Coalwick Quay · on the river Brant
Rope, laid by hand, since 1874.
Garrow & Voss runs the last full-length ropewalk on the Brant. Two hundred and eleven metres of covered walk, three walks a day, and every length proofed at the crane before it leaves the yard.
The range
What we lay
Mooring & towage
Nine-strand nylon and laid hemp for berthing lines, tow bridles and gangway falls, proof-tested at our own crane.
Haulage & hoisting
Wire-core composite and four-strand manila for hoists, quarries and stage rigging, matched to working loads.
Garden & sail twine
Soft-laid flax twine wound on cedar bobbins, the same stock that rigs the fishing fleet above the weir.
Since 1874
One street, one craft
211 metres
The covered ropewalk dates to the year the yard opened. Tanners once kept their drying sheds at the far end; the smoke stain is still in the beams.
3 walks a day
Morning, noon and the tide walk. The spinners set the pace; the foreman only counts the turns.
1 crane
The proof crane on the quay has tested every rope we have sold since 1891. Nothing ships without its number in the ledger.
From the journal
Notes from the yard
The tar pot at the gate
Why every visitor signs the board by the tar pot before they walk the length.
Counting turns with Nell
Apprentice Nell Fitch counts her first thousand turns, and what the counting is really for.
The winter the Brant froze
January 1963, when the river stopped and the ropewalk kept three walks a day anyway.