The Cement Works : Shoreham
Shoreham cement works stopped production in 1991, since then it has stood abandoned within the huge chalk quarry.
The scale of the cement works is immense, the site is split into 2 areas connected by a tunnel underneath the road. The processing side holds the massive rotary kilns that turned the raw limestone into cement.
The whole place had a think layer of cement dust everywhere which made a mask a mandatory issue. The walkways felt quite dangerous here, I have been around some places that felt unsafe, Chernobyl and Denbigh to name a few but this place did actually feel like the floor could collapse underfoot at any minute, so treading carefully, i made my way through the different buildings and up to the level with the kilns.
These huge metal tubes running from one end of the building to the other would have taken the raw materials and heating to over 1400 degrees through rotation and an intricate hanging of chains to produce a material called Clinker which is then cooled and ground to create the cement.
There is alot of grafitti inside, which actually adds to the gritty atmosphere of the place. The sun quickly got too bright and shone through the massive holes in the roof, making bright highlights and deep dark shadows, most of these are composites of multiple exposures.
The scale of the cement works is immense, the site is split into 2 areas connected by a tunnel underneath the road. The processing side holds the massive rotary kilns that turned the raw limestone into cement.
The whole place had a think layer of cement dust everywhere which made a mask a mandatory issue. The walkways felt quite dangerous here, I have been around some places that felt unsafe, Chernobyl and Denbigh to name a few but this place did actually feel like the floor could collapse underfoot at any minute, so treading carefully, i made my way through the different buildings and up to the level with the kilns.
These huge metal tubes running from one end of the building to the other would have taken the raw materials and heating to over 1400 degrees through rotation and an intricate hanging of chains to produce a material called Clinker which is then cooled and ground to create the cement.
There is alot of grafitti inside, which actually adds to the gritty atmosphere of the place. The sun quickly got too bright and shone through the massive holes in the roof, making bright highlights and deep dark shadows, most of these are composites of multiple exposures.
By Darren Nisbett
