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

• 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

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  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
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  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
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  For the Record
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  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
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  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
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  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings