lime kilns. The first wet process cement kilns were installed by the Peters Brothers in 1877. The cement started with bottle kilns, there were 24 in 1879, making 720 tons a week. The raw materials, were obtained on site and the finished product was taken to London in capacious Thames sailing barges, that would be about 5 barge loads. A photograph, in the care of Maidstone museum shows the waterfront with 11 moored barges. The Peters operation owned 80 barges, and employed 1000 men. In the 1880s these were replaced by Batchelor chamber kilns (each with a capacity of 30 tons per week)- and further were added to bring up the production to 990 tons per week. In 1898 seventeen more were added, and in 1903 thee Schneider kilns (at 330 tons) giving a total capacity of 1850. The London demand for cement was voracious. Two Hoffmann kilns were installed, and then two rotary kilns. The first chamber kiln block was demolished, and the remaining chamber kilns were only used up to 1915, though six remained in commission until the sites closure. The site was obtained by BPCM(Blue Circle) in 1911, who combined operations with the nearby West Kent works further along Hall Road. The works closed in 1925/26 for good. There was no railway on this side of the river, so getting to the railway at Snodland involved taking the cement by barge across the river and then hauling it by horse and cart. This was far uneconomical compared to the works across the river at Snodland, and Cuxton and Halling, with its rail connection to the Medway Valley line Peters Village Before 1999, a large area of allotments were situated between the school and the recreation ground. Despite the opposition of many villagers, a housing estate was built over them, which increased the village's population by a large percentage. Peters Village is a new area of housing currently being constructed to the south of the existing village on the former Peters Wouldham Hall Cement Works and in Peters Pit. It consists of 1000 houses grouped in three sectors: the Village Centre, Lower Peters Village and Upper Peters Village. It includes a new primary school, community centre, playing fields cycle way and riverside esplanade together with a new road bridge across the River Medway. The site is sensitive as it lies adjoining a Site of Special Scientific Interest and