Description

LEEDS

SE2932NE WATER LANE, Holbeck
714-1/80/858 (South side)
No.101

GV II

Formerly known as: The Round Foundry WATER LANE.
Storerooms and house. c1800, altered late C19. For Fenton,
Murray and Wood's Round Foundry. Brick, slate roof with short
ridge stack left and between 5th and 6th windows.
2 storeys, 7 first-floor windows. 4-pane sashes with flat or
cambered arch heads, margin lights far left; ground floor
altered C20. Full-height straight joint between windows 5 and
6, and header arch to right, underbuilt, with slight change in
building alignment to right.
Rear, left to right: 9-pane sash in flush frame with stone
sill and cambered stretcher arch; blocked loading door and
altered 9-pane window above blocked cart entrance which breaks
forward slightly; added tall 2-storey, 4-window range, 1 room
deep; sash with margin lights. Ground floor left obscured by
lean-to addition and rendered, centre and right.
INTERIOR: not inspected.
HISTORICAL NOTE: although considerably altered in the later
C19, after the closure of the firm of Fenton Murray and
Jackson in 1843, the straight join and blocked cart entrance
indicate that this is part of the works first developed by
Matthew Murray and David Wood in 1795-1802, with capital from
James Fenton and William Lister. The workshops along the
street frontage in 1815 had a yard entrance, indicated as a
covered way in 1850. The works, known as the Round Foundry
after a major building of 1802, was arranged around the
courtyard fronting Water Lane, with further buildings parallel
and further west, across Foundry Street (qv). The buildings
are the remains of the world's first fully integrated
engineering works. The 2-storey range at the rear of the
street frontage is on the site of the brass foundry.
After working as an engineer for the textile trade, especially
Marshall Mills (qv), Matthew Murray developed some of the
first steam-powered machines and machine tools, and brought
together all the processes previously done by separate small
master craftsmen. Great improvements in efficiency and speed
of production resulted, and Murray manufactured large complex
items from textile machinery to steam engines, on this site.
Among the specialist buildings here were the foundry, forge,
finishing shop, erecting shop and drawing office. Orders were
supplied all over the world, including Sweden and Russia. In

1799 Murray showed a representative of Bolton and Watt's Soho
engineering works around the Foundry and from then there was
intense rivalry between the two businesses. Among the items
produced were: beam engines for water works in London and the
Midlands (1807), a flax heckling machine (1809), and in 1811 a
captured French Privateer was brought to the Canal Basin and
fitted with engine, boiler and paddles, becoming one of the
first steam packets, steaming from Yarmouth.
In 1812 his works made two 4ft 1in gauge steam engines on an
iron track to haul coal trucks for the Middleton Coal Company.
This was the first railway for which an act of Parliament was
obtained, the first rack railway and the first railway on
which a steam locomotive was a success. In September, 1813
George Stephenson saw the railway in Leeds and another by
Murray on Tyneside. His engines are considered to have been
copies of the Murray locomotives; The Rocket being developed
16 years later.
Murray died in 1826, when his son in law took over and steam
engines for railways were produced again. In 1834 the first
passenger line to Leeds was opened and between that date and
its closure in 1843 20 broad gauge engines were built for the
Great Western Railway, the most famous being Ixion. From that
time railway engine production was centred on the Railway
Foundry in Pearson Street (qv).
During the 2nd half of the C19 the buildings were the Victoria
Foundry of Smith, Beacock and Tannett, Machine Tool
Manufacturers. For historical information, see No.105 Water
Lane (qv).
(Redman RN: The Railway Foundry, Leeds, 1839-1969: Norwich:
1972-; Netlam and Frances Giles: Plan of the Town of Leeds and
its Environs: 1815-; Captain Tucker, surveyor: Ordnance Survey
Map of Leeds, scale 5ft:1 mile: 1850-; Kilburn Scott E:
Matthew Murray, Pioneer Engineer: Leeds: 1928-: 35, 40).

Listing NGR: SE2962132909

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• The Midnight Bell official website
• Wikidata Q26547341

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Central Leinster: Kildare, Laois and Offaly (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide