Description

THE GORGE

1126/1/10061 IRONBRIDGE
10-MAY-07 Lincoln Grange, formerly Madeley Union
workhouse

II
Hospital, formerly workhouse. 1871-75. Messrs. Haddon. Buff brick with Polychromatic brick decoration and slate roof. Single and two storey plan.
EXTERIOR: Entrance range, behind which is an H-shaped arrangement of ward-wings with a central range containing the kitchens and dining room. The entrance front has a central gateway. The entrance range has a two storey central block of three bays with a central gateway. This gate and the paired lights at either side have cambered heads. Above are gabled semi-dormers. At either side are long, single-storey ranges which probably originally contained changing rooms and bathrooms for new admissions. All have their original horned sash windows. At the west end is the boardroom and office block with two projecting gables with a recessed lobby between. Through the arch, the central range contains the kitchens and the dining room and has mostly uPVC window units set in their original surrounds. The south front which faces the archway has a door with gabled porch with scissor-beam construction. Above this, set in the gablet of the half-hipped roof is a clock with a louvred turret. The north face of the dining hall has a central, projecting gabled wing with a three-light traceried window. At either side are two pairs of lancets. The ward blocks at either side of this [originally connected by open-sided, covered walkways and now by short C20 ranges] are two storey with new uPVC windows fitted into the original openings. The workshop ranges and the laundry block lie to the west and the laundry has two timber lanterns with louvred gable ends to its roof. The roofs across the whole range of buildings are largely original with decorative ridge tiles and louvred timber vents with tiled or lead caps. The majority of the chimneys rise to their original height and have projecting caps; some have polychromatic, tumbled brickwork to their lower bodies.
INTERIOR: The dining hall has been divided horizontally to create two floors. The projecting bay at the centre of the south front remains at its full original height and shows a scissor-braced truss with decorative chamfering. Many of the ward rooms have been sub-divided and partition walls have been inserted. The boardroom and the office, together with the tiled lobby and lavatory form a separate unit within the building. They retain their panelled doors, windows, cornicing, and the boardroom has 2 marble fire surrounds.
The former infirmary block and the infectious diseases ward to the east appear to be of slightly later date. They have been altered and are not included with this item.
HISTORY: The plan-form of the Madeley Valley Union Workhouse was a radical departure for its date - relying on separate pavilions for the various functions as opposed to the prevailing corridor plan with rooms leading off. This had been advocated in a Poor Law Board circular issued in 1868 titled "Points to be Attended to in the Construction of Workhouses", but it had not been taken up fully anywhere else by this date. The minutes of the Madeley Guardians record that they determined "to accept a ground plan offered by a member of the [Building] Committee and to appoint Messrs. Haddon as the architect to complete and carry the same into effect".
SOURCE: Kathryn Morrison (1999) "The Workhouse"

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: Pavilion-plan workhouses were advocated from the late 1860s as a way of stopping the spread of infections along corridors and allowing a through-flow of fresh air. This example at Madeley appears to have been the first and is pin-pointed as such by Kathryn Morrison in her book "The Workhouse" of 1999. It seems doubtful that it proved influential as other small regional workhouses continued to be built on the corridor plan throughout the 1870s and the influence for change seems to have come from larger, more conspicuous models in cities. Nonetheless, this Madeley example brought to early physical form ideas which were being discussed elsewhere. The building also retains many original features which might have been expected to have been destroyed, such as the original roofing with its turrets and louvers and the original chimneys. The plan form remains little-altered and can be read with relative ease.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671290

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.

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