Building record BNT 071 - Former Xylonite Factory, Factory Lane, Brantham

2017: PCA carried out a Level 1 built heritage survey of buildings associated with the former British Xylonite Factory in Brantham. The investigation revealed a number of structures in very poor condition and so neglected and damaged that interior inspection was not possible.

The site was purchased by the British Xylonite Company Ltd in the 1880s. The area had been entirely agricultural before the factory. To house the workers the housing estate of "New Brantham Village" was built after 1887. A private railway siding was built adjacent to the railway in 1887 and a jetty on the Stour in 1903. There were various expansions over the following decades. The site was sold in 1966 to British Industrial Plastics, who became Wardle Storeys in 1984 and the site finally closed in 2007.

When considered alongside the wider context of the British Xylonite Factory site, the buildings which were surveyed and recorded made up a small percentage of the structures which were present in the height of the factory’s production during the mid to late 20th century. The use of plans and sketches held in the archives made it possible to identify the use and function of a number of buildings n the factory from the early to the mid 20th century. Some functions and uses were ascribed to the buildings surveyed from these documents, however, the main production processes and those which were considered worthy of capturing in photographic record by the factory’s owners were more of those located on the north side of the railway where the polishing, flattening. Rolling and mixing were taking place. The buildings on the south side of the Railway line (subject of this survey) appear to have been more associated with powering the plant and with heavy, possibly
unpleasant smelling or very noisy processes i.e., the nitration laboratory, boiler house, power house, and camphor production. This may be why the site was split into two areas of activity, separated by the railway line. It should be considered that there were a significant number more buildings on this side of the line than survived by the time of the survey – these are well illustrated on the 1955 plan of the site. The buildings surviving, although now beyond salvage or re-use represent what remains of a successful production company with a well documented history. (S1)