Monument record MWX1010 - Longfleet Rope Works, Poole

19th century sailcloth manufactory, later becoming a ropery with covered and open rope walks in the later 19th century.

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>

Record last edited

Mar 2 2022 4:27PM