Main Tannery Building at Isinglass Factory

Details

TL8422 COGGESHALL

WEST STREET 691/9/10011 Main Tannery Building at Isinglass Factory II

Parts of tannery, gelatine and isinglass works including mill, warehouse and beam house. A complex building, including probable original gelatine/isinglass works of 1847/8 to south west, western tannery building of pre-1853 to south east, mill building to north west dating between 1853 and 1875 and later warehouse to north west in existence by 1875. Built of brick with slate roof and sash or casement windows. This item equates with buildings numbered 2,10,12,13,14, 14.1,15.1 and 16 on the AOC survey. The mill building to the north west is of three storeys and 10 bays with pivoting sashes and oculus to gable end. It was built before the warehouse building to the north east. Internally there is an angled queen strut roof with 5 tiers of purlins. Nailed to the outside edges of the tie beams are pieces of wood with shallow slots cut into them which once held poles which ran between the tie beams which were used to suspend the strips of processed isinglass to dry. Original wooden staircase. North eastern building is of two storeys with 5 windows in each storey of the south elevation and in the ground floor of the north elevation, all with chamfered flat arched heads. Interior has queenpost roof and purlins with horizontal boarding. Ground floor cast colunms. Original staircase. Ground floor housed a single storey horizontal steam engine from 1886, which has been removed, but it was probably originally built as a small warehouse or storehouse. To the north are t"vo single storey projections and to the east a two storey projection whose exact purposes are not yet understood. To the south east is a single storey building with west face painted, in existence by 1853 and thought to have been part of the original tannery complex "with internal tanning pits. The roof has been altered. To the south west is a single storey building, thought to have been the original gelatine/isinglass works of1847/8 with roof altered after 1875 and later called the weighing room and beam house. A further one storey section between the beam house and the western tannery building was built between 1853 and 1875 by infilling the gap. It was formerly used for unhairing and washing skins for gelatine manufacture but later was used for isinglass production. A single storey range links the southwestern and north western parts of the complex, was in existence by 1875 was later used for storing and sorting the dried swim bladders before processing. SOURCE: AOC Archaeology ltd; Isinglass Factory Site, Coggeshall, Essex (Report 1997.)

Listing NGR: TL8417322433

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

470088

Legacy System:

LBS

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