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54-549: The Royal William Victualling Yard in Stonehouse , a suburb of Plymouth , England , was the major victualling depot of the Royal Navy and an important adjunct of Devonport Dockyard . It was designed by the architect Sir John Rennie and was named after King William IV . It was built between 1826 and 1835 and occupies a site of approximately 16 acres (65,000 m) being half of Western Kings, north of Devil's Point . The Yard

108-559: A toll bridge ) and to the north east the wide river bed which led up past Millbridge to Pennycomequick and beyond to the bottom of Ford Park Cemetery , was reclaimed and infilled in 1973 to provide the playing fields of Victoria Park and rugby pitches for Devonport High School for Boys . Stonehouse is the site of Plymouth's international ferry port at Millbay with at least daily sailings to Roscoff in Brittany (except in winter) and frequent ferries to Santander in northern Spain. There

162-462: A clothing and equipment store. The building was damaged by a fire in 1929, and again in 1960. The building is now known as Mills Bakery and includes 86 apartments, commercial and office space. The Gatehouse, together with the adjacent Guardhouse and Slaughterhouse, was begun in 1830. The granite 'triumphal arch' gateway is topped by a 13-foot statue of King William IV (the Yard's namesake). It also displays

216-499: A dozen 'transports' or merchant vessels). This basin provided the main point of access from the sea, although a double set of steps rising from a landing-stage below the Clarence Building provided a fitting entrance for dignitaries arriving by boat. A tunnel entrance was also provided, giving access from Firestone Bay (on the opposite side of the promontory), where boats could be landed in the event of vessels being prevented (e.g. by

270-477: A porter's lodge, guardhouse and warden's accommodation. It has now been restored and is occupied as a small office space and art studio. These two grand houses were built for civil service officers in the Royal William Yard and were continuously occupied as homes until shortly after Plymouth Development Corporation took over ownership. Residence 2 is currently utilised as office space while Residence 1

324-489: A strong tide or adverse weather) from reaching the basin. The main access from land was (and is) through a grand gateway at the end of Cremyll Street, a high wall having been built around the landward portion of the site for its security. A reservoir to the south provided the Yard with an independent supply of fresh water. The Royal William Yard includes a collection of Grade I and Grade II listed buildings, built from Devon limestone with granite detailing, arranged around

378-591: Is a regular passenger ferry from the tidal landing Admiral's Hard to Cremyll in Cornwall which is used by visitors to the Mount Edgcumbe Country Park , and commuters to Plymouth. Reclaimed land In Ancient Egypt , the rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty (c. 2000–1800 BC) undertook a far-sighted land reclamation scheme to increase agricultural output. They constructed levees and canals to connect

432-708: Is now a Boutique Hotel. Early conservation and restoration work was carried out by Gilmore Hankey Kirke Architects. Together with Acanthus Ferguson Mann Architects they were awarded by the RIBA in the South West region for the Clarence and Brewhouse buildings. The scheme is also a winner of a RIBA 2006 Conservation Awards, which recognise best practice in the field of building conservation. Continued restoration, conservation and conversion of these Georgian Buildings has been carried out by Urban Splash with Gillespie Yunnie Architects. The site

486-436: Is often used to reclaim land for agricultural use. Deep cement mixing is used typically in situations in which the material displaced by either dredging or draining may be contaminated and hence needs to be contained. Land dredging is also another method of land reclamation. It is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of a body of water. It is commonly used for maintaining reclaimed land masses as sedimentation,

540-450: Is open to the public and offers the 'Tunnel to Firestone Bay' a public basin for visiting boats and restaurants, cafés and public events. 50°21′42.12″N 4°09′53.1″W  /  50.3617000°N 4.164750°W  / 50.3617000; -4.164750 Stonehouse, Plymouth East Stonehouse was one of three towns that were amalgamated into modern-day Plymouth , in the ceremonial county of Devon , England. West Stonehouse

594-460: Is the mid Victorian Roman Catholic cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface (1858). During 1882, Arthur Conan Doyle worked as a newly qualified physician at 1 Durnford Street, East Stonehouse. Plaques bearing passages from his works featuring Sherlock Holmes have since been set into the pavement in Durnford Street. Stonehouse has 29.1% of the working age population claiming benefits and has

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648-632: The Faiyum with the Bahr Yussef waterway, diverting water that would have flowed into Lake Moeris and causing gradual evaporation around the lake's edges, creating new farmland from the reclaimed land. A similar land reclamation system using dams and drainage canals was used in the Greek Copaic Basin during the Middle Helladic Period (c. 1900–1600 BC). One of the earliest large-scale projects

702-748: The Royal Marine Barracks, Stonehouse and the Royal Naval Hospital, Stonehouse . Of these three defence complexes only the Barracks remain in Naval possession. During the reign of Henry VII defences at the mouth of the Tamar were strengthened by the building of cannon-bearing towers. One of these, the Artillery Tower at the sea end of Durnford Street, has been preserved and is now a restaurant. Two of

756-636: The South West Coast Path running through it, using a staircase specially constructed in 2013. In 2013 a marina was opened within Millbay Docks . On Stonehouse Creek , a branch of the Tamar , off the estuary known as the Hamoaze are the modern shipbuilding sheds occupied by the luxury motor-yacht firm Princess Yachts who employ hundreds of local tradesmen to construct and fit out expensive vessels. The creek now ends at Stonehouse Bridge (for many years

810-644: The Victualling Commissioners from the Town Corporation . The Victualling Office depended on local farmers for fresh produce to supplement the dry goods it provided; inevitably, the local economy could be significantly affected by the varying needs of the fleet. Towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars , the Victualling establishment at Lambhay is described as 'an extensive range of buildings lying by

864-742: The 13th century by Robert the Bastard . This land subsequently passed from the Durnford family, through marriage, to the Edgecombe family in the 14th and 15th centuries. The site of the original settlement of Stonehouse is now mostly occupied by the complex of Princess Yachts . During the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries the areas of Emma Place and Caroline Place were home to many of the west country's top-ranking admirals, doctors and clergy. Those streets together with Millbay Road used to form Plymouth's red light district . Union Street , originally built across marshland,

918-570: The 1930s. In 1821 it was decided to centralise Plymouth's victualling provision in a new location. The area then known as 'Cremill Point' was chosen, both for its 'great depth of water' and for its equal proximity to the Dockyard, the Hamoaze and the Sound . In 1824 an Act of Parliament sanctioned the purchase of the site and the Victualling Commissioners appointed John Rennie as architect. Over

972-533: The Clarence and Brewhouse buildings into 91 apartments, shops, a waterfront restaurant and either a museum or an exhibition centre. Enterprise PLC, based in Preston, proposed converting the New Cooperage and Slaughter House at the entrance to the Yard into offices, restaurant, and other communal facilities. The Royal William Victualling Yard is arranged around a deep basin lined with granite (designed to accommodate half

1026-523: The Lambhay site was further expanded, with the construction of two bakehouses, a slaughterhouse and several storehouses, as well as a new wharf. (The slaughterhouse was later removed to Devil's Point .) The bakeries were capable of producing 50 tons of bread each week, however, the mills which produced the flour were three-quarters of a mile away, making baking a difficult process; nevertheless, these facilities continued in use until 1831. These mills were leased by

1080-683: The Mills and Bakery building into a restaurant, wine bar, shops, offices and luxury apartments.  The proposal came from the Phoenix Trust, set up by HRH the Prince Charles to help breathe new life into historic buildings.  Detailed plans were drawn up by Mr Peter Sutton of architects Harrison Sutton Partnership in Totnes, Devon. Urban Splash, based in Manchester, at the same time proposed converting

1134-559: The New Cooperage (q.v.), to make way for the newly established Navy Ordnance Board. The Board transformed the Old Cooperage into a machine shop and ordnance store, and in 1916 the courtyards were roofed over. In 2015 the eastern half of the outer quadrangle was converted into an arts venue, Ocean Studios; the eastern half was later due to be turned into residential units, with the central quadrangle serving as an 'events space'. Quadrangular storehouse building, designed, built and operated as

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1188-529: The Plymouth area, including the brewing of beer, the slaughtering of live animals for fresh meat, the manufacture of barrels, the baking of bread and biscuits and the production of flour; as well as providing space for administration, accommodation and large amounts of storage. No sooner had it been built, however, than the intended function of the Yard began to change: abolition of the Navy beer ration in 1831 meant that beer

1242-490: The Royal Navy in perfect trim. Its final use was a survival pack ration and equipment store. Today it houses offices, a restaurant and retail premises. The northern range of this complex of buildings contained a central granary flanked by flour mills , with 27 sets of millstones powered by a pair of steam engines , capable of producing 270,000 lb (120,000 kg) of flour per week. Grain could be loaded directly into

1296-435: The barrels and kegs in which the produce of the Yard could be stored and transported. In 1869, however, the Navy decided to concentrate the majority of its barrel manufacturing work at Deptford ; the coopers' skills were still required at Stonehouse (for repairs and production of smaller items) but their numbers declined over time until only 12 were employed. In 1891 the coopers and other craftsmen based there were transferred to

1350-618: The buildings began in late 1827, and on the boundary walls and the basin the following year; in July 1831 the transfer took place of the Victualling offices and stores from the old premises in Lambhay to the new premises in Stonehouse (albeit construction was set to continue until the mid-1830s). Once complete, they were named the Royal William Victualling Yard. The Yard consolidated in one place various victualling activities from around

1404-417: The buildings were recategorised from Scheduled Monuments to Grade I/II listed buildings . Private sector development partners Urban Splash were then engaged to carry out the specialist conversion of the site into a mixed-use development . Described as the grandest of the royal victualling yards, 'in its externally largely unaltered state it remains today one of the most magnificent industrial monuments in

1458-661: The country'. Plymouth had been involved in victualling the English fleet since the 13th century. In the 1650s the Commonwealth government built victualling storehouses on Lambhay Hill next to Hoe Fort (which would soon be rebuilt as the Royal Citadel ), with manufacturing taking place at various locations around the old harbour and a wharf providing a loading area for ships in Sutton Pool (albeit only accessible at high tide). Following

1512-466: The crossed anchor device of the Victualling Commissioners . Behind the colonnade is a long triangular yard, which had cattle pens along one side, the slaughterhouse on the other and an office at the far end. Live animals would enter via an arched gateway, just north of the Main Gate, directly into the cattle yard. Up to 100 bullocks per day were slaughtered here to provide fresh meat for vessels anchored in

1566-522: The district which has been comparatively poor since the Great War . Durnford Street is being re gentrified . The former Naval Hospital (adjacent to the Millfields – formerly part of Stonehouse Creek ) is a gated community with security guards. However, Royal William Yard, also a walled site, welcomes the public freely (apart from car parking charges) to its increasing number of food outlets, and has part of

1620-522: The establishment of a Royal Navy Dockyard in what would later be known as Devonport , in 1690, these victualling premises expanded substantially. A new Victualling Office was opened in Lambhay in 1707, overseen by an Agent Victualler. From 1729, brewing took place across the Hamoaze at Southdown , where a cooperage was also established; it was capable of producing up to 80 tuns of beer per week and had its own wharf (again, only accessible at high-tide). In 1745,

1674-457: The flammability of alcohol). As needs changed, so did the role of the Clarence Store, and latterly the building was used for the storage of spares and components. Clarence comprises of 52 contemporary apartments. Although purpose built in 1832, it was never actually equipped as a brewhouse since emerging technology was allowing large quantities of fresh water to be carried at sea, eliminating

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1728-407: The granary from vessels on the quayside. The southern range contained the bakery, with two sets of six ovens, back-to-back either side of the central spine wall (beneath a row of four square chimneys). There was a central boiler house with a chimney, with one engine to the north and the other to the south (the engines also powered biscuit-making equipment). The biscuits were dried on the upper floors of

1782-724: The highest death rate for Cancer, CHD, COPD and Stroke in Plymouth. Stonehouse is part of the St. Peter and the Waterfront ward; the most deprived ward in Plymouth and in the 1% most disadvantaged districts in England. Between 1993 and 1998 the part of Stonehouse to the west of Durnford Street (including the Royal William Victualling Yard ) was designated as one of the three areas of the city under control of Plymouth Development Corporation . Gradually affluent residents are moving back into

1836-461: The need for the beer rations. (A shed was later built to store ships water tanks within the Brewhouse courtyard, where they had been stored from as early as 1840.) The building itself stood empty until 1885, when the west wing was converted into a new slaughterhouse, with cattle lairs, a meat store and a vegetable store; at the same time the east wing functioned as a rum store and the central engine house

1890-505: The nerve centre of the whole of the Royal William Yard; begun in 1829, this was the second building to be constructed on the site. All administration was carried out here and it served as a major storehouse for food, clothing and equipment. As of 2014 it was scheduled to be converted into a hotel. The central cupola contains the yard's original (and still functioning) quarter-chiming clock of 1831 by Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy . In 2023 work

1944-402: The next three years, an 8-acre (3.2 ha) area of the northern half of the promontory known as Western King was levelled to provide the site for the new yard, with 370,000 tons of excavated rubble being used to extend the site by a further 6 acres (2.4 ha) ( reclaimed from the sea), as well as providing stone for building. Convict labour was used for this initial work. Work on the first of

1998-545: The side of the Catwater harbour', including: The wharf in front had a small jetty attached. Following the establishment of the Royal William Victualling Yard, the old Yard at Lambhay was closed; its buildings were sold in 1835 and from 1847 several of them were used as a Government Emigration Depot. In 1897 they were renamed Elphinstone Barracks, accommodating a torpedo depot of the Royal Engineers , before being demolished in

2052-546: The side ranges; there was also a drying kiln above the boiler house. Although fully equipped as a biscuit and bread factory when opened in 1834, it was initially given only one full production run; then in 1839 the equipment was removed and installed instead in the Victualling Yard at Deptford . There was no more baking here until 1843 when, newly equipped, the complex again began to be used for its original purpose (which it continued to fulfil until 1925). It subsequently became

2106-518: The sound (whereas salted meat , for vessels going to sea, was brought in from the Commissioners' main Victualling Yard at Deptford ). The building was in use for this purpose for 26 years from 1859; thereafter it was used for storage. More recently, the Slaughterhouse was used as a centre for building repair and maintenance, before being converted into a restaurant. This small complex comprised

2160-402: The square basin ; these include (East to West): Positioned at the opposite end of the yard to the gatehouse, the Clarence building closes the vista along the main thoroughfare. Begun in 1827 (the first structure to be built on the site), it was originally used as a liquid store with one floor each of spirits, vinegar and beer (use of iron for the roof, doors, windows etc. was to mitigate against

2214-561: The surviving buildings close to the dock at Millbay are the red brick Portland stone-faced Georgian assembly room that is still called the Long Room, and the exquisite late Georgian or early Victorian Globe Theatre 300 metres north within the barracks. On the higher ground towards North Road are two major churches. Firstly the Anglican St Peter's with its tall spire in the centre of Georgian style Wyndham Square. A few hundred metres east

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2268-634: Was a village that is within the current Mount Edgcumbe Country Park in Cornwall. It was destroyed by the French in 1350. The terminology used in this article refers to the settlement of East Stonehouse which is on the Devon side of the mouth of the Tamar estuary, and will be referred to as Stonehouse . Settlement in the area goes back to Roman times and a house made of stone was believed to have stood near to Stonehouse Creek . However other stories relate to land owned in

2322-403: Was abolished in 1914, being absorbed into the county borough of Plymouth, along with neighbouring Devonport . East Stonehouse remained a civil parish until 1 April 1974, but as an urban parish it had no practical functions, being directly administered by Plymouth Corporation. In 1951 the parish had a population of 7770. Significant buildings include the Royal William Victualling Yard ,

2376-455: Was converted into a Royal Naval Ordnance Depot . Nevertheless, the Yard would continue to fulfil a crucial role in provisioning Britain's naval fleet for a further 100 years. The Yard started to become run-down from 1970. In July 1985 Michael Heseltine , the then minister of Defence, announced the closure of the Yard. It was no longer seen as appropriate to use an ancient monument to store Naval equipment.  The Royal William Victualling Yard

2430-427: Was devolved to the South West of England Regional Development Agency. In August 1997 there was a £60 million plan by MEPC to turn the Yard into a large factory shopping outlet.  This was followed by a plan by Courtleigh Property Holding Ltd for a £100 million development that would have included a four-star hotel, museum, shops and other businesses. A £10 million plan was revealed on December 5th 2000 to convert

2484-544: Was finally closed on August 26th 1992.   On April 1st 1993 the Yard was taken over by the Plymouth Development Corporation (PDC) along with two other sites at Mount Wise and Mount Batten.  The PDC had plans to spend £45 million of Government money on regeneration and redevelopment.  After the Development Corporation ceased to exist on March 31st 1998, the responsibility for the site

2538-455: Was for almost a century the centre of the city's night life with about a hundred pubs, a music hall and many other attractions. Much of it was destroyed by bombing in World War II. After the war the area between Union Street and the dock has been used by small factories, storage, car dealers and repairers. For decades it remained underdeveloped compared with other parts of Plymouth. Stonehouse

2592-416: Was historically a chapelry of the parish of Plymouth St Andrew's , covering the part of the parish which lay outside Plymouth's borough boundaries. Stonehouse was made a separate parish in 1746. The parish of East Stonehouse was made a local government district in 1872, governed by a local board. Such local boards were reconstituted as urban district councils in 1894. East Stonehouse Urban District

2646-443: Was largely built on reclaimed land, as was Wellington , New Zealand. Land reclamation can be achieved by a number of different methods. The simplest method involves filling the area with large amounts of heavy rock and/or cement , then filling with clay and dirt until the desired height is reached. The process is called "infilling" and the material used to fill the space is generally called "infill". Draining of submerged wetlands

2700-419: Was only ever brewed in very small quantities in the Yard (just enough for the nearby Naval Hospital and Royal Marine Infirmary ); and over time for various reasons (including a steady rise in the Navy's use of tinned food ), the Yard came to be use increasingly for storage and less for manufacturing. In 1891, a significant section of the Royal William Yard (including the Brewhouse, Cooperage and Clarence block)

2754-625: Was released from the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in 1992 and subsequently passed to the Plymouth Development Corporation . Upon the Corporation's closure in 1999, the Yard was then passed to The South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) who funded and carried out the extensive c. £60m restoration of the structural fabric of the majority of principal buildings and infrastructure within the yard between 1999 and 2008. During this period

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2808-439: Was repurposed to provide hydraulic power to the Yard's many cranes. Later, for much of the 20th century, the Brewhouse housed a torpedo workshop. This building has 78 apartments, together with ground floor commercial space for exhibitions, cafés and restaurants. Originally a combination of workshops, offices and storage/seasoning space (built around a pair of concentric quadrangles) the cooperage accommodated 100 coopers to make

2862-773: Was the Beemster Polder in the Netherlands, realized in 1612 adding 70 square kilometres (27 sq mi) of land. In Hong Kong the Praya Reclamation Scheme added 20 to 24 hectares (50 to 60 acres) of land in 1890 during the second phase of construction. It was one of the most ambitious projects ever taken during the Colonial Hong Kong era. Some 20% of land in the Tokyo Bay area has been reclaimed, most notably Odaiba artificial island. The city of Rio de Janeiro

2916-517: Was underway to create 40 flats within the Melville block; other parts of the building contain offices, restaurants, a gym and a cinema. Sixty years after the Yard was completed, the New Cooperage was built to house the coopers and others tradesmen displaced by the Naval Ordnance Board and its workshops. Here there was room for painters, wheelwrighters and a host of other skilled men needed to keep

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