Devonport Dockyard: Spinning House
The Ropery's 1200 ft long Spinning House, built in 1763-72 was damaged by fire, and in 1812 Edward Holl set about rebuilding it as the EAST ROPERY using only 'fireproof' materials, and adding a third floor. The internal iron framework was completed in 1817.
The building has stone walls and cast iron floor beams, supported at mid-span by cast iron columns. The beams, of inverted T-section, have an elliptically-arched upper profile. Square sockets cast in the webs support five secondary cast iron joists. These supported stone flag floors. The ironwork is well-illustrated here[1]. The top of the columns featured a thick circular flange with reinforcing webs. The end of the main beam flanges where they met the columns had a C-shaped enlargement, sometimes called a 'spanner end'. The columns for the next storey were connected to those below by bolts which went through their flanges and through the 'spanner end' of the beams into the flange of the lower column. Wrought iron tie rods ran longitudinally through the columns' top flanges.
The roof trusses were made from cast and wrought iron. Iron was used for the window frames and shutters.
See Historic England listing here
See Also
Sources of Information
- 'Building the Steam Navy' by David Evans, Conway Maritime Press and English Heritage, 2004, pp.42-3
- 'Support for the Fleet: Architecture and engineering of the Royal Navy's Bases 1700-1914', by Jonathan Coad, English Heritage, 2013