Royal Dockyard at Woolwich

Scale: 1:480. A model of the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich made entirely in wood with metal and organic material fittings and painted in realistic colours. The entire dockyard is shown together with a section of the River Thames and its foreshore. All the buildings, walls, and gardens have been realistically depicted, as well as the mast pond, slipways, church, drying sheds, smithery, and officers' terrace. Five ships are depicted in various staging of building including one which has only the keel, stem post, and some first futtocks in position, and another vessel depicted ready for launching with three launching flags. The surface of the mast pond is covered with a single sheet of mica. There is a double dry dock which is empty. The model shows how timber is delivered by barge, sorted into various sizes and shapes, shaped, and stacked. The officers' terrace shows the outbuildings, a connecting alleyway, and the gardens beyond. The model has an ivory scale and an ivory compass rose.
The compass is inscribed: "His Majesty's dockyard at Woolwich contains 16 acres rood and 14 poles". Scale inscribed "A scale of 40 feet to an inch". The model is signed on the underside by its model makers.

Object Details

ID: SLR2905
Collection: Ship models
Type: Topographical model
Display location: Not on display
Creator: Pickthorne, Richard; Haley, John
Date made: 1772 and 1774; circa 1774
People: King George III; Royal Artillery Institution (Museum of Artillery in the Rotunda)
Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Transferred from the Science Museum, London, 1993
Measurements: Overall model: 95 x 1160 x 417 mm
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