Grimsby Cordage Mill

Cordage mill for the manufacture of twine and nets, built in 1899 and extended in 1908, with later minor alterations. The building was constructed for the Grimsby Cordage Company, part of the Cosalt Company whose industrial interests in Grimsby also included a net workshop beside the Victor Street Fisher Lads Home and Orphanage and a Waterproof Clothing Company factory in Robinson Street. The mill represents one of the largest purpose-built cordage mills in England at that time, reflecting Grimsby's importance as the world's foremost fishing centre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The building is constructed of red brick in English bond with terracotta dressings. Roofs are Welsh slate with glazed panels, except the southernmost section which has concrete tiles.

The plan forms an elongated rectangle approximately 200 metres long, aligned north-south. The main central manufacturing hall is a tall single-storey building, 41 internal bays long and 3 bays wide, beneath a triple-span north-light roof with a main side entrance to the east. At the south end are 2 tall gabled ranges at right angles to the main hall; at the north end are 2 gabled ranges in line with the main hall, with main entrances to the northwest, terminating in a single-storey office range. Gabled extensions are attached to the west side at either end, with minor 20th-century lean-to additions between.

The east front faces onto an alley behind Convamore Road terraced houses. From left to right it comprises 2 gabled ranges with 1 and 3 windows respectively, a 3-window section of the main hall, a main entrance bay, a projecting 17-window section of the main hall, and taller 3-window and 7-window sections to the far right. The leftmost gabled section has a single door with a tall segmental-headed window above, featuring a shaped terracotta sill, 2-course header brick arch and iron glazing bars. The slightly taller gabled section to the right has 3 stepped windows with similar details, an oculus in the gable with radial glazing bars, and terracotta coped gables and parapet. The 3-window section of the main hall has small 3-pane segmental-headed windows with similar sills and arches.

The entrance bay projects forward and contains a cart entrance with a board door beneath a terracotta segmental arch with hood mould and carved stop plus flush impost band. Above, to each side, is an oculus in a rubbed brick surround with elongated keystones, beneath a terracotta frieze with raised lettering reading "GRIMSBY CORDAGE COMPANY LTD", a modillioned cornice and coped parapet. To the right, the projecting section of the main shed has small 3-pane segmental-headed windows with sills, stepped eaves and a steeply pitched roof with continuous glazed panel and coped gable to the left, with 3 small contemporary lean-to additions. Next right are 2 taller sections with tapered pilaster buttresses; the first section has a single door and 3 windows, the next slightly lower has 7 windows and incorporates the base of a former chimney that breaks the eaves line. This section has exposed rafter ends and a coped gable. To the right is a lower single-storey section with a coped parapet. The north front has 3 windows.

A twin gabled symmetrical section to the right features a rounded corner and quoins. A low central 3-pane window is flanked by larger triple sashes with glazing bars to the upper sashes and single panes below, in terracotta surrounds with quoins, deep chamfered reveals and dripmoulds. The gables have flush bands, moulded coping and segmental pedimented heads. A cast-iron rainwater head is inscribed "GCC 1900". To the left is a coped parapeted section with a glazing bar sash in a deep chamfered reveal and a blocked segmental-headed waggon entrance with terracotta arch. A taller gabled section behind has a coped gable shaped at the apex, with a central oculus with glazing bars in a voussoired surround with hood-mould; a flush band above links a pair of projecting stacks with square-section shafts, prominent bands and caps.

The west side comprises a single-storey, single-window range to the left with a similar glazing-bar sash to the north front in a terracotta surround with quoins and moulded reveal. To the right is a recessed part-glazed panelled door and 3-pane overlight. A taller range to the right has 4 bays divided by tapering pilaster buttresses. The first bay has a part-glazed panelled door with plain overlight; the second and fourth bays have segmental-headed cart entrances with rusticated terracotta voussoirs. The entrance to the left is blocked with an inserted 20th-century casement; the right entrance has a board door. A 20th-century casement is in the third bay. The roof has coped gables and projecting rafter ends; the roof to the lower left range projects on brackets to form a hood to the 2 office doors.

A single-storey range set forward to the right is 6 windows long. The north gable end has a segmental-arched cart entrance with rusticated voussoirs, keyed oculus and coped gable. The west side has small 3-pane segmental-arched windows with moulded sills; a projecting section to the right has a sliding board door flanked by single similar windows and stepped eaves. Next right is the main manufacturing hall with similar windows and eaves details to the east side. The roof is hipped to the left with 5 tall metal ventilators with low pyramidal caps.

A series of later 20th-century lean-to additions with a variety of doors and casement windows incorporates a 4-bay open shelter carried on plain piers. Adjoining the south-west side of the main hall is a long single-storey gabled range in 5 staggered sections of various lengths, becoming progressively slightly taller and wider to the right. The 3 leftmost sections have windows arranged 2:4:2; the window to the far left is partly blocked, the remainder tall with iron glazing bars and rounded brick sills beneath segmental arches. The fourth section has a single similar window, 4 small inserted windows and a segmental-headed cart entrance with a sliding door and 2 segmental-arched 3-pane windows. Stepped eaves and coped gables are present; 2 sections have roof lights. The west side terminates in gable-ends of the 2 taller southern ranges set back to the right. The southernmost has a segmental waggon roof door below 3 stepped segmental-arched windows with late 20th-century blocking. An adjoining gabled range to the left has an oculus in the gable and a coped parapet to the left.

The interior of the main manufacturing hall has pilaster buttresses between bays and windows in alternate bays. At the south end of the west side is an arcade of 7 segmental-headed arches: 5 are blocked, one opens to the south-west extension, and another opens to the main west door. The concrete floor to the manufacturing hall incorporates short sections of rails for trolleys. The roof is a good example of triple-span boarded construction carried on cast-iron pillars with king-post trusses in pitch pine. Early photographs show the pillars were used for attaching twine for net-making.

The building makes an interesting comparison with earlier twine and rope production buildings, such as the famous 18th-century Ropery further up the Humber River at Barton-on-Humber. The building was partly disused at the time of survey.