Monument record MWX1010 - Longfleet Rope Works, Poole

A long rectangular building with a central courtyard is marked on an 1841 map of Poole as William Balston & Sons Sailcloth & Manufactory. <1>

By the mid 1880s, it had become Longfleet Rope Works as shown on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map epoch 1. It is a long rectangular structure around a central courtyard and accessed through a carriageway in the south west part. On the northwest corner was an attached rectangular building, possibly a twine store. There were two covered rope walks and an open rope walk to the north. A further open rope walk is marked to the east within Ladies Walking Field. <2>

The ropery is marked on the Ordnance Survey 25-inch map epoch 2 but is not labelled. The open rope walks are not shown. <3>

The Ordnance Survey 25-inch map epoch 3 shows that most of the covered rope walks have been demolished leaving only the western half of the complex extant. <4>

The epoch 4 map shows only the western end of the structure still standing. <5>

Royal Commission on Historic Monuments, Externally held archive: RCH01/063 South West Textile Mills Project (Unpublished document). SDO17323.

National Record of the Historic Environment, 1305156 (Digital archive). SDO14739.

<1> 1841, Plan of the Town and County of the Town of Poole (Map). SDO12482.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1864, 1886, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch one, Dorset Sheet XXXXIII.16, Surveyed 1887, Published 1890 (Map). SDO10239.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1900, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch two (Map). SDO11594.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1923-33, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch three (Map). SDO11595.

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1934-38, Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, epoch four (Map). SDO11596.

Record last edited

Mar 2 2022 4:27PM