Inside Master Ropemaker's

Inside Master Ropemaker's This page has been created to show you an insight into an average day being a Ropemaker. Hopefully you'll find it as fun as we do.

Master Ropemaker's is a rope making company that runs from The Historic Dockyard in Chatham. There has been rope making on this site since 1618 and the buildings that are on site now have been here since 1729. We still use a lot of the original machinery dating from the mid 1800s including an original Henry Maudslay strand forming machine from 1811. It may amaze people but we are still a fully com

mercial business! We produce and sell rope Monday to Friday, 8am-4:30pm all year around. We also make products out of rope. This page was created to show you the side that you don't normally get to see as a visitor to the museum. This is where we will show you; the ins and outs of splicing, interesting jobs, repairing of the machines and mechanisms and even the upper levels of the Ropery that are completely out of bounds to visitors (and even some employees). We hope you enjoy this page and if there is anything specific you want to see or ask, don't hesitate!

08/12/2024
I'm sorry for not posting for a while, I've been having some issues with the page but hopefully I've fixed it n...
25/11/2024

I'm sorry for not posting for a while, I've been having some issues with the page but hopefully I've fixed it now so wanted to take the opportunity to share some exciting news!
We have manila yarn in store and waiting for orders 😁

23/08/2024

On this day in 1947, the last tug-of-war competition occurred between Dockyard departments for the Lord Rochester Challenge Shield.

More recently, The Master Ropemakers were tasked with making a 530m rope to be used in a Guinness World Record attempt for the longest game of tug of war.

The rope is 36mm synthetic h**p; made of two 240 metre ropes spliced with a 50 metre joining piece to create a total length of 530m. Once completed, it was couriered up to Cefn Siden Beach, Wales for the big game.

The record-breaking match took place on 1 March 2024 with a recorded distance of 516.85 metres and a total of 100 participants. The winning team was led by Welsh rugby player Elinor Snowsill.

Head to Inside Master Ropemaker's to view videos of the rope being made.

This was very much a "trust the process" type job. First I ran out of rope, then I had too much rope, then it was the wr...
23/07/2024

This was very much a "trust the process" type job. First I ran out of rope, then I had too much rope, then it was the wrong shape... but we got there!
First time attempting a mat of this size and a side splice so I don't think I did too badly myself 😁

Big shout out to Des Pawson for his fantastic book and Mark the braider on YouTube

Last week our rope lady needed a bit of maintenance, the wind coming off the river had given her a bit of a comb over 😂S...
23/07/2024

Last week our rope lady needed a bit of maintenance, the wind coming off the river had given her a bit of a comb over 😂
Stuart got up in the cherry picker, fixed her hair and retied some of the ropes that had come loose in thr heavy rain and she's looking a lot fresher now 😊

This week we've been working with shroud laid ropes!Making 22mm 4 strands for Stuart to then splice hard eyes into, bund...
11/07/2024

This week we've been working with shroud laid ropes!
Making 22mm 4 strands for Stuart to then splice hard eyes into, bundle up and send off to the customer.
Great work team 👍

We were asked to make a other world record attempting tug of war rope.This one ended up over 650 metres, made from 3 rop...
21/06/2024

We were asked to make a other world record attempting tug of war rope.
This one ended up over 650 metres, made from 3 ropes and 2 long splices.
Definitely a labour of love but loads of fun to do 😁

This is the first photo I'm managed to get where you can see all of them!We have 6 kestrel babies at work and they're cu...
13/05/2024

This is the first photo I'm managed to get where you can see all of them!
We have 6 kestrel babies at work and they're currently having a sleep pile bless them 😍

05/04/2024

This video didn't really need captioning as it's just a very long video of us coiling the tug of war rope.
I have sped it up to 1.5x but feel free to speed up playback as its 8 minutes long... so you can imagine how long it actually took to coil!

Apologies for the delay about the tug of war rope. Its been a busy few days with half term!We finished the 2 36mm ropes ...
05/04/2024

Apologies for the delay about the tug of war rope. Its been a busy few days with half term!

We finished the 2 36mm ropes at around 240 metres and then spliced a 50 metre piece into the middle of them in order to create a 530 metre rope!

It's a first for us to create something this long but it was a lot of fun and we've learnt a lot 😁

28/03/2024

This is part 2 of making the 36mm ropes for the longest tug of war attempt.
The strands have been made so now its time to close the rope.
I filmed this a few weeks ago but I have taken on board the comments about the captions and I hope you enjoy!

27/03/2024

This is part 1 of 3 of a series of videos showing us making a 500m tug of war rope for a world record attempt.
Part 2, the closing of the rope will be posted tomorrow so look out for that 😁

*Also, we're trying something new with our videos. Longer videos with a bit of editing, we're going for a more professional look so let us know what you think. Do you like it? Or do you prefer the shorter videos? Thanks 👍*

We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!The ropewalk is looking particularly stunning this morn...
11/01/2024

We hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year!
The ropewalk is looking particularly stunning this morning whilst closing some 22mm Chatham H**p ropes

Last day of 2023 for us at The Master Ropemakers.We've had a fantastic year and can't wait for the new opportunities hop...
15/12/2023

Last day of 2023 for us at The Master Ropemakers.
We've had a fantastic year and can't wait for the new opportunities hopefully coming our way in the new year!

So a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from us and please enjoy our impromptu Christmas tree 😂

The view from our work station today is a tad drizzly but lovely none the less.We're making wreaths out of 64mm coir (I ...
24/07/2023

The view from our work station today is a tad drizzly but lovely none the less.

We're making wreaths out of 64mm coir (I don't recommend trying to splice coir 😂) but they do look good if I do say so myself 😁

06/04/2023

Well she's finally been unveiled so we can now show you all!

We have been working with artist Lisa Vandy to create this sculpture called "Dancing in Time: The Ties That Bind Us" which will be situated outside The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool.

We have created a small video below which shows the process of making the art which was a brilliant experience and really got our brains working to try skills we've never even thought of before.

We hope you enjoy it 😁

Address

The Historic Dockyard Chatham
Chatham
ME44TG

Telephone

01634 823890

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Inside Master Ropemaker's posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Videos

This video didn't really need captioning as it's just a very long video of us coiling the tug of war rope. I have sped it up to 1.5x but feel free to speed up playback as its 8 minutes long... so you can imagine how long it actually took to coil!

This is part 2 of making the 36mm ropes for the longest tug of war attempt. The strands have been made so now its time to close the rope. I filmed this a few weeks ago but I have taken on board the comments about the captions and I hope you enjoy!

This is part 1 of 3 of a series of videos showing us making a 500m tug of war rope for a world record attempt. Part 2, the closing of the rope will be posted tomorrow so look out for that 😁 *Also, we're trying something new with our videos. Longer videos with a bit of editing, we're going for a more professional look so let us know what you think. Do you like it? Or do you prefer the shorter videos? Thanks 👍*

Well she's finally been unveiled so we can now show you all! We have been working with artist Lisa Vandy to create this sculpture called "Dancing in Time: The Ties That Bind Us" which will be situated outside The International Slavery Museum in Liverpool. We have created a small video below which shows the process of making the art which was a brilliant experience and really got our brains working to try skills we've never even thought of before. We hope you enjoy it 😁

Shortcuts

Share