Description

SHEFFIELD

SK3487NE WELL MEADOW STREET
784-1/18/745 (South side)
13/06/88 No.35
and attached workshop ranges and
crucible furnace

GV II*

House and attached workshops and crucible furnace. c1840 and
mid C19, with later C19 and C20 additions and alterations.
Brick with stone dressings and slate roofs.
EXTERIOR: street front has to right a house with rendered rear
and right return, 2 gable stacks, and wooden gutter and
brackets. 2 storeys; 3 window range. Central plain sash
flanked by single boarded-up windows, all with stone lintels.
Central wooden pilastered doorcase with cornice and door with
overlight, flanked by single windows with keystone lintels,
all boarded up. At the rear, a small C20 casement, and to
right a larger window, boarded up.
To left, a mid C19 workshop block, 3 storeys; 7 window range.
2 gable stacks. On the upper floors, six 2-light casements and
to right, above the entrance, a larger 4-light casement, all
under continuous wooden lintel. Below, to left, 2 boarded-up
windows and a door, and to right a cart opening with double
board doors and wooden lintel.
At the rear, similar fenestration with 4-light casement to
left, then an inserted 4-pane window, then four 2-light
casements. To right, a half-glazed door with external wooden
steps, then another 2-light casement. Second floor has the
same fenestration as the front. Below, cart opening to left
and altered openings to right, with a small lean-to addition.
To right, single storey crucible furnace, late C19, with
lean-to roof and reduced rear wall crucible stack with 6
flues. Central door with tall segment-headed overlight,
flanked by single tall segment-headed windows, all with
glazing bars. To right, steps down to firing cellar. Street
front has reinforcing bars and firebrick bands, and 2
segment-headed louvred ventilators.
INTERIOR has vaulted cellar with 6 crucible holes and coal
chute from street.
To right, a short return with a small 3-light window above and
a larger segment-headed 3-light window below. To right, a
slightly higher projecting range, 2 storeys, forming the left
side of the courtyard, with external steps to off-centre door,
and below, altered openings.
Rear of courtyard has a range of single storey buildings with
part-glazed garage doors, mid C20. To right, an open bay used
as a store.
Right side of courtyard, c1840 and mid C19. 2 storeys; 11
window range. Single gable stack. Central brick and stone
steps to first floor door with wooden jambs and small
fanlight. To its right, seven 2-light casements, and to left,
3 similar casements, then a large blocked window. Below, a
narrow doorway under the steps, flanked to left by three
2-light casements and to right by a 3-light casement, then two
2-light casements. To right again, a single storey lean-to
addition, with 4-panel door and C20 window.
HISTORICAL NOTE: these buildings form the best surviving
example of the small scale integrated steel and cutlery works,
characteristic of the cutlery and edge tool trades which
developed in the city centre in the early C19. The complex
included both primary steel production in the crucible
furnace, and final product finishing in the adjacent
workshops. The block on the right of the courtyard remains in
use for the manufacture of scissors, the remainder is
presently disused and largely boarded up. Crucible steel
making at this scale remained a significant and economic means
of producing high quality tool steel and alloy steels, and
remained relevant to the industries needs until the mid C20.

Listing NGR: SK3465887744

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Well Meadow Street Crucible Furnace at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7981098

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)