The documents, transferred from the Admiralty, consist of twelve plans. Five of them are of the whole yard; two date from ca.1740 and the others from 1810, 1845, and 1878 respectively. The 1878 plan includes the adjoining victualling yard. Alterations in the nineteenth century are shown in plans of the proposed new entrances to the wet dock, 1813, and mast pond, 1828; and the proposed slips off the basin, 1844. The final plan is of three detailed sections through the single and double docks and shows dimensions and building materials, 1838

Administrative / biographical background
Deptford dockyard was founded in 1513. It was the leading dockyard in the sixteenth century but, owing to the silting of the Thames, by the eighteenth century it's use was restricted to building ships and to distributing stores to the other yards and fleets abroad. The yard was closed between 1830 and 1844 and the establishment of the yard reduced to a warden in 1832. After a limited revival for building it was finally closed in 1869. Some of the land is still leased to the Navy.