Cooperage West Range

The Cooperage West Range is a disused building located at the Royal Clarence Victualling Yard, constructed in 1766. It features a rendered plinth and a weather-boarded timber frame above, topped with a plain tile roof and two rear lateral stacks. The building has a single-depth plan divided into six equal sections, each one storey high and containing 13 panels.

On the exterior, the long range is situated on the west side of the former cooper's square. The sections are separated by a fire wall that rises through the roof, with each section having a boarded door and a varied arrangement of windows and boarded panels. The windows are fitted with 10/10-pane lights. The third section from the left includes two small dormers with six and two lights at the front and rear. The middle section at the rear lacks windows but has two large external stacks.

Inside, the section with the stacks features wide hearths from a former forge and timber trusses.

Historically, this cooperage was used for making barrels for the navy's rum issue until its discontinuation in 1970. It was built adjacent to the Weevil Brewery, which was constructed two years earlier, and forms one side of the cooper's square along with the south and east ranges, where barrels were stacked. Clarence is noted as one of the first large industrial food processing plants in the country, highlighting the significant scale of the Navy's victualling operation on an important riverside site.

Originally, the building consisted of six coopers' shops, each containing two fire hearths, and was terminated at each end by sheds for iron and wood hoops. These two sheds, along with one of the coopers' shops, are the only parts of the cooperage that have been demolished. The range also incorporates a section of the original brewery wall from 1764. By 1830, most of the coopers' shops were repurposed for cask storage.