OLD DEVONPORT . UK
www.olddevonport.uk
 

©  Brian Moseley, Plymouth
Webpage created: July 10, 2019
Webpage updated: July 10, 2019

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ROYAL DOCKYARD  |  SOUTH YARD

BUILDING SLIP 5

Another ten acres of ground was leased in November 1761, which increased the area of the Dockyard to 70 acres.  Three acres of it were recovered form the sea.  The area was known into modern times as the "New Ground".

Within ten years three extra building slips had been constructed on the site, between the Camber to the north and the Mast Pond to the south.  Originally known as Building Slip number 1, when the Slips were numbered from north to south, it was constructed between 1762 and 1764.

When the Building Slips were renumbered from south to north in 1849 it became Building Slip number 5.  Its measurements at that time are believed to have been: Length along the floor, 197 feet 6 inches; Length to top of slope, 208 feet 7 inches; Breadth at bottom, 49 feet 9 inches; Breadth at top, 66 feet; Depth at jetty aft (entrance), 16 feet 10 inches; Depth at Head, 6 feet.

However, the Ordnance Survey gave the official measurements of Building Slip 5 in 1912 as: 260 feet in length and 52 feet in width at the entrance.

Between it and The Camber was the Buoy Wharf and the Buoy House.

At its head were Machine Shop 5; the South Smithery; a Boiler House; and the  South Saw Mills, which had the Workmens' Dining Hall on the first floor.