Coles Yard And Slipway

Coles Yard and Slipway is a yacht building and fitting yard located on Arctic Road in Cowes, constructed by George Henry Marvin in 1885. The site features a chimney and an arch that originally housed the Pattern Shop, along with a slipway. The engine chimney is made of stock brick, stands about 50 feet high, and tapers to the top with a simple cap and modillion cornice. This chimney is connected to a stone segmental arch made of stock brick voussoirs, which is filled in with weatherboarding and includes two 19th-century industrial windows and unloading doors. Attached to the arch are two lean-to weatherboarded structures, one of which serves as the winch house. The arch has a tablet inscribed with "GM 1885."

Inside, the yard contains the original 1885 2.5 horsepower beam engine, which drives a winding drum through a four-stage reduction gearing that has been adapted to run on compressed air. The boiler has been relocated and modified to function as an air reservoir chamber. The slipway, made of local stone blocks, features four steps at each shore end and flights of 13 steps two-thirds of the way along, leading to wooden piers on each side supported mainly by chamfered concrete. The dock floor consists of large concrete slabs with three railway tracks for supporting cradles.

By the end of the 19th century, Coles Yard was likely the largest yacht building and fitting enterprise in Britain, noted for its work on King George V's racing cutter "Britannia." During World War I, the slipway was utilized to convert large yachts and pleasure boats into patrol boats, and in World War II, Coles Yard served as the base for Free French naval patrol boats.