A Summer's Day in 1790, Plymouth Dock Town
Wed, 06 Aug 2008
NB: The narrative is fictional, but people, places, events and quotes below are real, and based on my primary research, which includes 18th century Royal Engineer letter books. Plymouth Dock Town is present-day Devonport. The Governor’s House is present-day Admiralty House where I live in a temporary grace and favour flat. In November 1787 the Duke of Richmond appoints Lt Col Elias Durnford as Commanding Engineer, Plymouth to replace Lt Col Mulcaster who is transferred to Portsmouth.
1790
Your Grace,
The Ordnance Architect, J Wyatt, doth not find leisure to give any answer to the various written applications made …
Lt Col Elias Durnford, Commanding Engineer, Royal Corps of Engineers, Plymouth, puts down his pen and drums his fingers. Playing piggy in the middle to James Wyatt, Architect, and Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond, Cabinet Minister, and Master-General of the Ordnance is no job for the feint of heart.
He stares out to sea and remembers adventure. Durnford engineered the shift of swamp to city in the British frontier of West Florida. He faced alligators, yellow fever, the Spanish and still had leisure to design the infrastructure of Pensacola. And now? Townspeople object to the 12 foot high King’s Wall, and send delegation letters that bite with more annoyance than ten-fold of Florida mosquitoes. They believe the wall stops the free circulation of air and renders the Town unhealthy? Let them move to Florida and experience true unhealthy air.
Of greater annoyance is Wyatt. A talented but feckless architect who fails to respond. Wyatt shows no willingness to sally forth and oversee the build of his design for the Governor’s New House in Plymouth Dock Town. Durnford paces his office, and wonders how best to reach a long arm to London, grab the recalcitrant Mr Wyatt Esq of Queen Ann Street East by the scruff, and shake him into action.
Durnford ponders the wisdom of shifting the seat of power from the Governor’s House in the Citadel, Plymouth to this new location. But all are agreed the house Wyatt designed at the Citadel is faulty. Sea air seeps through the stone walls. The Necessary is an ongoing bone of contention for Lt Gov Campbell. The site itself is problematic. In 1787 Richmond acquiesced to a new build.
I think it will be proper for you to write me an Official Letter stating fully the defects of the present Building both with regard to its Construction and Situation, the great Expense that would attend the Repair of it, its unfitness for being the Place of Residence of the Governor even if thoroughly repaired, and recommending the Building a New House in a Situation where the Governor’s presence may be more Necessary than in the Citadel, stating also the advantages that would arise from placing it on the Spot within the Lines which has been already examined with that view.
In 1789 Parliament approved exactly four thousand seven hundred forty three pounds seven shillings and four pence to build the Governor’s New House on a commanding headland overlooking the Hamoaze. The sum is based on Wyatt’s estimate. It is not to be exceeded.
The commission is confirmed in a letter from Richmond to Lt Col Durnford, May 1789;
I would have you begin immediately to Excavate the Foundations for the Governor’s House in the Situation which Lt Governor Campbell and Colonel Fox agreed with you in preferring. I believe you are in possession of all the necessary Drawings for carrying on this executing it. Whether you would propose to build the outside Walls of Plymouth Stone and case them with Red Brick such as you can get at Plymouth, or whether you think it would be better to face the Walls with white Brick from Hampshire and to build the interior part of them with Plymouth Stone, You will at the same time consider what difference there may be in the Expence of these two Methods and for this purpose it will be necessary for you to make enquery at what Price you can get white Bricks delivered at Plymouth.
It is a hot summer’s day. The penultimate day in July 1790. Durnford looks at the letter he has written to the Duke of Richmond.
I beg leave to inform Your Grace that I find the money estimated for Building the Governors New House at Dock Lines will be entirely expended by the time the Roof is placed thereon which I expect will be by the end of next Month and all the Credit due to said Estimate for Drains Reservoirs & the Works performed and not mentioned in the Original Estimate also. I therefore request Your Grace will please to inform me from whence I am to obtain Money to Compleat the Building, as Mr Wyatt hath sent an Overseer for this purpose otherwise I must shortly desist carrying it on.
Wyatt is the last of the Ordnance Architects with such uncontrolled power. His reach exceeds his grasp, and creates a belief he can accept more public and private commissions than mere ordinary men can attend. Delay, overspend, accusations of shoddy workmanship and poor materials result. After his death in 1813 the Board of Works alters the office of the Surveyor of Works to allow a political appointee to oversee the work of three attached architects.
But Durnford is a man with a mission. The Governors New House must be built. Money will be found. And it is. He appoints Lieut Wheldale Director of the Building. Durnford requests Wheldale prepare it with all possible dispatch. Patent Slating, Dun stone, Ironmongery, firkins of cement, rubble, brick, lime etc etc etc are freighted, shipped and carted to site. By November 1790 they are ready to Slate the Kitchen and Court Martial Rooms. The House, at last, is almost complete.
- Share:
- References (0)
