Number 8 Machine Shop

NUMBER 8 MACHINE SHOP, 8, DOCK HEAD ROAD

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1267822
Date first listed:
06-Jun-1984
List Entry Name:
Number 8 Machine Shop
Statutory Address:
NUMBER 8 MACHINE SHOP, 8, DOCK HEAD ROAD
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Date:
2001-06-30
Reference:
IOE01/05072/31
Rights:
© Mr David G. Smith. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1267822
Date first listed:
06-Jun-1984
List Entry Name:
Number 8 Machine Shop
Statutory Address 1:
NUMBER 8 MACHINE SHOP, 8, DOCK HEAD ROAD

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
NUMBER 8 MACHINE SHOP, 8, DOCK HEAD ROAD

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
Medway (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:
TQ 76531 70022

Details

GILLINGHAM

TQ77SE DOCK HEAD ROAD, Chatham Dockyard 686-1/6/57 (North side) 06/06/84 No.8 Machine Shop

GV II

Dry dock cover, now machine shop, disused. c1845 by Fox Henderson & Co at Woolwich, re-erected and extended 1880. Cast-iron frame with corrugated-iron cladding and Mansard-style roof. PLAN: rectangular aisled plan and 3-bay N extension. EXTERIOR: single-storey; 15-bay range. Gabled ends with very wide gambrel roof, with 7 blocked square headed dormer-type louvres each side and ridge ventilator. Large central windows to N and S, the latter divided horizontally into 2, flanked by shallower side windows. Entrances in N and S with larger sliding boarded doors. INTERIOR: an iron frame has cast-iron I-section columns tapering at the top, connected by high level segmental-arched cast-iron braces, and with full-height cross braces to the last but one bays each end; cantilevered principals are braced each side of the columns with double tapered framed openwork struts, and trussed purlins between the frames. Northern 3 bays have trusses with plate gussets and trusses members over the aisles. HISTORY: moved to Chatham from Woolwich Dockyard after it closed in 1865. The earliest of the surviving metal-framed slip covers, and apparently closely modelled on the earlier timber covers such as that at No.3 slip, Chatham (qv). The end bays may have been added when it was moved. Part of a fine group of slip covers including the nearby boilershop (qv), moved to Chatham at the same time. The Prom (EW) factory, the third of the metal-framed buildings from Woolwich, was demolished c1990. (The Newcomen Society: Sutherland RJM: Shipbuilding & the Long-Span Roof; Paper read at Science Museum: 1989-: 14).



Listing NGR: TQ7635270029

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:
462557
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Sutherland, R J M, Shipbuilding and the Long Span Roof, (1989), 14

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Number 8 Machine Shop

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

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