Tarred Yarn Store

SX 4554 SW PLYMOUTH SOUTH YARD, Devonport Dockyard

740-1/98/229 Tarred Yarn Store (S 138)

GV II*

Tarred yarn store. Dated 1769 on hoppers. Limestone rubble and dressings with slate roof. Rectangular open plan. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys and basement; 5-window range. Plinth, plat band and flat cornice and parapet, with eared flat surrounds to the openings, central doorway and blind first-floor windows. S gable has a raised stepped top with square plinths to ball finials at the sides and top, an inserted vehicle entrance and 3 blind oculi. W side has 3 small blind openings between the ground-floor windows; E side has two good dated hoppers inscribed GR. INTERIOR: contains a king post roof supporting a raised walkway with the rope-winding horizontal capstans that distributed the yarn through the store. HISTORY: yarn that had been tarred was wound on to bobbins and stored here before being taken to the West Ropehouse (demolished) for laying. With the White Yarn House and Tarring and Wheel Houses (qv) part of the most complete of such tarring and yarn store complexes in a Naval dockyard. (Sources: The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989: 652; Coad J: Historic Architecture of the Royal Navy: London: 1983: 71- 79; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 199-203).

Listing NGR: SX4521754200