23 Warren Lane, Lickey

Summary

A late C18/early C19 nailworker's cottage with attached workshop.

Reasons for Designation

23 Warren Lane, a former nailworker's cottage with attached workshop, dating from the late C18 or early C19, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* As a good example of a vernacular dwelling in the Bromsgrove area, with features characteristic of the period;
* For its good degree of survival with much historic fabric both internally and externally;
* For the survival of its attached workshop which, although rebuilt in the early C20, demonstrates the original form and function of the cottage.

Historic interest:
* As a rare surviving example of a nailworker's cottage with attached workshop, a building type once common to the Bromsgrove area.

History

Bromsgrove and its surrounding area were known as a centre of the nailmaking industry for centuries; from at least the early C17 until the C20, supported by easy access to the iron and coal of the West Midlands. At its peak in the mid-C19, the nailmaking industry employed around 30% of the population in the area around Bromsgrove. As nailmaking required relatively little equipment, it was most commonly carried out in small workshops attached to the cottage of the nailmakers themselves. These were often rows of cottages or semi-detached pairs with a shared workshop or nailshop with a small forge. The cottages themselves were usually one or two rooms per floor, and often multiple members of families were involved in nailmaking. In some agricultural areas, nailmakers would divide their working year between nailmaking and other occupations such as agricultural labouring or market gardening. The nailmaking industry declined in the later C19 and early C20.

Rose Cottage is thought to date from the late C18 or early C19, and is understood to have been part of the land belonging to the Hewell Grange estate of the Earls of Plymouth. It has been occupied by the present owner's family since the mid-C19. The workshop attached to the cottage is understood to have been rebuilt around 1914, at which time it was used for shoemaking. The cottage was partially reconfigured in the second half of the C20, at which time the main entrance door was moved and the original winder stair taken out.

Details

A late C18/early C19 nailworker's cottage with attached workshop.

MATERIALS: the cottage is built of brick under a tile roof, with timber and metal windows.

PLAN: the cottage is the northern half of a semi-detached pair, and is aligned roughly north south. It faces west.

EXTERIOR: the cottage has two windows to each floor on its west front; those to the ground floor have cambered heads and are three-light casements. First floor windows are two-light casements, and above these are dentilled eaves. Between the ground floor windows is a projecting square bay which is in the position of the original main entrance. The chimney stack rises from the rear corner. At the northern end of the cottage is a single storey projection containing the workshop and the current main entrance. The workshop has dentilled eaves to match the cottage and a large window in its northern elevation, and a tall chimney on its east side.

To the rear is a single storey extension in brick with a rear door and two windows.

INTERIOR: the main entrance opens into a small lobby to the side of what was the workshop, with the workshop beyond. This is a single room but has a small pantry partitioned off, and there is an early-mid C20 tiled fireplace surround against the chimney breast. An opening in the side wall of the original cottage gives access to the main living room; this opening is in the position of the original winder stair. The living room retains a late-C19 fireplace range with an inbuilt cupboard to the side. The fireplace has a chamfered bressumer supported at one end on a post now encased in later timber. Across the centre of the ceiling is a substantial chamfered beam, with lamb's tongue stops at the fireplace end. The ground floor windows have timber mullions which are chamfered on the internal side.

The second downstairs room has a suspended timber floor, and gives access to the rear extension and the inserted stairs to the first floor. There are two rooms on the upper floor, one with a large corner fireplace.

Sources

Books and journals
Kings, Bill, Cooper, Margaret, Glory Gone: The Story of Nailing in Bromsgrove, (1999)

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