Thames Park
History of Thames Barrier Park
Historical notes on the former Tar Works at Prince Regents Wharf, North Woolwich Road, Silvertown.
The firm of Burt Boulton and Hayward was established in 1848 by Henry Potter. He was joined in l850 by Samuel Boulton and in l854 by a nephew Thomas Burt Haywood.
Samual Boulton' s work realised the commercial possibilities of coal tar in many fields and he was first to introduce the concept of the vacuum in tar distilling (see technical descriptions below).
The works was originally established at Rotherhithe before relocating to Millwall and then the Royal Victoria Dock (1856) and Prince Regents Wharf, Silvertown (1870) although it is unclear whether the entire firm relocated or whether different aspects of the business took place simultaneously at different sites. Certainly the extracts from a report by a Dr Ballard (Medical Officer of Health advising the Local Government Board) in 1878 would suggest that the Millwall and Prince Regents Wharf sites were operating simultaneously.
The firm specialised in expanded timber processing, especially using Bethel's patent process of 1858 using tar oils (creosote), for the purpose of preserving timber - principally telegraph poles and sleepers for use in the railway industry - and were closely associated with the Eastern Counties Railways and with railway contractor Thomas Brassey. At its peak, between 1866 and 1898, these railway sleepers and poles were exported all over Europe.
In 1878 a report by Dr.Ballard (Medical Officer of Health advising the Local Government Board) contained references to 'the most perfect arrangement for preventing nuisance that I have seen are at Messrs Burt, Boulton and Haywood's works at Silvertown near the Victoria Docks'.
Several (technical) descriptions of work at the factory in the 1870s by Dr.Ballard
The timber is passed into a cylinder with rails on their lower sides. No one would like to make a journey in one of them, but as to utility, I believe, forbidding, as are their mouths, they might challenge many prettier things, and come off with great éclat. The diameter of these cylinders is usually six feet; the length is sixty or seventy feet. They are made of wrought iron plates of immense strength, and seem to be capable of sustaining pressure to any extent. The sleepers, when about to 'be creosoted, are run on iron trucks into one of these. The cylinder is then closed by an airtight door. A vacuum is produced in the cylinder by an air-pump, which has the effect of withdrawing the air from the pores of the wood, and also any superfluous moisture. This done, heated creosote oil is introduced, and pumped into the cylinder at a pressure of 100 to 150 pounds to the square inch. The sleepers, being creosoted, are then carried by the tramways to be stacked or shipped off into export vessels in the dock. The rails, the trunks, and in fact everything connected with this department, like the machinery by which the timber is taken from the pond to be sawed, to be stacked, or to be creosoted, are all constructed with a view to economy, the lessening of mere manual toil, and the despatch of business. The appliances here at work are capable of delivering 1,500,000 sleepers annually, the 30,000 weekly proportion of which is often exceeded.
The number -of men in this place in the Baltic import season is sometimes 300, but 150 hands are employed at all times. The wages paid to these and the workmen at Prince Regent's Wharf is certainly a large sum yearly.
I come now to the Prince Regent's Wharf Works. These have been about four years commenced, and were only in progress of completion when I visited them. These Works are erected on freehold property of the firm. A great deal of the ground now so occupied was recently a reed- bed, and runs close to the river's edge. Into these and the Millwall Works the whole of the gas tar made at most of the gas works in London, and some from the provinces, finds its way. This is about 12,000,000 gallons annually. This shows large development in the economising of gas tar. Indeed Industrial progress in the East of London seems also to have been, and still to be, in a like growing and healthy state.
Historical research, texts and images kindly provided by local historian Mary Mills
© Thames Barrier Park, UK 2003