Description from record TQ 76 NE 122 :
(TQ 7583 6902) SAM No. 248 [Hatchelling House; scheduled]. (1) #2100 was set aside in 1787 for the provision of a new hatchelling house with cellar at Chatham. (2)

Description from record TQ 76 NE 136 :
(TQ 75836902) SAM No. 210 (Scheduled). (1) A square red brick building with grey headers and a slate roof. Built as an engine or boiler house in the second quarter of the 19th century. (2)

From Scheduled Ancient Monument record:
A tall narrow brick building of three storeys built onto the N end of the Double Ropehouse. Construction started in 1787 and was apparently completed by the end of 1788. Occupies site of N end of former Spinning House. Hatchelling was the process whereby the hemp fibres were straightened by pulling them across boards in which were set closely-spaced iron spikes. (4)

The following text is from the original listed building designation:
TQ 76 NE CHATHAM ANCHOR WHARF
(East side) Chatham Dockyard
762-1/8/32
Former Hatchelling House
and Engine Room
24.5.71
GV II*
Hatchelling house. 1787-1791. Brick with slate and tiled hipped roof.
PLAN: single depth hatchelling room with attached store to the rear, and left-hand warehouse. EXTERIOR: 2 storey 4-window range hatchelling room; 4-storey 6-window range store. Hatchelling room has a wide end with pilaster strips one bay in to a corbelled cornice, parapet and central pediment containing a louvred lunette. Round-arched doorway with radial fanlight and double doors set within a matching recess, with tall right-hand 16/20-pane sash, first-floor 8/8-pane sashes and an off-centre hoist door with iron pivot hoist to the right. Right-hand return has 4 first-floor windows with paired 6/6-pane sashes. To the left a 4-storey range projects forward with 2 windows to the N end and 9-windows E side. Regularly-spaced rubbed-brick flat arches to 8/8-pane casements. Store to rear is recessed above the ground floor, with flat-headed casements.
INTERIOR: large wooden stair flight, with timber posts supporting the floors. HISTORY: hatchelling was the first part of the rope-making process in which the hemp was combed preparatory to spinning in the spinning house of the ropery (qv).
Built as part of the late C18 rebuilding of the S end of Dockyard, with the new Ropery, Rigging Store and Yarn houses (qqv). Part of the best ropeyard in the country, and a fine assemblage of Georgian dockyard buildings.
(Sources: Coad J: Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850: London: 1982: 163 ; Coad J: The Royal Dockyards 1690-1850: Aldershot: 1989: 211 ; MacDougall P: The Chatham Dockyard Story: Rainham: 1987: 90; The Buildings of England: Newman j: West Kent and the Weald: London: 1976: 205).
Listing NGR: TQ7582869016 (5)

Additional reference (6)

<1> English Heritage 1:1250 SAM location maplet (OS Card Reference). SKE41612.

<1> English Heritage SAM Location maplet (OS Card Reference). SKE41625.

<2> English Heritage SAM descriptive text (J Coad) (OS Card Reference). SKE41624.

<2> Jonathan G Coad, 1989, The royal dockyards 1690-1850: architecture and engineering works of the sailing navy. No.1 (Bibliographic reference). SKE6362.

<3> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

<4> English Heritage, Register of Scheduled Monuments (Scheduling record). SKE16191.

<5> English Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest (Map). SKE16160.

<6> Coad, J., 1982, Historic Architecture of Chatham Dockyard 1700-1850 (Article in serial). SWX7760.