IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Popjak Road, Kent Science Park, SITTINGBOURNE, ME9 8PS

Built as a Shell Agricultural Research centre there are proposals to expand the site, currently used by a variety of businesses some of which are science based.

These buildings formed part of the research establishment of Shell Research Ltd when it was based at Sittingbourne Research Centre. It was known as ‘Cromers Wood’ and I worked in it during two different periods when I was employed by the company. Due to the buildings being built on a slope, there was a flight of steps between the bottom section and the top, which backed onto the wood. On 7 March 1969, part of the top section began to show the effects of acute subsidence and had to be shored up to prevent its collapse. The subsidence was remedied by digging a trench along the back of the upper section for drainage pipes. Part of this upper section was demolished and rebuilt. The site has since become Broadoak Enterprise Village.

Just south of the Kent Science Park.

The south east side of the park.

Woodstock House was built in the early 1780s by Abraham Chambers. It was requisitioned by the Government during both world wars. Shortly after the estate became Shell property in 1945, land to the north of Broad Oak Road, and with it Woodstock House, was requisitioned by the Kent Farm Institute. For some time the building was used by Kent Fire Brigade as a practice site. Not surprisingly it became structurally unsound. Soon after this picture was taken, it was demolished.

On the Kent Science Park.

With Shooting Box Cottage on the left. Cromer's Wood is a 28 hectare ancient semi-natural woodland that sits on the southeast side of a dry slope valley. It was donated by Shell Research Ltd. to Kent Trust for Nature Conservation, now known as Kent Wildlife Trust, in 1996.

The buildings partially hidden by trees on the left are on the Kent Science Park (formerly Shell Research). The fire was on a building site near Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital about 3km away.