As a follow up to the article ‘Mining the Garden of England’ printed in Subterranea Britannica, April 2023, Issue 62, one of the four main collieries established in the Kent Coalfield during the early part of the 20th century was the East Kent Colliery, which later became known as Tilmanstone Colliery. Located less than 10 miles from Dover, it was not the first colliery started Kent. That accolade goes to the Shakespeare (Dover) Colliery, which was situated adjacent to the coastline between Dover and Folkestone, having been established following the suspension of excavations that were initially being made on the attempt to begin a Channel Tunnel between England and France in 1880.
The first wages were being paid to workers at the East Kent Colliery on 7th July 1906, with work then beginning on sinking the first shaft on 19th July 1906. The coal seams were eventually struck on 12th March 1913, just a few months after coal had also been struck below Snowdown Colliery, situated a few miles away near the city of Canterbury. Work at each colliery rapidly progressed, but the East Kent Colliery went into receivership before a new manager and eventual owner, Mr. Richard Tilden Smith arrived. He continually developed the colliery, made possible by creating a a close-knit community with colliery’s workforce. Tilden Smith approached the Eastry Rural District Council to expand the small mining hamlet of Elvington, built in 1911 with just 32 properties. A further 230 houses were built for the miners and their families with the Elvington Town Scheme in 1927.
Richard Tilden Smith was born on 14th October 1865, the son of a well known Sussex banker. Even before he was twenty-one, he helped to establish the Maitland Coalfield, New South Wales, Australia. He was responsible for the construction of Adelaide House, built on the north east embankment adjacent to London Bridge on the River Thames. This imposing Grade II English Heritage listed office building was constructed in 1925, and is reputed to have been the first steel-frame building and was once the tallest commercial structure in London.
Tilden Smith often remarked that further expansion of the colliery and the Kent Coalfield was necessary and hoped to see an ‘Industrial Eden’ in East Kent. With the possibility of deeper coal reserves, a new shaft would increase the workforce from 1,200 to almost 5,000 men. This would expand other industries, which themselves would require the coal for generating power. Furthermore, an expanding local industry would require local electricity, cement, gas, coke, briquettes and other resources, with the possibility of selling the their products more cheaply than other areas and countries around the world. Tilden Smith began building a briquette plant at the colliery with the production of Tilmanstone (Kent) Colliery Ltd. New Coal at its Lockwood’s Clean Coal Process Plant Limited.
Tilden Smith felt that the cost of transporting the coal from the colliery to Dover Harbour for exportation was becoming evermore expensive. Southern Railway was charging 5s. 9d. per ton to transport the coal a distance of 10 miles from the colliery to Dover, as opposed to 8s. 6d. being charged for the carriage of coal from the colliery to London, a much greater distance. Tilden Smith argued with the railway companies to try and reduce the transportation costs, but they would not back down. As a result, he proposed the idea of constructing an aerial ropeway, which would have buckets suspended from it, allowing a cheaper and more cost effective method of transporting the coal that was being mined at Tilmanstone Colliery, and in a more direct route from the colliery to Dover Harbour, therefore bypassing any need for using the railways. The ropeway would potentially be much faster and better route to Dover Harbour. However, the railways companies instantly opposed the idea of a ropeway and raised concerns with the initial plans for the first Application, which were made in December 1926. A court hearing cost £20,000 in legal costs to secure the rights for a ropeway. Eventually, permission was granted with the approval of the Railway & Canal Commission.
In February 1927, an original estimate of £30,000 was revised to £61,195 for construction costs for the ropeway. A 5,000 tons capacity reinforced concrete coal bunker was constructed in April 1928, to discharge 750 tons of coal per hour into the holds of coal ships moored alongside the Eastern Arm at Dover Harbour. The harbour company agreed to contribute £97,000 towards the necessary £250,000 required to complete the ropeway.
The first part of the two sections of the ropeway was officially opened and began operating on 12th October 1929, in the presence of Tilden Smith. That first section carried buckets from the colliery to a brick-built ‘divide’ station that was situated half way along the 7.5 mile route across the countryside between the colliery and Dover Harbour. The ‘divide’ station was a two part building that the ropeway passed through on one side, while the other part of the building was the power house, which contained a large 200 h.p. steam engine. The second section of the ropeway was eventually opened just a few months later on 14th February 1930, but in the absence of Tilden Smith. His untimely death occurred during a meeting he attended at the House of Commons on 18th December 1929. Tilden Smith had been at a meeting with members of Parliament to discuss the Coal Bill, the first suggestion of a proposal to establish a National Coal organisation. It was not until 1st January 1947, that the National Coal Board was founded.
The original plan was for the ropeway once reaching as far as Langdon Bay, situated on the cliffs of Dover, which almost overlooked the harbour, was mentioned in a newspaper report in the Dover Express, which stated ‘The effect of the leave given to alter the method of descending the cliff with the ropeway make sit possible very much reduce the angle and this will make the working cheaper. Most of the road bridges in connection with the ropeway have been built and now materials for that over the Deal road are being collected there.’
However, on 18th January 1929, the Dover Express newspaper reported the following information ‘Ropeway Alteration – Alternative method of descending the cliffs allowed – Last Friday, the Railway and Canal Commission deduced to allow an alternative method for the ropeway being brought down the cliffs to the Eastern Arm. The original method was to bring it down the face of the cliff and by trestles in the sea to the Eastern Arm. These trestles in the area were commenced some nine months ago and abandoned after a few weeks work, and nothing more has been done to this section. Now it is proposed to bring the ropeway down into a tunnel. The application was made to the Justice Mackinnon, Sir Tindal Atkinson, K.C., and Sir Lewis Coward, K.C., by the Tilmanstone (Kent) Collieries, Limited. The application was for the erection of the applicants aerial ropeway by constructing and laying down in a new and diverted line, and to drive and construct two tunnels through and under Dover cliff’s, each tunnel to be 1,400 feet long or thereabouts, 13 feet high, and 7 feet wide. The ropeway on supports was to be carried through the tunnels to the sea. There was no opposition to the proposed variation, subject to the applicants entering into an agreement with the Dover Harbour Board, terms of which Mr. Joseph, on behalf of Dover Harbour Board, stated had been settled. Mr. Samuel Hare, consulting and mining engineer and a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers stated the variation would effect a saving of £8,000 to £10,000. Further, if the amount of coal obtained in Kent increased the new scheme would enable it to be transported more rapidly. Most of the ropeway had been constructed already, and the tunnels could be driven in six months time or less.
On 7th June 1929, the Dover Express printed a short piece with a photograph showing the two newly excavated tunnels and stated ‘The Ropeway Tunnels – The construction of the Ropeway Tunnels in Langdon Hole are making considerable progress. The work commenced in March, and two tunnels, about 6 feet square, have been driven 150 yards. The excavation is being made with a pneumatic drill, the power for which is supplied by a Wingham Engineering Company tractor. The chalk is hauled out in skips, the rope of which is worked from the tractor. It is hoped shortly to commence to cut tunnels to meet those now being constructed, from the floor of the cliff at the eastern Arm.’ A further report was written in August 1929, stating ‘The Ropeway – It is expected that it will be at least a fortnight before the Ropeway tunnels at Langdon Hole will be through. Work on the foundations of the standards at the Eastern Arm has been completed on a fair number.’
The two tunnels were excavated as a secondary plan, entering the western side of Langdon Hole. The original plan had been for the ropeway to pass directly from the cliff above Langdon Bay and cross a section of the sea to reach the 5,000 tons capacity staithe situated on the far end of the Eastern Arm. Four large concrete bases pillars were built in the shoreline at the base of the cliff and another single concrete base was situated further from the shore. However, the surveyors felt this method was unviable, possibly due to the constant exposure of the sea conditions. Instead the decision was made to excavate the two 400 feet tunnels were driven through the chalk in Langdon Hole, allowing the ropeway to pass through the cliff, then make a 90 degree turn that exited the cliff face above and in line with the Eastern Arm. The ropeway cable was able to turn the 90 degree angle inside the two tunnels in both directions by horizontal wheels supported by a metal framework.
During the 1930s, the ropeway even featured in a one minute video filmed by Pathe News, which showed how it functioned. The short video starts at the colliery, showing the buckets being filled with coal, before the two cables carrying buckets in opposite directions pass through the ‘divide’ station. The ropeway is then seen spanning across Langdon Bay, before passing into the two tunnels and out of the face of the cliffs, and then travelling along the Eastern Arm at Dover Harbour, to the point of the buckets being tipped and unloaded into the 5,000 tons capacity coal staithe.
The aerial ropeway had a short working life, fully functioning for just nine years between 1930 and 1939. There ropeway often spent days not working, due to regularly breaking down and requiring repairs. The manufacturers of the ropeway were Ropeways Limited, who were founded in 1891, specialising in the design of mono-cable aerial ropeways. By 1952, the company had become a member of the Glover Group of companies. The ropeway was capable of carrying 21 tons (imperial) per hour, in each of the 566 large metal buckets that could accommodate 14.25 hundred weight of coal. Travelling at an average speed of 130 yards per minute, each bucket was spaced to 46 yards apart along the 4 inches in circumference metal cable. One hundred and fifty metal towers supported the cable with sets of sheaves, permitting the buckets with grips allowing the cable to pass freely. At the end of each section one of the buckets was transferred from the rope to a rail, which then ran uninterrupted through an angle station. It then departed the angle station on the cable of the second section, before continuing towards the unloading terminal. Where the ropeway crossed main roads and the Southern Railway line, large steel gantries were constructed, some originally having netting, later replaced with timber platforms positioned below the level of the guide wheels that carried the ropes, preventing any damage being caused to vehicles or trains that were passing below.
Tilden Smith had also proposed for the ropeway to serve and be connected in a mass network in local industry, transporting coal between the colliery and planned brickworks, a power station, iron ore mines, a coal briquette plant, a carbonisation plant, chalk pits, a cement works and local towns.
The ropeway was being used during the early stages of the Second World War, but the whole mechanism soon came to a halt when a military gun emplacement was placed into the two tunnels where the ropeway exited the clods in line with the Eastern Arm at Dover Dover. The ropeway did not continue to be used after the war, but most of the structures were left standing, but remain derelict until the mid-1950s, when the order was given for the ropeway to dismantled. It has been claimed that the ropeway regularly had faults and suffered from a lot of mechanical issues. It is believed parts of the mechanism were demolished, while other sections may have been shipped to India, where it may have possibly been rebuilt and reused.
The ropeway continued to operate until the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, when the ropeway was halted and ceased to be used throughout the war. The military occupied the two tunnels that were set into the face of the cliffs above the Eastern Arm at Dover Harbour and used them as a lockout and gun emplacement. After the war a document was issued as a ‘Schedule for the Works necessary for the reinstatement of the Ropeway Tunnels between Tilmanstone Colliery, Eythorne, and chalk cliffs, Dover’. The document highlighted the following necessary repairs and actions to be made due to damage caused by the military;
Cleaning and rendering of the chalk tunnels, together with the brick walls and supporting arches would cost £100. We were all very impressed with the remarkable way in which the chalk tunnels, together with their brick walls and support steel arches, had stood up to the war, and only £100 has been estimated to make these clean and workable again. Removal of brick structure near entrance of tunnel, which is approximately 8’0” x 18’0” x 12’0”. This is blocking the passage of the ropeway buckets and the whole site will have to be levelled with an estimated cost of £250. One tunnel at the landward entrance has been bricked up and a brick wall will have to be removed with an approximate dimension of brickwork 7’0” x 15’0”. Entrance will have to be levelled, with an approximate cost £150. Telephone wires and insulators running the whole length of the tunnel will have to be renewed, as the line has been broken costing £150. Lighting cable and lighting will require reinstating costing £200. Lying the length of the tunnel there are sundry small falls of chalk and brickwork, and the roads will have to be cleared of refuse dumped by the Military costing £100. At the seaward end of the tunnel a machine gun concrete emplacement has been erected with 18” concrete 6’0” high and require moving costing £500. The wooden platform at the seaward end of the tunnel has been removed and the area of the platform is approximately 50’0” x 15’0”; and also part of the ladders giving access from the harbour to the platform have been removed. These require cleaning, costing £500. In one of the tunnels at the seaward and brick structure has been erected in the form of a chamber which will have to be removed, costing £25. In the tunnel angle station there are 14 pillars forming the main supports, which will have to be renewed. This is an important item of the structure to avoid a general collapse. The ironwork also of the angle station has deteriorated by 50% and the cost of renewing and reconditioning will be approximately £2,500. Running the whole length of the tunnel are 18 rope supporting trestles which will have to be chipped and painted at a cost of approximately £100 each, costing £1,800. At the lanyard end of the tunnel, gates as originally placed there are removed and will have to be renewed, costing £100. Note – all estimates are based on the chalk and refuse being dumped in easy access of the tunnels. If permission of the War Department is not given for this work, the cost will be considerably increased. These estimates taken into account the reduced life to be expected from this iron-work, owing to the excessive deterioration, sometimes up to 50%, which has occurred as a result of access to the tunnels for regular scraping and painting having been denied.
The total cost of the work was then ran up to the amount of £6,375. However, it appears the repairs were never done following the events of the Second World War, and so the ropeway remained unused. This may have lead to the eventual demise of the ropeway as on 10th March 1950 a local newspaper reported that ‘The ropeway from Tilmanstone Colliery to the Eastern Arm of Dover Harbour is not likely to be in operation again for many years, if ever at all. The machinery and the bunker to which coal was delivered at the Eastern Arm were badly damaged during the war and Mr. E. L. Chiverton, the Production Director of the National Coal Board’s South East Division, told a press conference on Monday that even if it was decided to bring the ropeway into use it would take several years to put it in working order again. The Chairman, Rear-Admiral H.R.H. Woodhouse, said that the future of the ropeway was still under consideration, but it would probably cost £60,000 to put it in order. The bunker would have to be reconstructed. Nevertheless, the export of clay is, in the words of the Admiral Woodhouse, engaging the Board’s serious attention with a view to future planning. No coal is sent abroad from Kent at the present time owing to lack of suitable shipping facilities. Kent, however, indirectly contributes by taking on other Divisions’ home trade wherever possible, thus releasing their coal for export.’
On 7th November 1952, a further newspaper article reported ‘The aerial ropeway, built at a cost of £130,000 some quarter of a century ago to carry coal seven miles from Tilmanstone Colliery to the Eastern Arm for export, is likely to be removed in the near future. It is understood that it is to be entirely dismantled and may ultimately be re-erected in India. Several of the pylons have already been taken down between East and West Langdon and a large number of tubs are stacked close to the side of the road leading from West Langdon to Whitfield.’ Then, on 15th July 1955, another local newspaper article reported ‘THE END OF THE ROPEWAY – Demolition gang works among the seagulls.’ It was said that the demolition workers hoped to have the coal bunker completely down in sixteen weeks. However, one of the workers claimed “it will be a tough job though, as it was the toughest reinforced concrete he had come across.”
All that remains of the ropeway today are the ‘divide’ station, which has recently more recently had the sections of panelled roofing removed, possibly because it was made of asbestos, and the metal roof supports removed from the passthrough part of the building. Closer to Dover Harbour is last remaining concrete bases positioned on the edge of the cliffs overlooking Langdon Bay, which was built for the original plan for the ropeway to pass over the cliff. There is also the huge chalk mound situated in Langdon Hole, consisting of the chalk excavated for the tunnels built into the cliffs, two concrete platforms from the angle station above Langdon Hole, along with the two bricked up tunnel entrances that can be seen set into the face of the cliffs in line with the Eastern Arm.
More information and photographs about the history and development of the aerial ropeway can be found in the publication ‘Tilmanstone Colliery to Dover Harbour Aerial Ropeway’ written by Colin Varrall.
Colin Varrall
