Former Ordnance Store at Chatham Gun Wharf

Details

CHATHAM

762-1/0/10008 DOCK ROAD 31-AUG-04 Former ordnance store at Chatham Gun W harf

GV II Former ordnance store incorporating carpenter's shop; RAF Association club at time of inspection (2004). 1805 with minor C20 alterations. Supervised by Lt Col D'Arcy, Commanding Officer, Royal Engineers. Yellow brick in Flemish bond with shallow pitch hipped slate roofs, 2 ridge stacks. Single storey range sited parallel to the river Medway. EXTERIOR: EAST elevation (painted) has slightly advanced and central wide coped gable with tall arched opening flanked by 15/15-pane sashes without horns, under gauged brick flat arches. Extending from each side, long wings each with 3 15/15-pane sashes under lintels, then door, then another 3 bays of similar windows. WEST elevation (not painted) is a similar arrangement. Here, the central arch has C20 brick in-filling, but remains readable, and minor C20 additions; single storey, flat-roofed extension to centre of north wing where formerly an external door; additional C20 door to left of this and inserted high windows to left of gable. Most of the original sashes survive throughout the elevations. Southern end abuts the late-C19 former Blacksmith's shop. Northern end has small former boat house, rendered and with narrow flat-roofed link. INTERIOR: North wing has late-C19 inserted chamfered posts with 'T' capitals supporting tie beams. Both sides have C20 internal partitions. Roof structure is original and comprises joggled king-posts trusses with raking struts; common rafters (with evidence of whitewash), ridge board and single purlins. Central gabled range has exposed timber roof structure and C20 inserted chimney massing; both internal wing elevations have tall rounded arches as to exterior; that to south has door with 6-pane overlight and 6/6-pane sash, under boarded door to attic; that to north has 12/12-pane sash and later door under in-filled brick. HISTORY: Built 1805 as an ordnance store for the receipt and issue of all kinds of ordnance from naval ships; this included cannon balls, muskets, gun carriages, clothing, etc. The Chatham Gun Wharf occupied the site of the medieval wharves below the medieval church, and that of the first Royal dockyard in the C16. When in the C17 the dockyard relocated to a larger site further north (the present Chatham Dockyard), the Board of Ordnance appropriated this land for use as the Gun Wharf, an arsenal and dock combined. This building was constructed under the supervision of Lt Col D'Arcy at a cost of £1,477.16s.101/4d (PRO). In 1851, the northern wing was used for 'binding of carriages' and the southern end as a carpenters and wheelers shop. In 1863, the northern end was in use as a store house, the southern end still a carpenter's shop. Later-C19 descriptions refer to this building as an armoury for the storage and repair of small arms. The northern wing was used as an armoury until the 1950s when the site was decommissioned. In the late-C20, used as a martial arts centre and RAF Association Club. It has strong associations through its date (1805) with a critical period in British naval history, when the infrastructure established in the dockyards, particularly as a result of Anson's reforms from the 1760s, was tested to the limit. The Gun Wharves played a critical role in all this, from Plymouth's role in the supply of the Peninsula campaigns to Portsmouth's key role backed up by Chatham in the blockades of French and occupied ports.

Group value with the Grade II Command House (q.v.), Grade II Church of St Mary (q.v.), and the Chatham Lines, a Scheduled Monument. Also strong relationship with the buildings of the Chatham Dockyard to the north.

Listed as a remarkably well surviving 1805 ordnance building at Chatham Gun Wharf that has strong group value and that forms an integral component of this historically important site.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

491623

Legacy System:

LBS

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