Former North Saw Pits Building Number 84

TQ 9075 SE QUEENBOROUGH IN SHEPPEY JETTY ROAD

933/1/10001 Sheerness Dockyard Former North Saw Pits, 25.04.1994 Building No.84

GV II*

Saw pits, later office and store, disused. 1828, by William Miller, architect for the Navy Board, iron work by R and F Salisbury, Old Buffery, Dudley, Worcs; truncated mid C20. Iron frame, with end walls and upper part of side walls in brick; hipped double roof with large slates of diminishing courses and some asbestos sheet replacement. PLAN: double-depth rectangular plan, truncated at S end; 7 bays survive of original 10 bays. EXTERIOR: Single storey elevations originally open to E and W sides with original strips of cast-iron small-paned windows above inserted rendered walling; 4-window N end, with arcade of recessed semi-circular arched windows with glazing bar sashes. INTERIOR: contains 2 trusses with wrought-iron tension members to flat cast-iron ties and braces, supported by an axial row of cast-iron columns, joined to perimeter T -section columns by cast-iron beams and a central valley beam; each of the internal columns has diagonal braces both parallel and at right angles to the trusses; iron laths to slates. HISTORY: originally a 10-bay open structure providing cover each for a pair of saw pits. The internal frame and external walls similar to those used by Edward Holl for the 1826 mast house (Building 26, qv). An example of the experimental iron construction developed by Rennie and Holl and pioneered in the dockyards. An important example of a free-standing iron frame, and forming part of a unique early C19 dockyard. (Sources: Sheerness, the Dockyard, Defences and Blue Town: 1995: NMR BINO 93279; Rennie Sir J: The Formation and Construction of British and Foreign Harbours: London: 1851: 41).

Listing NGR: TQ9098775361