Don Cutlery Works

Reasons for Designation

Don Cutlery Works was assessed as part of a thematic survey carried out by English Heritage to identify the best surviving examples of buildings associated with Sheffield's metal manufacturing and metal working trades. It was identified as a purpose-built, mid-to-late C19 integrated works, with a typical layout of large front range, probably housing offices, warehouses, and workshops, a yard reached through a covered cart entrance, around which are arranged a number of workshop ranges, at least one of which has individual hand forges on the ground floor. This type of complex is very distinctive to the industrial identity of Sheffield, which, at this time was known throughout the world as a centre of excellence in the manufacture and processing of steel. Against the loss of many such buildings in the late C20 due to the severe decline of the industry, Don Cutlery Works survives largely intact and unaltered. In addition to the complex's intactness, it meets the criteria for listing of post-1840 industrial buildings at a national level as the form and layout of the buildings clearly express a regional specialism specific to the nature of the metal working in Sheffield. Don Cutlery Works also has significant Group Value with Doncaster's Cementation Furnace (Scheduled Monument) on the opposite side of the road.

Details

SHEFFIELD

784-1/0/10101 DONCASTER STREET 11-JAN-07 Don Cutlery Works

II Purpose-built cutlery works. Built in several phases from mid to late C19. Red brick, part-rendered, some stone dressings, slate roofs with brick gable and eaves stacks. PLAN: Complex has a U-shaped plan with a courtyard and lower buildings forming a partial fourth side towards the rear. Developed in phases. The street frontage is formed by two adjoining buildings, that to the left, north-west end of double-pile plan, with a workshop range abutting either end running back at right angles, and a short rear range, partly rebuilt as a workshop encroaching into the courtyard. EXTERIOR: Front range of two phases. Earlier, right-hand, building of three storeys, nine bays wide. Double-pitched roof with gable stacks. Front rendered. Ground floor has two wall-tie ends and three segmental-headed windows to right, south-east end, and one straight-headed window to the left, north-west end, all with stone sills, all now boarded up. Nine windows to first and second floors, similar, but those on the second floor shorter, with stone sills and straight heads. Two light timber casements, most now unglazed or boarded up. Left-hand building of three taller storeys, five bays wide. Parallel double-pitched roofs with two gable stacks to outer wall. Front rendered. To right, at junction of the two buildings, is a covered cart entrance with a depressed segmental-arched head, stone base blocks, decorative rendered surround, and cornice carried on console brackets. Ground floor also has three partially blocked straight-headed windows, now boarded up. Five windows to the first and second floors, similar, but those to the second floor slightly shorter, with continuous stone sill bands and segmental-arched heads. Plate glass hung-sashes. Side ranges: The south-east range is narrow in plan, probably three storeys in height, with a blind exterior wall and mono-pitch roof. Facing into the courtyard are two individual hand forges on the ground floor, each with a doorway and window within a single segmental-arched opening. The north-west range is four storeyed and has a double-pitched roof, with five eaves stacks to the courtyard elevation (one now truncated). Rear range: The north-western end has been rebuilt, probably in the early C20, as a single-storey workshop extending towards the street frontage range. Brickwork at the apex of the gable suggests that the building may have had louvred ventilation. Courtyard elevations: Not inspected in 2006. 1998 RCHME survey noted the two forges on the ground floor of the south-east range, four yard elevation stacks to the north-west range, and a hydraulic press, electric motor, and line shafting to the rebuilt single-storey workshop. INTERIOR: Not inspected. The street frontage ranges probably contained offices, warehousing, and workshops, with workshops for various processes in the side and rear ranges, and individual hand forges on the ground floor of the south-east range and possibly the north-west range. HISTORY: The complex was occupied from c1860 until at least 1910 by Southern and Richardson, merchants and manufacturers of cutlery. A trade directory of c1880 lists them as manufacturers of table, silver plated, dessert, cooks, pen and pocket knives, razors, scissors etc. SOURCES: "'One Great Workshop':The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades", English Heritage, February 2000 (unpublished analysis of research), English Heritage 2001 "'One Great Workshop':The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades" London, 'Don Cutlery Works, Doncaster Street, Sheffield', NBR No. 98227, 1998.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE Don Cutlery Works was assessed as part of a thematic survey carried out by English Heritage to identify the best surviving examples of buildings associated with Sheffield's metal manufacturing and metal working trades. It was identified as a purpose-built, mid-to-late C19 integrated works, with a typical layout of large front range, probably housing offices, warehouses, and workshops, a yard reached through a covered cart entrance, around which are arranged a number of workshop ranges, at least one of which has individual hand forges on the ground floor. This type of complex is very distinctive to the industrial identity of Sheffield, which, at this time was known throughout the world as a centre of excellence in the manufacture and processing of steel. Against the loss of many such buildings in the late C20 due to the severe decline of the industry, Don Cutlery Works survives largely intact and unaltered. In addition to the complex's intactness, it meets the criteria for listing of post-1840 industrial buildings at a national level as the form and layout of the buildings clearly express a regional specialism specific to the nature of the metal working in Sheffield. Don Cutlery Works also has significant Group Value with Doncaster's Cementation Furnace (Scheduled Monument) on the opposite side of the road.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

501152

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Wray, N, One Great Workshop: The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades, (2000)

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