Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade II* listed building. Main construction periods 1794 to 1932

Summary from record TQ 97 NW 1001:

Dry Dock Number 4

Monument Types

• SITE (Unknown date)
• DRY DOCK (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• SITE (Post Medieval to Modern - 1794 AD to 1932 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 9075 SE ANCHOR LANE
Sheerness Dockyard
933/5/111
Walls and gates of the Boat Basin, docks numbers 4, 5 and Slipway
15.03.1977
GV II*
Walls and gates of basin, dry and graving dock and slipway, and c60 cast- iron bollards around the docks. C1814, by John Rennie Snr, for the Navy Board, altered early C20. Rusticated granite ashlar and cast-iron gates and caissons. PLAN: square wet basin with parallel docks and slip along the E side, the dry dock to the S, graving to the middle, and the building slip to the N. The dry dock (No.4) has stepped sides in two sections, two slides on each side, and curved head, with Rennie's original curved iron inner gates, and an iron outer caisson. The graving dock (No.5) has a wide, flat floor with steep C20 concrete sides and end having been extended, and an 1866 iron caisson by Easton and Anderson; the slip a sloping stone floor with low stepped sides and rails for a boat carriage. Mooring bollards inscribed John Sturges & Co, Bowling Ironworks, Near Bradford, Yorkshire. HISTORY: the whole dockyard was a notable feat of marine engineering, with all the masonry carried on piles, and it represented the greatest piece of dock engineering by one of the great engineers of the C19. The No.4 frigate dry dock is of the type Rennie pioneered at Chatham No.3 dry dock in c1821 (qv), but was the first dry dock to be fitted with iron gates. The survival of the gates makes No.4 dock a uniquely complete example ofearlyC19 dock technology, which Rennie perfected and refined. Unlike the other royal dockyards, Sheerness was all rebuilt at the same time, and with the infilling of the Great and Small Basins, this is the last remaining operative dock from Rennie's model layout. It forms a group with the later Boat Store and Buildings 84 and 86 (qqv), within Rennie's model layout of a complete early C19 dockyard. (Sources: Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 107; Rennie Sir J: The Formation and Construction of British and Foreign Harbours: London: 1851 ; Sheerness, The Dockyard, Defences and Blue Town: 1995:1).
Listing NGR: TQ9085375334

Description from record TQ 97 NW 1001:
Dry Dock Number 4 built in 1827 as a Naval Frigate dock. (1). The most visible survival of John Rennie's work at Sheerness. Includes fine stonework, and a pair of cast iron gates, the first such to be constructed anywhere and can still be opened by hand capstans. Description in context with Sheerness defences and buildings (2). Additional reference (3).

English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

1858, Sheerness Dockyard 1858 labelled plan (Map). SKE18272.

<1> Eve, D., 1999, A guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Kent, I18 (Monograph). SWX9293.

<2> Royal Commission on Historic Monuments in England, 1995, Sheerness: The Dockyard, Defences and Blue Town (Unpublished document). SWX6974.

<3> Watson-Smyth, M. (ed.), 1993, Deserted Bastions - Historic Naval and Military Architecture (Monograph). SWX9394.

Sources and further reading