Centre of the nation's explosive’s industry for 400 years, the
18th century Chart Gunpowder Mills are the oldest of their kind
in the world, powder from which was used at the battles of
Trafalgar and Waterloo. Chart Mills were part of the Home Works,
Faversham's first gunpowder factory and one of the first in
Britain. It was established probably circa 1560 but the Chart
Mills were rebuilt when the Government took control some 200
years later. Following Chart Mills' closure in the 1930s, it
fell into disrepair and was almost lost until The Faversham
Society rescued the Mills, restored it and opened it to the
public in April 1969. Chart Mills is one of the very few fully
restored gunpowder mills in the country and, given a suitable
water supply, is fully working. Chart Mills is an incorporating
mill, the process where the ingredients, saltpetre, sulphur and
charcoal, having been mixed together, are incorporated together
to become an explosive mixture. Incorporating was the most vital
process as it determined th