Marc Brunels Sawmill - An Engineering Monument.
Before the introduction of sawmills, all timber at the royal naval dockyards was cut by hand. Timber was delivered to the yard as logs and sawn into planks at specially constructed sawpits, in which two sawyers, one in the pit (the pitman) and one outside it (the topman), cut the timber with a two-handed saw. Sawpits were usually rectangular and brick-lined, often grouped together in single-storey, open-sided wooden...
Before the introduction of sawmills, all timber at the royal naval dockyards was cut by hand. Timber was delivered to the yard as logs and sawn into planks at specially constructed sawpits, in which two sawyers, one in the pit (the pitman) and one outside it (the topman), cut the timber with a two-handed saw. Sawpits were usually rectangular and brick-lined, often grouped together in single-storey, open-sided wooden...
Marc Brunel Sawmill Tunnels & Communications Bunker, Chatham Dockyard - Nov 2016