Details
1585/18/93
ELLESMERE RURAL,
BIRCH,
BLACKSMITH'S AND JOINER'S SHOP, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL
BIRCH, BRITISH WATERWAYS BOARD CANAL MAINTENANCE DEPOT, SHROPSHIRE UNION CANAL (SOUTH-EAST SIDE) (LLANGOLLEN BRANCH)
17-SEP-02
GV
II*
Blacksmith's and joiner's shop. Circa 1806, adjoining William Jessop's and
Thomas Telford's Ellesmere Canal, with later additions and alterations. Roughly course sandstone rubble with red brick dressings; the right-hand workshop heightened and rebuilt to front in painted timber frame with red brick infill, with to the right a lower weatherboarded range finishing in a 2-storey bay of sandstone rubble with brick first floor; slate and corrugated iron roofs, half-hipped to canal end.
PLAN: Left-hand (upper) range has ground-floor blacksmith's shop, with on its right external stairs to the first floor which has a pattern store to the right and a joiner's shop to the left. Right-hand (lower) range comprises workshop, heightened from the original single-storey structure in late C19, with to the right end a ground-floor paint shop and a first-floor mess room.
EXTERIOR: Two storeys with dentilled eaves cornice to left (upper) part on both sides and on rear to right (lower) part. All windows except where mentioned have late C19 industrial glazing with lapped glazing set in thin vertical glazing bars. Upper part has tall round-arched windows, with late C19 industrial glazing, on both floors to side facing yard with continuous line of windows in roof lighting joiner's shop above. External wooden steps lead to open-gabled timber projection over round-headed boarded door on first floor; rectangular overhanging projection to right with glazing bar sash to front. Lower range has continuous run of half-glazed sliding doors to front with wide segmental-headed door to right, two segmental windows above and small segmental-headed window to mess room above. Three wide roof lights. Rear has round-headed barred windows to both ranges and stacks in bottom of roof slope. Walkway with slate roof on canal side to right-hand end, with 16-pane sashes above.
INTERIOR: Belt-drive gearing throughout, some boxed in and all powered by the engine house attached to the Timber Store (qv). The interior is notable for the retention of fixtures and fittings, mostly of later C19 date. Blacksmith's workshop has workbenches along southern wall, cupboards on north and west walls, forge with trough and metal shields, bending slab and fixed industrial machinery including drill and lathes. Joiner's shop has retained C19 cupboards, including pigeon hole cupboard on east wall and extensive boxing to machinery which includes workbenches and sawbench; roof has timber principals with wrought-iron tension rods. Pattern shop has racking with many C19-20 patterns for castings. Workshop has timber roof and a late C19 overhead crane comprising a trussed beam; workbench, and four pieces of fixed machinery; matchboard partitions with extensive glazing to corner office. To far right, next to canal, is a first-floor mess room with matchboarded walls, fixed benches, clothes pegs, cast-iron range and stone sink.
An exceptionally well-preserved C19 workshop range, one of the best in the country and comprising part of the best-preserved canal workshop site in Britain. It was very probably built to the designs of Telford and Jessop, canal engineers being traditionally responsible for a wide range of structures from the trim (lettering and mileposts) to locks and keepers' houses. All canal companies had maintenance yards for work on boats, locks, paddle gearing and other aspects of the working fabric of inland waterways.
(Edward Wilson, The Ellesmere and Llangollen Canal (1975), pp. 53-7)
SJ4004134182
