Former Hatchelling House And Engine Room

The Former Hatchelling House and Engine Room, built between 1787 and 1791, is located at Chatham Dockyard on the east side of Anchor Wharf. This building is constructed of brick and features a hipped roof made of slate and tiles.

The layout includes a single-depth hatchelling room with an attached store at the rear and a warehouse on the left. The exterior consists of a two-storey, four-window range for the hatchelling room and a four-storey, six-window range for the store. The hatchelling room has a wide end with pilaster strips leading into a corbelled cornice, a parapet, and a central pediment that contains a louvred lunette. It features a round-arched doorway with a radial fanlight and double doors, set within a matching recess. There is a tall right-hand sash window with 16/20 panes, first-floor sash windows with 8/8 panes, and an off-centre hoist door with an iron pivot hoist to the right. The right-hand return has four first-floor windows with paired 6/6-pane sashes. To the left, the four-storey range projects forward, featuring two windows on the north end and nine on the east side, with regularly spaced rubbed-brick flat arches above 8/8-pane casements. The store at the rear is recessed above the ground floor and has flat-headed casements.

Inside, there is a large wooden staircase with timber posts that support the floors. Historically, hatchelling was the initial stage in the rope-making process, where hemp was combed in preparation for spinning in the spinning house of the ropery. This building was part of the late 18th-century rebuilding of the southern end of the Dockyard, which included the new Ropery, Rigging Store, and Yarn houses. It is recognized as part of the best ropeyard in the country and is a notable example of Georgian dockyard architecture.