Reasons for Designation
The crucible steel furnace is recommended for designation at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* It is a rare survival of a specialist building type once prevalent in C19 urban Sheffield and crucial in its International pre-eminence of reputation in the manufacturing of quality metal goods
* It clearly expresses a regional specialism, and is highly significant as a rare survivor of this industrial building type despite its late date
* The significance of the process to Sheffield's industrial development is underlined by the fact that these buildings continued to be built into the C20 and were later fundamental to the city being at the vanguard of steel alloy innovations. This particular building is the latest known example, having possibly been constructed as late as World War II
* The melting shop and ancillary rooms which form the crucible steel furnace are largely intact, with the retention of the distinctive wide crucible stack and cellar with 6 individual melting hole ash pits.
Details
SHEFFIELD
784-1/0/10138 CLUB MILL ROAD
15-JUL-10 The Crucible Steel Furnace
II
Crucible steel furnace. Early to mid C20. Brick with concrete plinth and lintels, corrugated iron roof.
PLAN: Built on a square site originally with blind walls forming the boundaries on the S and W sides, and facing into a narrow yard on the E side. Rectangular melting shop with single wide stack with 6 flues to W side elevation. Casting floor originally lit by 3 windows in E wall. Melting holes in front of stack concreted over. Ancillary room adjoining E elevation, with w.c. block beyond, and second ancillary room adjoining N elevation. Both have double doors into the yard, and the melting shop can only be reached through them. Against N elevation of the E ancillary room is a flight of steps accessed from the yard down to the crucible cellar.
EXTERIOR: Built of brick in English bond bonded through adjacent work spaces on the W and S elevations. The melting shop a double-pitched roof with long ridge louvre and a tall, wide stack to its outer side elevation (W), with metal strengthening ties incorporated into the featherings dividing the stack into individual flues for 6 melting holes. Set just beneath the eaves of the E elevation are 3 roughly square windows (now blocked) with concrete lintels and projecting brick sills. Built parallel and against the N elevation of the E ancillary room is a brick-enclosed flight of steps down to the crucible cellar, with a doorway, with timber plank door, facing into the yard. Stair compartment now set in rendered late C20 single-storey extension.
The E ancillary room has a flat roof, with a wide doorway with concrete lintel and timber plank double doors in its E elevation. Above is a horizontal row of metal-framed windows with concrete lintel and projecting brick sill, with 2 similar rows high in the N elevation (now mostly covered by a later extension). At the left-hand end of the E elevation is a lower, flat-roofed w.c. block. Its N elevation faces into the yard, with a narrow window (now blocked) and adjacent doorway to the right, with plank door. Both have concrete lintels, and the window has a projecting brick sill. There are 2 similar (blocked) windows in its E elevation. The S elevations of the ancillary room and w.c. block both have modern security fencing attached at a high level.
The higher N ancillary room also has a flat roof, with a doorway inserted in its originally blind W elevation. The N elevation is blind, forming part of the N boundary. The E elevation has a wide, high opening into the yard, with a concrete lintel.
INTERIOR: The melting shop has rectangular openings (without doors) into both ancillary rooms. The stack projects slightly, and the position of the walls flues is visible just above floor level, some now bricked up. The cellar is reached by a flight of concrete steps, and has brick walls with a frame of bolted steel girders. On top of the frame are steel girders supporting metal honey-comb flooring, with metal plates forming the floor in the melting shop. On the W side of the cellar are 6 melting hole ash pits with steel lintels, each with a steel frame to support a single crucible pot. Above the ash pit openings are 6 horizontal metal tie bands to strengthen the base of the chimney. The melting shop would have been open to the roof and ridge louvre, but now has a suspended ceiling.
The 2 ancillary rooms have ceilings of square, ridged tiles set between beams, possibly of concrete.
The single-storey, late C20 extension set against the E elevation of the N ancillary room, and incorporating the original cellar stair compartment, is not of special interest.
HISTORY
The date of the crucible steel furnace is not known. It is not shown on the Ordnance Survey map published in 1935, though the site was purchased in 1914 by The Old Park Silver Mills Co Ltd, an adjacent complex to the S. It is possible that it was constructed as late as World War II.
SOURCES
'One Great Workshop': The Buildings of the Sheffield Metal Trades', English Heritage (February 2000, unpublished analysis of research), 8-11.
K C Barraclough, Sheffield Steel, (1976, reprinted 1989), 13.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The crucible steel furnace is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* It is a rare survival of a specialist building type once prevalent in C19 urban Sheffield and crucial in its international pre-eminence of reputation in the manufacturing of quality metal goods
* It clearly expresses a regional specialism, and is highly significant as a rare survivor of this industrial building type despite its late date
* The significance of the process to Sheffield's industrial development is underlined by the fact that these buildings continued to be built into the C20 and were later fundamental to the city being at the vanguard of steel alloy innovations. This particular building is the latest known example, having possibly been constructed as late as World War II
* The melting shop and ancillary rooms which form the crucible steel furnace are largely intact, with the retention of the distinctive wide crucible stack and cellar with 6 individual melting hole ash pits.
