Worcester Engine Works

Details

WORCESTER

SO8555SE SHRUB HILL ROAD
620-1/14/520 (North side)
30/10/80 Nos.11-15 (Consecutive)
Worcester Engine Works
(Formerly Listed as:
SHRUB HILL ROAD
Nos.11A,B, D, E; 12-15
(Consecutive))
II

Large engineering works, now housing separate industrial units.
1864 with later additions and alterations. Designed by Thomas
Dickson for the Worcester Engine Works Company Limited. Red brick
with dressings of stone and blue and yellow bricks. Multiple
north-light roofs of slate and corrugated sheet with patent
glazing on trusses and columns of wrought-iron and cast-iron.
Iron-framed windows. STYLE: Italianate with polychromatic
decoration. Series of large, full-height workshops together with
ancillary and office accommodation arranged on 2 storeys.
Principal elevation extends for approx. 125 metres along Shrub
Hill Road from its junction with Tolladine Road. Mainly of
2-storey height. Central pedimented bay with slightly set back
flanking wings the end bays of which break-forward to align with
centre bay; further wings of diminished height to left and right,
that to left, which turns the road-junction, surmounted by
pedimented clock tower. 37 first-floor windows:
(1:2:1:2:8:1:3:1:8:2:8). Stone detailing includes sills and
continuous sill bands, moulded string course below frieze,
cornice and parapet coping. Brick detailing includes, quoins,
pilasters, bands between ground and first-floor windows, window
and door surrounds, recessed panels below sills and above window
heads, decorative frieze with modillions. Window openings have
either segmental or semi-circular arched heads. The central bay
has tall triple-light first-floor window flanked to each side by
smaller single window with oculus over. These and majority of
windows are multi-pane in metal frames with small horizontally
pivoted opening section; some on the ground-floor have later
brick-blocking. Windows to clock-tower block are 2/2 sashes on
the first-floor and 4/4 on the ground-floor; windows to far-right
wing are 2/2 and 2/1 sashes, all with arched heads and in plain
reveals. Two main entrances in centre bay have paired replacement
6-panel doors. Door to right-wing is half-glazed replacement. 2
doors to left of centre are later insertions into former window
openings. The return and rear elevations are in similar but
simplified style.
INTERIOR: retains structural ironwork including cast- and
wrought-iron lattice girders and diagonal boarding to underside
of roof covering.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The Worcester Engine Works Company was set up in
1864 by a group of railway entrepreneurs to manufacture
locomotives and rolling stock. It was linked by rail to the main
line; these links also extended via a subway (still existing) to
premises on the south side of Shrub Hill Road (the rail links are
clearly shown on the 1886 Ordnance Survey Map). It later became
the West Central Wagon Works whose principal work was the
manufacture of railway carriages and wagons. The adoption of
Swindon by the Great Western Railway for manufacture and repair
sounded the death knell for Worcester, and the Shrub Hill works
were closed by 1871. The Worcestershire Exhibition of 1882,
inspired by The Great Exhibition of 1852 used the ex Engine Works
building as a venue. Heenan and Froude, a Manchester based
engineering company responsible for the manufacture of Blackpool
Tower) occupied the premises from 1903 to 1984. The G.W.R.
carriage and wagon workshops to the N.E. of the site were
demolished in 1968 making the Shrub Hill buildings an important
remnant of the railway era in Worcester.
(Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth:
1968-1985: 38, 333; Old Worcester - People and Places: Gwilliam
HW: Old Worcester - People and Places: Worcester: 1977-: 75-76;
Directory of the County of Worcestershire: Littlebury: Directory
of the County of Worcestershire, 1873: London and Worcester:
808-809).

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

489128

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.