THE BRUNEL SAW MILL

THE BRUNEL SAW MILL, EAST ROAD

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1268231
Date first listed:: 24-May-1971
List Entry Name:: THE BRUNEL SAW MILL
Statutory Address:: THE BRUNEL SAW MILL, EAST ROAD

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Date:: 1999-10-05
Reference:: IOE01/00742/23
Rights:: © Mr M.K Lofthouse. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: I
List Entry Number:: 1268231
Date first listed:: 24-May-1971
Date of most recent amendment:: 13-Aug-1999
List Entry Name:: THE BRUNEL SAW MILL
Statutory Address 1:: THE BRUNEL SAW MILL, EAST ROAD

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

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

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:: THE BRUNEL SAW MILL, EAST 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 76172 69302

Details

TQ 76 NE CHATHAM EAST ROAD (East side) Chatham Dockyard 762-1/8/51 The Brunel Saw Mills 24.05.1971

GV I

Sawmill. 1810-1814, designed by Marc Brunel, with Jeremy Bentham and Edward Holl; later extensions mid C19. Brick with stone dressings and a hipped slate and corrugated-iron valley roof. PLAN: I-shaped plan with central saw mill, W engine house and chimney, E workshop, and mid C19 NW offices; a ramp leads N from the mill. EXTERIOR: single-storey saw mill; 9-window range, with 2-storey; 3-window blocks at each end, and 3-storey, 4-window range to the NW end. Saw mill has a matching front and back, with cornice and parapet and coped end gables to the valley roof. Round-arched end doorways with radial fanlights, and continuous central ranges of 7 bays with cast-iron posts and mid C20 glazing with central double doors. End blocks have parapets and string course, with first-floor central doorways and flanking 8/8-pane sashes. At the S end of the engine house is a notably large battered square chimney in 3 stepped stages, each with sunken panels divided by ashlar bands, clasping buttresses to the base and a round opening extending through. A domed iron pressure vessel is just to the S. Tall, narrow former offices attached to the engine house have round-arched windows with C20 casements, flat-headed 12-pane second floor windows with similar windows to 1-bay N end. INTERIOR: a remarkably unaltered and complete interior for an industrial building of this period. The mill has timber queen post trusses with prince posts, those on the N side strengthened by later iron trussing. Cast-iron posts in the basement support a timber floor. The cast-iron frames of the reciprocating saws rise up from the basement, some inscribed JOHN MCDOWALL AND SONS, JOHNSTONE. The E section has a complete 2-storey fireproof frame with columns to bridging beams, fishbelly joists and a flagstone floor, and a water tank forming the roof of cast-iron plates bolted together. Similar tank in the W section, over the engine house with similar fireproof details. HISTORY: the sawmill was powered by a Maudslay, Sons and Field beam engine. It was connected by a canal and tunnel 550 feet long to the mast pond. The timber was lifted by a floating platform up an oval shaft N of the E block. An overhead rail carried it to long ranges of timber stores extending N of the mill, from where it could be retrieved in the same way. Logs were delivered to the mill and converted to planks by 8 reciprocating saws in cast-iron frames, the planks being then transported to the Timber Seasoning Sheds (qqv) situated in front and behind the existing Mould Loft (qv). The first use of steam at Chatham, and the earliest fireproof construction in the dockyards, using the same frame which Holl afterwards employed at the Devonport spinning house and Chatham lead mill (qqv). The whole works is a notable early example of mechanisation. Part of a fine assemblage of Georgian naval buildings. (Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 175 ; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 236-239; The Buildings of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald: London: 1976: 206; Holl E: 1814: ADM 140/19).

Listing NGR: TQ7617169302

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:: 462089
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Coad, J , Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850, (1982), 175
Coad, J G, The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Architecture and Engineering Works of the Sailing Navy, (1989), 236-239
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald, (1976), 206

Legal

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