Manufacture with Wood & Sail and Iron & Steel

Wood & Sail

One of the Historic Dockyard's earliest surviving buildings, it was erected for the sailmakers and used to make and repair the sails of ships built and repaired at Chatham.

The top floor is a large open space and is where the sailmakers worked with the lower floors used for storage of both raw materials and finished sails.

The sails for HMS Victory were almost certainly made here  - as were the flags flown to send Nelson's famous signal at Trafalgar ‘England Expects Every Man to Do His Duty'.

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A range of seven interlinked, timber framed mast houses, built largely from reused warship timbers. The Mast Houses were used both to make and store masts. Above is the Mould Loft, used by shipwrights to lay down the lines of ships to be built.

The original Mould Loft floor, hidden beneath the present floor, contains the lines of many of Chatham's most famous sailing men-of- war including Victory. Today the building houses the Wooden Walls gallery and is open to visitors.

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Wheelwrights Shop, c 1786
Scheduled Ancient Monument & Grade II*

Built as a three bay Mast House, the building was later used as a series of workshops for trades involved in fitting out ships, such as capstan makers, pump makers and wheelwrights. Beneath the floor lies an exciting archaeological find  - part of the frame of an 18th century warship. Described as the single most important warship discover in Northern Europe since that of the Mary Rose, archaeologists are still working to unlock the timbers secrets and identify the vessel itself.

Today the Wheelwrights Shop houses the Historic Dockyard's restaurant and is open to Visitors.

Lead & Paint Mill, 1817-19
Scheduled Ancient Monument & Grade I

The Navy's requirement for paint was almost as great as its need of rope and great effort was made during the Napoleonic Wars to mechanise the process. This building, designed by Edward Holl, is of fireproof construction and  incorporated a beam engine, a series of paint mills to grind pigment and a lead rolling mill. Once operational it was capable of supplying the Navy with most of its needs for paint and other lead products.

It is highly significant example of an early and almost entirely complete specialist manufacturing building of the early 19th century and as an early use of fireproof construction outside the textile industry.

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Iron & Steel

The Smithery was built 1806-08 to the design of Edward Holl, Assistant Architect in the Department of Navy Works, in response to the increased use of iron in ship building and the pressure on the dockyard's facilities caused by the Napoleonic Wars.

The original building was in the form of three ranges around an open courtyard, but was later much extended to the north as the technology changed, particularly between 1861-69 with the introduction of steam powered ironclad ships.

The building is now the last structure at Chatham in need of significant restoration and is on English Heritage's list of historic buildings 'at risk'. Funds are currently being sought to preserve, restore and adapt the building to become 'National Museums at Chatham'| - a joint partnership between Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, Imperial War Museum, National Maritime Museum and Science Museum.

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Two single storey adjoining workshops immediately to the south of No 2 Dry Dock, they were constructed to house  the new machine tools introduced to the Dockyard for the construction of HMS Achilles, the first iron battleship to be built in a Royal Dockyard.

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