Sharnal Street on the Isle of Grain. In 1930 Berry Wiggins started the construction of an oil refinery and tank farm at Kingsnorth (TQ817723) on the site of a First World War airship base. At first Berry Wiggins used the wharf at the head of Damhead Creek, but to allow larger tankers to unload in 1937 they built the 1½ mile (2.5 km) Bee Ness Jetty into East Hoo Creek and the Kethole Reach of the River Medway (TQ842726). It was reputedly the longest jetty in Britain. Oil was transferred from the jetty to the refinery through steel pipes on the underside of the jetty walkway. From 1932 oil products were exported from the refinery via an east-facing connection from the single line Grain branch of Southern Railways, the Berry Wiggins branch included three sidings (TQ808735). In 1937 the refinery had an annual oil throughput of 90,000 tonnes, and by 1954 throughput was 65,000 tonnes per year. In 1952 Berry Wiggins built a new two-stage distillation unit at their refinery, and facilities to produce asphalt for road making and other oil-derived products. In 1964 the annual throughput was 190,000 tonnes. In 1973 Berry Wiggins planned to build a new bitumen refinery at Kingsnorth to take feedstock from the adjacent BP refinery and to close its own refinery. However, the 1973-4 world oil crisis prevented these plans being realised. The old Berry Wiggins Kingsnorth refinery closed in 1977. Bee Ness jetty is extant (2019) but is in a ruined condition. Oakham Ness jetty is south of Bee Ness jetty; it was built in 1964 as part of the construction of Kingsnorth power station and was used jointly by the power station and the Berry Wiggins refinery for the import of oil. It is 2 km long and runs across Oakham Marsh to the deep water of Kethole Reach of the River Medway (TQ840719). The long-disused physical connection of the Kingsnorth branch to the Grain branch railway (TQ813739) was severed in 2002. Construction of the BP Refinery (Kent), unofficially known as Grain Refinery, was started in 1950 and the site opened in 1952. It had an initial throughput capacity of four million tonnes per year. A catalytic reformer and aromatics plant were built in 1962. By 1964 the capacity of the refinery had increased to 9,500 tonnes per year. The refinery began to process British North Sea crude oil from June 1975.