Braime Pressings Limited

Details

LEEDS

SE3032 HUNSLET ROAD 714-1/43/10074 HUNSLET 21-MAR-06 (Northeast side) BRAIME PRESSINGS LIMITED (Formerly listed as: HUNSLET ROAD HUNSLET 153 AND 155 BRAIME'S PRESSED STEEL WORKS)

II Pressed steel works, 1911-13, with later additions and alterations, on the site of an earlier foundry. Architect unknown. Red brick and terracotta frontage and office suite with slate roofs, steel framed workshops with glazed roofs.

PLAN: Office suite to the front, off-centre, with brick-fronted works behind and to either side, consisting of 4 adjacent rows of sheds running back from the frontage, open internally, each with a glazed pitched roof, of varying width and length. Other sheds of a later date surround the core, and to the south, the fragmentary remains of a C19 foundry (Brookfield Foundry) are incorporated into the works.

EXTERIOR: Main entrance in the central block which has three storeys and clerestory, and five bays. Central doorway with double panelled doors in a round arch with flanking columns bearing raised floral motifs, supporting an open segmental pediment above cartouche and cornucopias. Two round arch windows to either side with stone dressings, five above without stone, and four to the second floor with a central clock in brick setting. `AD 1913' in raised terracotta above first floor windows.

To the right of this block is a two storey block, the Canteen, with hipped clerestory roof and ten windows along the front, projecting by four windows and an entrance from the central block. Front windows are the same shape as on the centre block, but leaded with stained glass in the upper arched lights. On the return towards the centre, the first floor windows are the same as the front, and the ground floor windows are not leaded but have stained glass and stone dressings. A round arched vehicular entrance to the rear has stone dressings and two windows above, and an angled section to centre block has a round arched doorway and an engraved round window above, both with stone dressings. The first floor window is as the others.

To the left of the centre block is a single bay, two storey block with a hipped roof and seven windows to the side as on the centre block. An attached single storey block to the front is a 1995 rebuild of an earlier Post Office building bought by the company in 1931: not of special interest. Further brick fronted ranges to each side are not of special interest, though those to the left of the core have some value visually in their front elevation.

Machine shop bay behind the main entrance and office block with a narrower lower bay to the left. Two wider and higher bays to the right behind the two-storey canteen block, originally designed for a steel mill but not used as such. To the rear, the central bays have brick walls pierced by large multi-paned round arched windows. A small two-storey brick block to the rear of the left hand bay, housing toilets and stores.

INTERIOR: The ranges described above house an office suite and a canteen which back on to the working areas in the glazed steel framed sheds behind. Original half-tiled corridor with terrazzo floor. Internal glass windows to office have leaded and stained glass in the upper sections with art-nouveau style floral motif. The office facing onto the workshops has half glazed walls in the same style, original double doors, a curved corner and a glass pyramidal roof. First floor office also overlooking workshops has curved sides and leaded glass. Internal and external windows onto the workshops are in similar style, including a circular window above the first floor office. Ground floor reception room with mahogany screens installed in 1930's with materials from a local bank. First floor offices include a boardroom with panelling and later remodelling, and corridors with round arched doorways. Other rooms were largely remodelled in the 1970's.

Workshops with steel frames and trusses supporting roofs originally of glass, now with a mixture of coverings, mostly replacements. Largely open between, with some remnants of original wall between the two left hand bays of the four. Rear walls brick with some round-arched windows. Outer ranges mainly later and not of special interest, though including, on the southern edge, heavily altered walls and roof of a late C19 furnace already on the site when taken over by Braime.

HISTORY: The firm was founded by two brothers, T.F. and J.H. Braime, in 1888, initially to manufacture oil cans. They purchased the site from the Union Foundry Estate and took over some of the existing buildings while building the offices and initial machine shops that now form the core of the site. They joined with a group of Leeds manufacturers, including Joseph Kayes and Henry Berrys, who were working with or producing equipment for pressed metal products. Braime Pressings diversified into deep drawn pressings, a specialised field, and still supplies a wide variety of industries with pressed steel components.

The first new buildings, consisting of the main façade, offices and the two bays immediately behind them, were constructed in 1911-14. The Canteen building to the right was built in 1917 on land purchased in 1916, and the two tall bays behind were constructed at around the same time. Originally intended for rolling mills, these were instead used for more presswork, probably in response to the demand for munitions during the First World War. The company played an important role in armament provision at this time and in 1914 Braimes was one of only two industrial plants in the city with a police guard.

It was the introduction of female staff to the factory that prompted the provision of a canteen, as it was considered necessary to provide female staff with hot meals during their shifts. The canteen facilities, originally with separate floors for men and women staff, is a significant piece of social history, marking the changing employment patterns enforced by the War, in the absence of men who were engaged in fighting. An advertisement of 1920 shows that the firm continued to produce a range of armament components after the War, as well as motor car parts, agricultural products and other pressed steel items.

A number of later extensions in both directions from the central core were made in the 1930s and later: these are not included in the designation. The former Brookfield Foundry buildings were also incorporated into the main factory.

The Leeds engineering industry had its roots in the provision of textile machinery, beginning in the 1790s. By the mid-nineteenth century it was Leeds' second largest employer, specialising in heavy engineering especially boilermaking for the locomotive industry. Pressed steel as a specialised part of the engineering industry began in the later nineteenth century, when Samson Fox at the Leeds Forge pioneered developments in pressed steel fabrications. Braime Pressings' development of oil-cans took place at around the same time and the firm subsequently developed its own specialism in deep-drawn work. The demand for munitions such as shells and mines during the First World War provided a major impetus to the technology and it was during this period that Braime reached its peak as an employer. The Black Country had the main concentration of firms, but the large works at Kirkstall, now gone, was important, and Braime Pressings was and is nationally known in this specialised and important element of the engineering industry. Its isolation from the main centre of similar engineering works forced the firm to diversify which has contributed to its survival.

SOURCES: - Leeds - an Architectural Survey of Urban Development Corporation Areas. RCHM 1989 - Industrial Development in South Leeds 1790 - 1914, Part II E J Connell, University of Leeds PhD thesis 1975 - N. Braime, report dated 20/08/2006

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The core of this well preserved engineering works, designed for the production of pressed steel components, is of special interest as a nationally important component of a specialised industry type strongly associated with the Leeds area in the late C19 and early C20. The core elements of the site are fronted by an impressive and architecturally distinguished facade and office suite retaining many original features. This frontage is extremely rare in its quality and decorative detail, and is unparalleled in surviving engineering works of the period. The core of this large site, consisting of both offices and engineering sheds dating to between 1911 and 1917, is largely intact. The side sections are mainly later and are not regarded as of special interest. The significance of the site in a national context is confirmed by current research on engineering works being undertaken by English Heritage.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

493549

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Connell, E J, Industrial Development in South Leeds 1790-1914, (1975)
RCHM, , Leeds-an architectural survey of urban development corporation areas., (1989)

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