The top is bell mouthed and closed with a conical damper connected to a wire rope. Beneath the damper there appears to be another shutter as there is evidence of water being trapped about 2 m below hopper level. It would appear that this wall and hopper was installed after the kiln was constructed.

At upper ground level around the kiln there are various structures and machinery bases. The fuel was conveyed into the kiln by means of the tunnel at level 2. The raw materials would have had to be conveyed to the top of the kiln probably using a steam winch that hauled narrow gauge wagons up from the quarry to the top of the lime kiln. There are remains of wire ropes and bases which could be supports for the winch or similar. Due to the topography of the site it would not have been practicable for materials to be transported to the top of the kiln by any other means. The slopes would have been too steep for any vehicles available at the time and furthermore there are no signs of any roadways or tracks at the top.

For the kiln to operate in the way envisaged by Dr. Martin, the fuel would probably have been injected into the fire boxes by means of some mechanical device. This probably accounts for the shape of the lower part of the holes from the service areas to the fire boxes which are identical at both north and south ends. The interior of the fire boxes and the air passages along the side of the kiln are all affected by heat. The apertures directly from the fire boxes to the kiln are not fire-affected and it is possible the fuel feeding mechanism extended into the kiln. The openings apparently cut from the access areas into the air passages might possibly have been the means of getting the forced draught into the kiln or were cut in order to clear clinker blocking the air passages.

All the access areas are wired for electricity so this would have been available to power the fuel feed and forced draught apparatus.

After the clinker had descended to the base of the cooling zone would be removed through the discharging machine on level 0.

It is considered possible that there would have been some means of providing a hot bed to commence the process of firing. Although the shape of the cooling zone has not been determined there is a blocked arched aperture visible in the side below level 1 and some evidence of a level floor.

The hot gases being drawn from the top of the kiln, according to Dr. Martin 8 would pass through a waste heat boiler, controlled by a damper, then through a fan and on to an exhaust chimney.

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