EAW001394 ENGLAND (1946). Burroughs, Wellcome and Co Chemical Works and environs, Dartford, from the south, 1946

WW2 Camouflage Scheme Factory Roof

WW2 Camouflage Scheme

Camouflage Scheme painted over TBC

WW2 Static Water Supply SWS TBC

WW2 Camouflage Scheme

WW2 Camouflage Scheme

Route of horse-drawn tramway from pier adjacent to Long Reach Hospital to Joyce Green Hospital.

Long Reach Tavern with, to its left and inland, apparent remains of RFC / RAF Joyce Green dating from the First World War. See image EPW001410

Purfleet Barracks and the Royal Gunpowder Magazine. There were five storage buildings in which gunpowder produced at Waltham Abbey was kept pending further distribution. Each store could hold over 10,000 barrels of gunpowder. The magazines were designed to minimise the risk of explosion or to minimise damage in the event of an explosion, e.g. they were windowless and the roof voids were filled with sand. In 1962 the Ministry of Defence sold the site, now only magazine number 5 remains as a museum, the others were demolished to make way for a housing estate. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purfleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_magazine#Purfleet.2C_Essex

Purfleet rifle range

National Trench Warfare Filling Factory Erith. Opened in 1915 and managed by the Thames Ammunition Company, the factory was used for filling 2 inch and 6 inch mortar bombs during the First World War

Joseph Wells & Sons Ltd, fireworks manufacturers. The site was flooded on the 1st February 1953 during the storm and tidal surge. This triggered an explosion that damaged 500 windows at Joyce Green Hospital per the Dartford Hospital Histories site.

West Kent Outfall Sewage Works

Camouflaged factory buildings

Thames Ammunition Works

Long Reach Hospital, built in 1901 by the Metropolitan Asylum Board as a temporary, 300 bed, smallpox hospital; first patients 1902, repaired and made permanent in 1910. It was initially intended to last for two years, supplementing the smallpox hospital ships Atlas, Endymion and Castalia moored at Long Reach during an outbreak at the start of the Twentieth Century. The hospital was rebuilt again in 1928, during an outbreak of variola minor, the milder version of smallpox. Last patient admitted in 1973, hospital demolished in 1974. Initially patients were brought to the adjacent landing stage by Ambulance Ships ('Red Cross', 'White Cross', 'Geneva Cross', 'Albert Victor' and 'Maltese Cross') from London, these being phased out in favour of road transport during the early 1930s. See http://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/long-reach/long-reach-introduction/

Joyce Green Hospital: an isolation hospital, it opened in 1902 with 986 beds for the treatment of smallpox victims. From 1907, smallpox cases were dealt with at adjacent Long Reach and the Orchard hospitals while Joyce Green became a fever hospital for the treatment, mainly, of scarlet fever and diphtheria. From 1928 to 1931, the hospital was again used during a smallpox outbreak, about 13,500 patients being treated. This was a less virulent form of the disease, variola minor. The hospital was empty until in 1939 it became an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) general hospital. See http://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/joyce-green/joyce-green-introduction/

Orchard Hospital. Built 1901/02 as a temporary 800 bed smallpox hospital to help cope with the outbreak then taking place. After 1910, the hospital was kept in readiness for major epidemics as a fever hospital and was used for scarlet fever. During the First World War it was turned over for the treatment of Australian casualties. During the 1920s and 1930s it was used for the occasional treatment of scarlet fever and diphtheria. In WW2, the hospital was used for military training rather than medical treatment. The destruction and damage to wards visible was possibly caused by a V1 flying bomb in 1944. Fortunately the hospital was unoccupied at the time. See http://dartfordhospitalhistories.org.uk/orchard/orchard-introduction-2/

Dartford Cement Works chalk quarry

Remains of Dartford Cement Works