Websters Ropery

Websters' Ropery is a ropery building, now used as offices, dating from around 1793. It was built for Messrs. Webster and Grimshaw and was restored between 1985 and 1987 by Sunderland Borough Council. The structure features coursed squared stone with ashlar dressings, while the returns and rear are made of rubble. It has a Welsh slate roof with ashlar copings and stands four storeys tall with eleven windows. The five central bays project slightly and have keyed round arches with plain stone heads on impost blocks; bays four and eight contain recessed renewed doors. The windows are painted metal; those on the ground floor are longer, and those on the top floor are shorter than the intermediate windows. Originally, the windows were made of iron and featured glazing bars and pivoted central sections. The roof is supported by paired plain brackets and has end gable copings on plain kneelers. A gabled rear wing includes wedge stone lintels above the windows. This building was significant for the manufacture of ropes using the first machine rope-making process in the world, which was patented in 1793 by Richard Fothergill. In 1795, it became home to the first steam engine installed in a ropeworks.