White Yarn House (S 135)

SX 4554 SW PLYMOUTH SOUTH YARD, Devonport Dockyard

740-1/98/224 White Yarn House (5 135)

GV II*

White yarn house. 1763. Limestone rubble and dressings with slate roof. Rectangular open plan. 2 storeys; 3-window range. Rusticated quoins, plat band, flat cornice and parapet, coped end gables, with flat, eared surrounds to openings. The E side has a central doorway and metal door, and tall N window, blind ground-floor and three first-floor openings under the plat band; the S side has two small openings between the first-floor windows. INTERIOR: contains a king post roof. HISTORY: yarn from the Spinning House (qv) was stored here and then passed to the Tarring House (qv), where it was coated with tar. With the Tarring and Wheel House and Tarred Yarn House (qv), this is part of the most complete surviving yarn and tarring complex in a Naval rope yard, and an early development of process flow techniques. (Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of the Royal Navy: London: 1983: 71; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 199-203).

Listing NGR: SX4518554296