Waiting Cranes in Ridham Docks - geograph

Ridham Dock is a

dock A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning va ...

The Swale The Swale is a tidal channel of the Thames estuary that separates the Isle of Sheppey from the rest of Kent. On its banks is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest which stretches from Sittingbourne to Whitstable in Kent. It is a ...

in the

English county The counties of England are areas used for different purposes, which include administrative, geographical, cultural and political demarcation. The term "county" is defined in several ways and can apply to similar or the same areas used by each ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It is located in the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

Iwade Iwade is a village and civil parish north of the town of Sittingbourne in the English county of Kent. History Iwade was established in the late Medieval period, when it was a settlement linking Watling Street to the coast via Key Street (a ...

around north of

Sittingbourne Sittingbourne is an industrial town in Kent, south-east England, from Canterbury and from London, beside the Roman Watling Street, an ancient British trackway used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons and next to the Swale, a strip of sea separ ...

History

The dock was first planned to service the paper making industry in

. The dock was planned to provide a deeper water anchorage for ships servicing the paper mill and replace the need to use the silted

Milton Creek Milton Creek, is a waterway in Columbia County, Oregon, United States. It is long, rising in the Oregon Coast Range and emptying into Scappoose Bay – a slough of Multnomah Channel – one of the distributaries of the Willamette River where ...

.Ridham Dock
Kent Rail, Retrieved 2014-02-06. Construction began in 1913 but was halted by the onset of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, although the dock was used during the war for loading ammunition.Ridham Dock
Ports and harbours of the UK. Retrieved 2014-02-06. The dock was finally completed in 1919, although until 1922 it was operated by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

. The opening of what was, at the time, Europe's largest paper mill at

Kemsley Kemsley is a suburb of Sittingbourne in Kent, England. According to Edward Hasted, in 1798, who quoted Asserius Menevensis in his survey, the Danes built themselves a fortress or castle here in 893. At a place called 'Kemsley downe'. This then l ...

, just south of the dock, in 1923 led to expansion of the facility. It was linked to both the paper mill at Kemsley and Sittingbourne Paper Mill by the Bowaters Paper Railway, a

light railway A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards allow ...

network. Part of this is preserved as the

Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway The Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway in Kent is a narrow gauge heritage railway that operates from Sittingbourne to the banks of The Swale. The line was developed as an industrial railway by paper maker Frank Lloyd in 1904, to transport ...

. The dock facility was damaged in the

1953 flood The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck the Netherlands, north-west Belgium, England and Scotland. Most sea defences facing the surge were overwhelmed, causing extensive flooding. The storm and ...

event. Parts of the dock were used by

Sheerness Steelworks Sheerness Steelworks was a steel plant located at Sheerness, on the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent, England. The plant opened in 1971 and produced steel via the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) method rather than as a primary metal by the smelting of iron or ...

from 1973 until the closure of the steel works in 2002. After Finnish based paper company Metsa Serla bought the paper making plants of

Bowater Bowater Inc. was a paper and pulp business headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina. It merged with Abitibi-Consolidated in 2007, and the combined company went on to become Resolute Forest Products. History The North American assets of Bo ...

in 1998, the decision was made to sell the docks.

Operations

Ridham Dock is on

covering an area of . It is located immediately to the east of the

Kingsferry Bridge The Kingsferry Bridge is a combined road and railway vertical-lift bridge which connects the Isle of Sheppey to mainland Kent in South East England. The seven-span bridge has a central lifting span which allows ships to pass. In 1860, the first ...

and

Sheppey Crossing The Sheppey Crossing is a bridge which carries the A249 road across The Swale (a tidal strait of the Thames Estuary), linking the Isle of Sheppey with the mainland of Kent. The four-lane crossing measures 21.5 m (71 feet) in width, at a height o ...

linking the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale. ''Sheppey'' is deriv ...

to the mainland. It is linked to the A249 trunk road which provides access to the UK road network, including the M2 and M20 motorways, and to the national rail network via the Sheerness Line. A shunting locomotive operates at the dock.Ridham Dock Estate, Ridham, Kent
, Commercial Estates Group. Retrieved 2014-02-06. The dock is operated by Ridham Sea Terminals and can accommodate shipping up to in four NAABSA (Not Always Afloat But Safely Aground) berths. It has the capacity to load vessels using a electric conveyor with a 40 tonne capacity crane available to load and unload containers. The dock has around of warehousing as well as open storage capacity.

Combined heat and power plant

A combined heat and power plant with a net electrical capacity of 23 megawatts began construction in April 2013.Facts and figures - information about our plant
MVV Energie. Retrieved 2014-02-06. The plant will be operated by German company

MVV Energie MVV Energie AG ( en, MVV Energy) is a publicly listed company based in Mannheim and one of Germany's leading energy suppliers, operating in both Germany as well as Europe. The value chain of MVV Energie AG covers: generation, trading, distri ...

and is expected to open in spring 2015. The plant will use around 172,000 tonnes of waste wood, including fibreboard and chipboard, a year to generate about 188 million kilowatt-hours of energy.Biomass plant creates more than 25 jobs at Ridham Dock near Sittingbourne
Kent Business,

Kent Messenger The ''Kent Messenger'' is a weekly newspaper serving the mid- Kent area. It is published in three editions - Maidstone, Malling, and the Weald. It is owned by the KM Group and is published on Thursdays. History The ''Kent Messenger'' grew f ...

, 2013-05-16. Retrieved 2014-02-06.

References

External links

Ridham @ Ports.org.uk
{{Coord, 51, 23, N, 00, 45, E, display=title Transport in Swale Ports and harbours of Kent