Timber Seasoning Store, South

TQ 76 NE CHATHAM EAST ROAD (East side) Chatham Dockyard 762-1/8/58 Timber seasoning store, South

GV II*

Timber seasoning store. Designed 1771. Weatherboarded timber frame on brick plinth with corrugated asbestos roof. Rectangular plan. EXTERIOR: single storey; 9-gable roof. Regular range has double doors in the gables, louvred above, and slatted sides with 5 metal-framed windows. INTERIOR: 3 bays wide with bracketed posts, with racks for stacking sawn timber, and timber trusses. HISTORY: introduced on the orders of the Earl of Sandwich because of the problem of using green timber in the Navy's ships, which was incurring massive expenditure on maintenance. The Navy Board produced a notably early example of a modular design, many of which were built at the Navy's yards. Most were obsolete by 1860, and the two at Chatham are the last to survive, (see Timber seasoning store, North (qv)). (Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 155 ; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 127 -129).

Listing NGR: TQ7608069313