Master Ropemakers Office (S 97 And 98)

SX 4454 SW PLYMOUTH SOUTH YARD, Devonport Dockyard

740-1/98/207 Master Ropemaker's Office (S 97 and 98)

GV II

Master Ropemaker's office; later engine house, school, now disused. c1816, extended c1868. Plymouth limestone, 1816 building is of rubble, 1868 is of squared and coursed stone, with ashlar dressings, cast-iron columns and slate roof. Single-depth plan. EXTERIOR: 3 storey; 3:3-window range. Parapeted range with cornice, the earlier S section has round-arched first-floor and flat-arched second floor windows with 3/3-pane sashes, with similar openings to pedimented right-hand return, over outer segmental-arched doorways, and a rear early C19 external stair with c1939 cover; a right-hand bay projects on tall iron Tuscan columns to an entablature, and stone top section with a flat-arched second-floor window and a segmental-arched former doorway in the return. Left-hand section has similar openings, 2 on the first floor. 1868 NE truncated chimney has a cornice. INTERIOR: not inspected. HISTORY: 1816 double-height office erected at the same time as Holl's rebuilding of the ropery; later extended and converted to machine room for rope-making machinery with an underground drive shaft, with bridge from the front projecting bay to the rope walk. The upper dining room was used as a school after 1945. Part of the important rope making complex with the Spinning House, Hemp House and other Ropeyard buildings ( qv). (Sources: le Page A: Report -GHK Partnership: 1992: 33; The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989: 651).

Listing NGR: SX4510254452