Midland Junction Foundry

Details

714-1/0/10016 SILVER STREET
04-FEB-03 Midland Junction Foundry

II

Former brass and iron foundry and engineering workshops for the manufacture of textile machinery, now engineering works and storage. 1793, with additions and alterations 1847 and late C19. Built for Joshua Wordsworth and the firm of Taylor Wordsworth and Co. Red brick in 5:1 English bond to north end of west range and south end, east range; random header bond to south end, west range; some stone dressings, corrugated asbestos roofs. Two parallel ranges linked by a bridging range, all of 3 storeys and forming an 'H' plan overall with original cobbled yard between. Fenestration: 6x4-pane cast iron frames and replacements, slightly cambered header-brick arches, thin stone sills.
West range: approximately 20 bays; loading doors bays 1, 9 and 14. The north end building is a steam-powered factory of 11 bays with structural evidence for the power source at the north end, yard [east] and west sides: a tall narrow window to the internal vertical engine house and 2 arches of the 2-bay boiler house, all blocked and with inserted doorway. The base of the square chimney [brick with stone strengtheners] survives at he north-east corner. The rear [west] wall is set back at bay 6 and the end bay has a projecting stair and privy tower with round and rectangular windows. Interior: fire-proof construction with segmental brick arches; the engine house has recess for fly-wheel and plaster cornice to beam engine housing. Part or all of the bridging range is contemporary with this part of the works, having a wide newel stair in the junction between the two sections, the lower treads of stone and upper of wood. The archway is a shallow basket arch of header bricks, with domestic-scale windows to first and second floors north face, frames replaced. The south side of the bridging range has a 6-panel door which opens into a small former office with a blocked opening into the archway. The principal feature of the south face is the 2-tier cast iron open-sided walk-way and loading deck linking the two sides of the works. The lower bridge has 5 roll moulded panels in relief and a moulded rail, ramped down on the left and with added railings. The upper level has 9 panels and the left end curves up. The walkway ends are inserted into blocked openings suggesting they are not original but are additional to the bridging range; they are shown on the c1850 O.S.map. No makers name was seen in the castings. The south arch and small rooms of the bridging range have been altered in the late C20.
West range, south end: 9 windows to yard, taking in doors at each end, those to right have timber frames to protect the brickwork from heavy castings being carried across the yard to the workshops opposite. Ground floor windows blocked. Interior: late C20 re-flooring with steel framework.
East range: 16 bays overall, the south end of 6 bays and 3 storeys. The windows are lower than those on the opposite range, and the south gable has blocked windows and an added central buttress. Interior: ground floor not inspected; timber floor beams, inserted cast iron columns to first floor, queen-post roof trusses with iron boltings and pegged purlins. The east wall is thickened between the windows and the south corners have square internal buttresses, possibly chimney flues.
East range, north end: 2 storeys with a tall single storey shed extension, the open yard side now blocked. Entrance bay 4, blocked ground floor windows.

History.
Joshua Wordsworth built an engineering works to make machines for the linen textile industry in 1793, following the construction of John Marshall's nearby linen mills. The round privy windows are similar to those at the late C18 Marshall's Mills, and the use of stone blocks in the brick coursing also suggests an early date. The thickened walls in the east range, south block suggest an early date or the presence of flues in the wall thickness.By 1820 Wordsworth had joined with John Taylor and dirung the 1860's the works expanded to incorporate the premises of Springfield flax mill [demolished]. The foundry was built at the south end of Silver Street, shown on the c1847 O.S. map as a row of 17 back-to-backs on the west side and single-depth terrace on the east, backing onto the large reservoirs built for Marshall's Mills. The later railway viaduct was built over the reservoirs and the northern end of Silver Street. The Foundry continued to produce textile machinery throughout the C19, latterly as part of the important Keighley firm of Prince-Smith.
Together with the Round Foundry of Fenton, Murray and Wood, the Midland Junction Foundry represents the earliest phase of specialist machine and tool manufacture, part of the major textile and engineering industry of Leeds.

Sources: N and F Giles, 1815 Plan of the town of Leeds and it Environs; Ordnance Survey, 1847 1: 1056 Plan of Leeds; Connell, E.J. 1975 Industrial Development in South Leeds, 1790-1914.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

490030

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Connell, E J, Industrial Development in South Leeds 1790-1914, (1975)

End of official list entry

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