The Victoria Foundry Machine and Erecting Shops Now Rover Garage

Details

LEEDS

SE2932NE FOUNDRY STREET, Holbeck 714-1/80/1315 (South side) The Victoria Foundry machine and erecting shops, now Rover Garage

GV II

Foundry workshops, now car repair premises. 3 phases of building, between 1863 and 1882, with late C20 modifications. Part of Smith, Beacock and Tannett's Victoria Foundry. Cast-iron, possibly steel frames with brick infill (1:5 English bond); vertical timber cladding on the latest (1882) range. Corrugated asbestos roof. A tall single storey with inserted flooring in parts, 3x9 bays. Facades: the main 3-gable front faces NE. Brick (1875-77) on left and timber cladding (1882) on right. 3, 2, 2 tall round-headed windows, the left 3 in stretchers, those to centre and right in wood frames; the lower part of each blocked or altered. Inserted wide access doors in the central bay. Rear (SW facade to Marshall Street): a horizontal timber beam with joist holes is incorporated into the C20 brickwork. Left return (SE facade): 2 phases of building visible here, the left end (4 upper level windows visible) of the early 1860s, and on the right 5 bays of the cast-iron framed erecting shop of 1875-77 which originally extended further south. The left range has cylindrical columns with modern brick infill supporting a horizontal timber beam, above which is a wall of hand-pressed brick (1:5 English bond) with square segmental-headed windows in stretchers; a row of holes below sill level suggest the line of a lean-to roof. The framed wall to right consists of cylindrical full-height columns with cast-in brackets supporting ribbed beams at mid point and eaves levels; sockets at eaves level indicate the position of projecting horizontal beams from the demolished section. Brick infill in random bond, probably 1882. Right return (facing up Foundry Street): a cast-iron frame with box girder at lintel level for the wagon entrance, 2 square windows above. INTERIOR: not examined in detail: 3 parallel pitched roofs, a characteristic 'nave and aisles' arrangement with open-sided upper floors to left and right. 10 pierced cast-iron stanchions on left support more slender stanchions, some pierced, and all with cast-in brackets on the inner face. The right side has only 4 similar stanchions which carry a rivetted box girder, above which are 8 pierced slender stanchions with brackets on inner faces. The roof trusses reflect the building phases: queen posts to west end (1860s), 5 thin-section cast-iron trusses on girders to SE (1875-77) and timber A-frames with iron tie rods and apex shoes to the centre and north aisle (1882). Although it incorporates several phases of rebuilding and alteration this range represents an important phase in the development of the Round Foundry site and in the history of engineering. Matthew Murray pioneered the creation of the integrated engineering works on this site in the late C18 and early C19, and his 'Rotundo' stood in this area. The earlier part of the building (c1863) survived the fire which destroyed the circular assembly shop in 1875, and the iron framed structure built to replace the assembly shop also survives in part. The building standing today represents a typical assembly shop of the later C19, built with an obvious awareness of the earlier building style (tall round-arched windows aligned to catch early morning light, similar to those of the dry sand foundry (qv). It is probably the workshop described as 'a fine new substantial building' in 1888 (Industries of Yorkshire, p.84). The description states that it was 'several smaller workshops thrown into one...by taking down some of the old outer walls and putting iron pillars and girders in their place.' The firm of Smith, Beacock and Tannett was in operation from the late 1840s until 1899, building machines and engines. From the late 1860s they specialised in the production of overhead cranes as well as items for the War Office, the Admiralty and international trade. (West Yorkshire Archaeology Service: Gomersall H: The Round Foundry, Water Lane, Leeds: Notes & Comments; Fitzgerald R: pers. comm.).



Listing NGR: SE2959632819

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

466366

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Gomersall, H, West Yorkshire Archaeology Service in The Round Foundry Water Lane Leeds, (1995)

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