Kenilworth Works

Reasons for Designation

Kenilworth Works is a late C19 specialist works manufacturing horn, tortoiseshell and German silver combs. It forms a good example of a small works known to have housed one of the subsidiary trades which grew from local expertise of working in certain materials used in Sheffield's cutlery industry, an industry recognised as being of international significance. Thus the works has contextual interest in the city's renowned industrial heritage, and merit listing at Grade II.

Details

SHEFFIELD

784-1/0/10100 DENBY STREET 08-APR-08 Kenilworth Works

II Comb Works, now shared workshops. Late C19. Red brick, slate roofs, brick stacks. PLAN: Rectangular courtyard plan formed by two parallel ranges enclosing a yard behind the slightly curved front range, which follows the curve of Denby Street. Brick walls to sides of the yard, that to the west side angled. EXTERIOR: Front range to Denby Street: Three storeys, originally ten bays wide, extended by two bays to west over original open yard entrance. Pitched roof with central ridge stack, now truncated and rendered, stacks to original gable ends, that to east gable truncated, and stack to gable of western extension. Closely spaced two-light casement windows with shallow segmental heads and no sills, many to first and second floors retaining small panes and strap hinges (some on ground floor blocked). Ground-floor brickwork now painted. Entrance doorway in 5th bay from left, east end, with segmental head and overlight. Western extension contains cart entrance with depressed arch springing from stone impost blocks, and painted with the works' name. The windows above are slightly larger than those to original block. Blocked first-floor doorway opening in east gable wall. Rear range: Three storeys and basement, ten bays wide. Straight joint four bays from left, east end, indicating phased development. Stacks to both original gable ends of four eastern bays. First and second-floor windows similar to those of front range, but with deeper heads. First-floor opening to 6th bay from east lengthened to form doorway (now boarded). Ground floor has entrance doorway and wider doorway in 5th and 6th bays from east, and two-light window in 9th bay. Inserted doorway in 4th bay and inserted or altered windows in 3rd, 7th and 8th bays. Stairway to basement protected by plain painted iron railing. Low lean-to addition adjacent to easternmost bay. Wall on west side of yard of two builds. Acute angle at rear into yard in same brick as rear range, straight joint with wall of modern brickwork against which the cart entrance abuts. INTERIOR: Not inspected. HISTORY: George Tandy and Sons, manufacturers of horn, tortoiseshell and German silver combs, occupied the premises from 1870s into C20. Horn and tortoiseshell were among the materials used for cutlery handles and penknife scales and there was local expertise in working them, as there was in German silver (or nickel silver, an alloy of copper, zinc and nickel), which was commonly used as a base metal for electro-plating.

SOURCES `One Great Workshop': The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades', English Heritage (February 2000, unpublished analysis of research) English Heritage, `One Great Workshop': The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades' (2001) `Kenilworth Works, Denby Street, Sheffield' NBR No.98248, 1998.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE Kenilworth Works is a late C19 specialist works manufacturing horn, tortoiseshell, and German silver combs. It forms a good example of a small works known to have housed one of the subsidiary trades which grew from local expertise of working in certain materials used in Sheffield's cutlery industry, an industry recognised as being of international significance. Thus the works has contextual interest in the city's renowned industrial heritage.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

501151

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

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

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.

Print the official list entry