Warwickshire's Industrial Railways

Southam Cement Works (Long Itchington Works or Kaye's Works)

Richard Greaves as born in 1801, a son of John Greaves, a merchant of Stratford-on-Avon and a director of the horse-drawn tramway which ran between Stratford on Avon and Moreton in Marsh He inherited part of his fathers property and business empire, which included land at Wilmcote , Southam and Stockton, which was suitable for quarrying blue lias limestone. Canals formed an important adjunct to Greaves business and the canal which passed through Wilmcote is said to have been diverted through that village to serve his lime kilns. His lime was on the market in London in the 1830's and he started to make artificial cement at his Stockton quarry. At Stockton, one of the earliest lime works and later only a small cement works, was William Griffin’s, but by World War I it had been quarried out and the land sold. ‘Charles Nelson & Co Ltd’ was also operating at Stockton by 1844, first as lime burners, but from about 1860 was manufacturing cement, until near bankruptcy in 1937 when ‘Rugby Portland Cement Co Ltd’ took a share with a full takeover in 1945, after which it was completely closed down in 1949¹.

Sometimes called Long Itchington Works or Kaye's Works the site was for a long time used for Blue Lias lime manufacture and had its own dock on the Grand Union Canal for shipment as far as London. 'Cement' was claimed as a product as early as 1854. However, as with nearby Rugby, it was some time before a true Portland cement was produced, beginning around 1875. Dry process bottle kilns were used. Of the six in use in 1875, probably three were making cement, at 90 tons per week. Kilns were added piecemeal: by 1887 there were twelve kilns. Four more were added in 1892-4 and another four in 1902-4, giving in 1907 a capacity of 600 tons per week, although the kilns had not all been used for Portland cement, capacity for that being only 240 tons per week in 1901. The bottle kilns were decommissioned when the rotary kilns were installed in 1908, except for a few kept for lime production.

The initial use of dry process seems not to have lasted long, and kilns A1 and A2 were probably converted to wet process not long after the installation of the wet process kiln A3. In any case, they were shut down from 1915 to 1927 and were only used intermittently thereafter. The plant was on its knees by the depression of 1932, with only one kiln operational and went into receivership in 1934, at which point Rugby Cement bought it and commenced a major re-build. Kilns A4 and A5 essentially re-sited the plant, and A3 was used only intermittently from then on. The conversions of kilns A6 and A7 to semi-wet process were 'energy reduction demonstration projects'. The use of a Lepol grate on A6 provided a pilot for the much larger Rochester A6. The two-stage pre-heater and crusher/drier on A7 was a development of the method used on Pitstone A5, and prefigured subsequent semi-wet developments, including that of Rugby A7. Both kilns were dogged by alkali build-up problems, and neither gave particularly good energy performance. In the end, they were too small to be viable. In addition to the canal, the plant also had a railway connection through the L&NWR Weedon to Leamington branch from 1895. This branch closed in 1963, but the plant still connected with Rugby through the Rugby to Leamington branch until the latter closed in 1985. The plant was demolished in 2011-2012. The quarry is still active, supplying Lias to Rugby Cement's plant in Rugby.

Dylan Moore

¹ Southam Heritage

Ref: misc_scw159 C Capewell View of Southam Cement Works' loading dock on the Grand Union Canal for shipping cement to London

Ref: misc_scw160 C Capewell View of one of the sidings used to transport equipment into Southam Cement Works seen in October 1967

Ref: misc_indust036 RS Carpenter Peckett 0-6-0ST 'Liassic' is seen posed for the camera in between moving hoppers at Southan Cement Works

Ref: misc_indust092 B Mettam Peckett 0-6-0ST 'Liassic' is seen standing outside Southam Cement Works on 27th October 1956

Ref: misc_indust093 KJ Cooper Peckett 0-6-0ST 'Triassic' is seen standing alongside the coal point at Southam Cement Works

Ref: misc_scw158 C Capewell First of three views of Hudswell & Clarke diesel D 625 which was built in their Leeds factory in 1942

Ref: misc_scw162 C Capewell Second of three views of Hudswell & Clarke diesel D 625 which was built in their Leeds factory in 1942

Ref: misc_scw161 C Capewell Third of three views of Hudswell & Clarke diesel D 625 which was built in their Leeds factory in 1942

Aerial views of the Cement Works

Ref: misc_scw163 English Heritage First of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw163a English Heritage Close up of the first of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw163b English Heritage Another close up of the first of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw164 English Heritage Close up of the second of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw164a English Heritage Second of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw164b English Heritage Another close up of the second aerial view of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw165 English Heritage Third of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw165a English Heritage Third of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Ref: misc_scw165b English Heritage Another close up of the last of three aerial views of Southam Cement Works, Long Itchington, taken in 1932

Robert Ferris writes, 'the following table lists most of the standard and narrow gauge locomotives purchased by Southam Cement works over the years'.

All the narrow gauge 0-6-0 Saddle Tank steam locomotives had outside cylinders. There were also four narrow gauge 4 wheel petrol locomotives, one of which was an ex-contractor locomotive obtained in 1936.