Devonshire Dock Hall (often abbreviated to ''DDH'') is a large indoor

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to bef ...

and assembly complex that forms part of the

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenue ...

shipyard in the Barrow Island area of

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 t ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. ...

, England.

History

Constructed between 1982 and 1986 by Alfred McAlpine plc for

Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering, Ltd (VSEL) was a shipbuilding company based at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria in northwest England that built warships, civilian ships, submarines and armaments. The company was historically the Naval Construct ...

, DDH was built on land that was created by infilling part of

Devonshire Dock Devonshire Dock is the oldest of the four docks which make up the Port of Barrow in Barrow-in-Furness, England. Although the dock falls under the control of Associated British Ports it is currently solely utilised by BAE Systems. Upon completion ...

with 2.4 million tonnes of sand pumped from nearby Roosecote Sands. The purpose of the indoor shipbuilding facility was to protect vessels from external weather conditions and prevent satellites from photographing secret technologies involved. DDH provides a controlled environment for ship and submarine assembly, and avoids the difficulties caused by building on the slope of traditional slipways. Outside the hall, a 24,300-tonne capacity

shiplift A shiplift is a modern alternative for a slipway, a floating dry dock or a graving dry dock. A shiplift is used to dry dock and launch ships. It consists of a structural platform that is lifted and lowered exactly vertically, synchronously by a ...

allows completed vessels to be lowered into the water independently of the tide. Vessels can also be lifted out of the water and transferred to the hall. The shiplift was the largest in the world upon completion. The first use of the DDH was for construction of the ''Vanguard''-class submarines nuclear-powered

ballistic missile submarine A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The United States Navy's hull classification symbols for ballistic missile submarines are SSB and SSBN � ...

s (SSBNs) (, , and ). The shipyard is currently constructing the s the first of which HMS ''Astute'' was launched in 2007.

Structure and dimensions

The steel frame DDH is the tallest building in Barrow at and could be described as a '

Groundscraper A groundscraper is a large building that has relatively few stories but which greatly extends horizontally. Definition MSN Encarta defines ''groundscraper'' as "a large low or medium-rise building, typically containing offices, that spreads hori ...

' having an overall length of , width of and an area of - over 6

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

s. DDH is the second largest indoor shipbuilding construction complex of its kind in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

after Dockhalle 2 of

Meyer Werft Meyer Werft is one of the major German shipyards, headquartered in Papenburg at the river Ems. Founded in 1795 and starting with small wooden vessels, today Meyer Werft is a builder of luxury passenger ships. 700 ships of different types have be ...

in Germany. It is visible from miles around, most notably from the Blackpool Promenade which is over 20 miles away.

Future expansion

DDH is at the centre of a £300 million redevelopment of the shipyard that commenced in late 2014. A large extension to the hall is under-construction to enable construction of the ''Dreadnought''-class submarines, the replacement for the Vanguard-class SSBNs. Proposals were also put forward in 2019 to re-clad the DDH in its entirety to extend the lifetime of the building. The projects are the largest investment at the shipyard since the construction of DDH itself.

References

Sources

* {{coord, 54.1104, -3.2374, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall Devonshire Dock Hall

History

Structure and dimensions

Future expansion

See also

References

Sources