Chatham Dockyard: The Ropery

The Ropery at Chatham Dockyard has been making rope for over 400 years and was built around 1786, it is a quarter of a mile long and when built was the longest brick building in Europe.

During the time the Ropery was constructed large ships of the 18th century required a lot of rope, one example HMS Victory required 31 miles or 50km of rope this was mainly for rigging and also the anchor hence the need for the Ropery to be a quarter of a mile long.
Within the Ropery the ground floor is the rope making and laying floor and the other floors are for spinning.

The ground floor of the Ropery is still used for rope making by the Master Ropemakers and they use one working rope machine. Within the Ropery is much of the original Georgian and Victorian machinery that would have been used for the rope making process.

Today of the four rope making Royal Naval Dockyards those being Chatham, Portsmouth, Plymouth and Woolwich only Chatham continues to make rope. An interesting fact is that when rope was made at the dockyards a coloured strand was put into the core of the rope, each dockyard had its own colour. This enabled rope to be repaired or replaced by the dockyard who made it but also allowed the rope to be identified if stolen. Chathams strand colour is Yellow.

Chatham Ropery can be visited via tour at the Historic Dockyard Chatham where an insight can also be gained into the process of Rope Making.

Photos can be found here: https://www.kentexplorehistory.com/po...