Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

Grade I listed building. Main construction periods 1810 to 1866

Summary from record TQ 76 NE 104 :

Brunel's Sawmills (now the Laundry). These saw mills were erected between 1810 and 1813 and connected by an underground tunnel 550 feet long to the Mast Pond. Today only the shell of the sawmills, some of the sawframes and part of the canal tunnel remain

Monument Types

• SAW MILL (SAW MILL, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• STEAM MILL (STEAM MILL, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• TUNNEL (TUNNEL, Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
• CANAL (Post Medieval - 1810 AD to 1813 AD)
• SITE (Post Medieval - 1810 AD to 1866 AD)

Full description

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The following text is from the original listed building designation:
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

Description from record TQ 76 NE 104 :
(TQ 7618 6930) SAM No. 226 [Sawmills: scheduled]. (1) Brunel's Sawmills (now the Laundry). These saw mills were erected between 1810 and 1813 and connected by an underground tunnel 550 feet long to the Mast Pond [See Associated Records]. 1 storey stock brick with two additions of 2 storey's. [Full architectural description]. Grade II. (2) Today only the shell of the sawmills, some of the sawframes and part of the canal tunnel remain. (3)

Part of the canal, where it connected with the South Mast Pond, was exposed during an evaluation on the site. In places it was only 0.1m below the present car park surface. At this point it was an open cutting before it became a tunnel and headed east. The cutting was a tapering (4.9-6.1m wide and 3.25m deep and 12m long brick-lined and bottomed channel with battered sides (at 85 degrees) and granite ashlar coping stones along the top of the north and south elevations. There was a walkway within the cutting, paved with flagstones 1.27m wide. A timber lock-gate at the west end of the cutting was 4.9m wide. There was a valve through this gate and the valve door was found in the infilling of the cutting (4).

CgMs Consulting, 2006, Archaeological Desk Based Study and Impact Assessment - Chatham Interface Land, Chatham Dockyard, Kent (Unpublished document). SKE15833.

CgMs Consulting, 2006, Preliminary historic building assessment Chatham Interface Land (Unpublished document). SKE15834.

<1> English Heritage 1:1250 SAM location maplet (OS Card Reference). SKE41612.

<2> DOE (HHR) Borough of Chatham May 1971 (7) (OS Card Reference). SKE39908.

<3> Jonathan G Coad, 1989, The royal dockyards 1690-1850: architecture and engineering works of the sailing navy. No.1, Page Nos. 235-9, Plate Nos. 188-90 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6362.

<4> Wessex Archaeology, 2007, Chatham Dockyard Interface Land, Chatham, Kent - Archaeological Evaluation Report (Unpublished document). SKE15836.

Sources and further reading

Related records

Related thematic articles

• Industrial Kent (Thematic Essay)