Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

In July 1849 work began on constructing a stone-lined slipway, complete with boat haulage cradle, pulled by a steam engine, on the south-eastern side of the Slipway. This was known as the Patent Slipway and it was intended for use both in ship building and repair work. By 1997, only the slipway survived. (location accurate to the nearest 1m based on available information).

Monument Types

• SLIPWAY (Post Medieval to Modern - 1849 AD? to 1997 AD?)

Full description

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Taken from source "In July 1849 work began on constructing a stone-lined slipway, complete with boat haulage cradle, pulled by a steam engine, on the south-eastern side of the new complex. This was known as the Patent Slipway and it was intended for use both in ship building and repair work. The Patent Slipway lies between the Ballast Quay and Slip Quay at the eastern corner of Dover's Wellington Dock. It originally consisted of three main elements; the slipway itself, the boat haulage cradle and the steam winding engine housed in a substantial brick building […] only the slipway survived in April 1997.

In 1997 the slipway was described as so:

aligned north-east by south-west and revetted with stone, the Patent Slipway consists of an even sloping ramp leading down into the water of the Wellington Dock at a gradient of 1 in 20. It has a total length of 152m but due to the closing of the lock gates at the entrance to the dock, the lower half of the structure generally remains under water even at low tide. When the lock gates were removed for repair in 1996 and the basin was allowed to completely empty, the full extent of the slipway was revealed. Because of its sloping sides and increasing depth the slipway is tapered in plan. At the upper north-east end, it has a width of 11.80m across the top , whilst at the low water mark it is 17.60m across. Along the top of the two sides of the slipway large slabs of Portland stone, generally about 0.14m thick, provide a solid edging to the structure. The tops of these coping stones lie about 4m OD. Concrete abuts the rear of the stones on both sides, forming the surface of the slip quay and the ballast quay. (1)

The upper part of the Patent Slipway at the end of the Wellington Dock has today been infilled to make a car park, the lower part of the slipway (below the low water mark) is presumably still in tact.

Discussion of the slipway in relation to the Dover Western Docks Revival Scheme (2)

<1> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1997, Report on the Patent Slipway, Wellington Dock Dover (Unpublished document). SKE31428.

<2> Maritime Archaeology, 2008, Dover Terminal 2 EIA: Historic Environment Baseline Report (Unpublished document). SKE31717.

Sources and further reading

Related records