The Former Lead & Paint Mill

This building is of particular interest to me as I spent nearly a year on the upper floor when I was an apprentice (1952 – 1957).

The telephone repair workshop was located here and items such as telephone dials were stripped down, mended and governed after sustaining damage from irate users attempting to obtain a new handset or other equipment.  In 1957 we still had a number of the old ‘candlestick’ phones connected to the system.

The north end of the building is occupied by the Fairbridge organisation and the southern end is used by The Fountain Workshop Ltd.

Please note that Dockyard visitors are not to enter this building unless invited to do so.

On the front wall, the eastern wall, there are numerous examples of graffiti scratched into the face of the brickwork. You will notice names of ships, workers and comments about happenings of the day, for example, one brick states that “Ramshaw crushed his finger” (A photograph will appear here soon … of the brick, not the finger!)

Built between 1817 and 1819 by an architect for the Navy Board, Edward Holl, it was extended in the mid C19. The construction was of brick with stone dressings and a slate roof, with cast-iron posts, joists and flagstone floors. It was built as a fireproof building. The doors and windows frames were of all-metal construction.

The north end of the upper floor has tall iron canvas stretching frames for painting (sails and canvas items) suspended from threaded rods. This could account for the names of vessels on the brickwork.

Originally the southern building had a steam powered lead rolling mill and casting area with a beam engine and boiler located on the west side.

Paint mills connected by line shafting to the engine were located in the north building.

The works had sufficient capacity to supply all the naval dockyards with paint and rolled lead. It has considerable significance as an early and almost entirely complete example of a specialist manufacturing building of the early nineteenth century.

This sporting capture was spotted by Paul Johnstone at the north end of the building, in the walkway.

The following image is from the east wall and I shall fill in as much history as I can.

A Brick with a Story (Image copyright Steve Keat)

HMS Goliath was a ‘Canopus’ first class battleship, built at Chatham. She was laid down on 4th January 1897 and launched on 23rd March 1898, designed to operate on the China station acting as a counter-weight to the Japanese fleet expansion.

Despite her displacement of 12,950 tons, Goliath had a sufficiently shallow draught to allow her to use the Suez Canal.

She carried a complement of 682 officers and men and had a top speed of 18.25 knots. She was 390 feet long and 74 feet wide and her armaments comprised of four 12 inch breach loaders, twelve 6 inch quick-firers, twelve 12 lb. quick-firers, six 1 lb. quick-firers and five 18 inch torpedo tubes.

Her history (after fitting out):-

27th March 1900: Commissioned at Chatham for the China station playing a small part in the Boxer uprising.

September 1901: Refitting in Hong Kong before returning to active duty in April 1902.

January – July 1904: At Palmers, UK for re-fitting.

May 1905: Sailing with the Mediterranean Fleet, transferring to the Channel in December.

1907 – 1908: Refit to machinery and fire control added.

October 1908: Damaged her propeller shaft on the way to Malta. Retained in Malta ‘yard for a further refit which was completed in January 1909.

April 1909: Commissioned at Sheerness for Nore Reserve.

August 1914: Goliath served with 8th Battle Squadron operating out of Devenport. Transfered later to Loch Ewe for defence of Grand Fleet anchorage. Then, in September, she was dispatched to the East Indies for escort duties. In November she operated against the German light cruiser ‘ Konigsberg‘.

April 1915: Transferred to the Dardanelles, in order to support landings upon the beaches around Cape Hellas. On May 13th she was sunk bu the Turkish torpedo boat ‘Muavanet‘ which was manned by a German crew at the time.

Of the Goliath’s crew, 570 died …

You will notice on the graffiti that when Goliath was mentioned on the wall two names of Captains are mentioned, Wintz and Henderson. Hopefully more details of them will follow.

The names of various ships appear on the front of the building.

Vessels remembered here are HMS Circe as well as HMS Vindictive (1940)

Graffiti Locations

There are many locations in the Dockyard where you can see historical graffiti. There are also many locations in the Dockyard where you may miss lots of historical graffiti.

One of the prime locations is The Ropery and, in particular the south wall of the ropery!

A description of the Ropery contains the following details, depending where the information comes from:

• Building dates from 1785 – 1791
• engine house added c1836.
• Red brick with grey headers, stone dressings and a slate valley roof
• engine house English bond brick.

“History shows that it is known as a double ropery for combining ropelaying on the ground floor and spinning on the upper two floors.

“The building is over 1,100 feet long, rope being wound by twisting the strands together on a forming machine mounted on a wheeled carriage which ran back down the building.”

  Halfway down the east side of the ropery.

This area is very rich in military memorablia but does little to prepare you the delights round the corner at the end!

Section of the South Wall

This part of the ropery nestles into a quiet corner near the southern end of the property and a couple of sets of stairs takes you down to the Anchor Wharf with its large storehouses.

However a closer look at this wall reveals the extent of the inscriptions available  for examination, and so often, completely passed by.

At times it is difficult to imagine what was going on in the area of this part of Kent when these inscriptions were being added to the walls but I hope to enlarge on this part of the research project as I go along.

Look a little closer, friend

A closer look at the previous photograph shows just how much additional data is visible and just how well it seems to have survived.

You could spend all day just marvelling at this wall which I always introduce to people as a “social document”.

I hope you will revisit these ‘posts’ from time to time as they will be updated as new information comes in.