Morice Gate, Two Gatehouses (Mo 39 And 65) And Attached Dockyard Walls

Morice Gate consists of a gateway, two attached gatehouses, and dockyard walls, built between 1720 and 1724 by Andrew Jelf, Clerk of Works, for the Board of Ordnance, based on a layout by Colonel C Lilly. The structure features walls made of Dunstone shaly rubble and granite ashlar, while the gatehouses are finished in stucco with lateral and gable stacks and slate roofs.

The design includes a pair of single-depth houses flanking the gateway. The exterior is two stories high with an attic and basement, and the gatehouse fronts are windowless. The gateway is marked by large granite piers topped with iron mortars, connected by a scrolled overthrow and an octagonal lantern, with 20th-century timber doors. The facades of the houses feature plinths and round-arched doorways on both the inner and outer sides, although the left-hand pier is blocked. Each house has a central lateral stack with a raised panel beneath the eaves. The inner gables have single first-floor and paired attic lights, with the southern gable featuring an oculus in the attic and gable stacks. The two-window returns include segmental-arched ground-floor and flat-headed first-floor sashes, with a granite basement illuminated by a well on the inner side.

The interior has not been inspected but is noted to have undergone alterations in the mid-20th century. The dockyard walls, constructed of carefully bedded rubble with square piers and a weathered top, extend approximately 300 meters to the south and west, terminating near the entrance to the South Yard, and about 65 meters to the north, reaching east of the Powder House.

Historically, this site served as the original entrance and perimeter walls to the Yard, which was carefully planned with the raised Officer's Terrace and the Stores at the tower level. The walls exhibit distinctive construction typical of the Ordnance Board during this period and are a significant feature enclosing the most complete 18th-century Ordnance Yard in the country.