Number 3 Slip Cover

NUMBER 3 SLIP COVER, MAIN ROAD

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
I
List Entry Number:
1378591
Date first listed:
13-Aug-1999
List Entry Name:
Number 3 Slip Cover
Statutory Address:
NUMBER 3 SLIP COVER, MAIN ROAD
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Location

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Date:
2004-07-19
Reference:
IOE01/11801/32
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:
1378591
Date first listed:
13-Aug-1999
List Entry Name:
Number 3 Slip Cover
Statutory Address 1:
NUMBER 3 SLIP COVER, MAIN 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 3 SLIP COVER, MAIN 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 75903 69410

Details

TQ 76 NE CHATHAM MAIN ROAD
(West side) Chatham Dockyard
762-1/8/76
No.3 SLip Cover

GV I


Covered slip. 1838, probably to designs of Sir Robert Seppings, RN; constructed under Captain Brandreth RE of the Admiralty Works Department. Timber frame, weatherboarding and corrugated sheet roof.
PLAN: U-shaped aisled single-depth plan. EXTERIOR: single storey; 10-bay range. Weather-boarded walls with wide, low small-paned windows to each bay, 4 taller windows to the left of the open E end. A very large mansard-shaped roof has 2 tiers of continuous roof lights, and is curved round the E end with shallow hips and 3 tiers of roof lights to each section.
INTERIOR: a massive timber frame of square section timber aisle posts with iron bases and knees, diagonal braces, to cantilevered principal rafters that extend out to overhang the aisles, and braced collars.
HISTORY: timber roofs were being built over the dry docks in navy yards from c1814, because of the rapid rate of deterioration of timber ships exposed during construction to the weather. The trusses are supported by the cantilever effect of the overhang beyond the posts. At the time they were the widest roof spans in the country, and this is the largest of the three surviving examples, (the others are at Devonport), reflecting the increase in the size of warships allowed by Seppings's re-design of ships' bracing. No.3 is the oldest slip cover at Chatham since that of 1813 was burned down in 1966, and one of a remarkable group with the metal-framed covers of 1845-57 to the N (qqv}.
(Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 181 ; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 114-116; The Buildings of England: Newman J: West Kent and the Weald: London: 1976: 206; The Newcomen Society: Sutherland RJM: Shipbuilding and the Long-Span Roof: Paper read at Science Museum: 1989: 9).


Listing NGR: TQ7590369410

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
476544
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Newman, J, The Buildings of England: West Kent and the Weald, (1969), 206
Coad, J G, The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Architecture and Engineering Works of the Sailing Navy, (1989), 114-116
Coad, J, Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850, (1982), 181

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 3 Slip Cover

Map

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End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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