Former Russell Works, (Now Part Of Kelham Island Industrial Museum)

Former Russell Works, now part of Kelham Island Industrial Museum

This crucible steel furnace, known as a melting shop, was built around 1860 as part of the larger Russell Works complex in Sheffield. It is constructed of red brick with a slate roof and is no longer open to the public.

The building is a single-storey rectangular structure with a mono-pitch roof fitted with skylights. The rear wall contains a stack that extends the full width of the building, housing 20 melting holes arranged in two separate builds: 5 holes on the left side and 15 on the right. The front elevation features 5 alternately taller and shorter round-headed windows, most fitted with metal bars set in timber frames and probably originally unglazed with wooden shutters, though some glazing has since been inserted and no shutters survive. At the north end (left) is a modern vehicular entrance with a steel lintel and metal door. At the south end (right) is the original entrance doorway, probably once round-headed, though its head has been infilled with brick; a steel doorframe remains but no door survives.

Internally, the rear wall stack provides the principal feature, with wall flues and melting holes positioned in the floor, now blocked. Three metal straps brace the stack against distortion above the wall flues. Metal brackets for shelving used to dry crucibles are visible. A mezzanine platform with stairs has been inserted opposite the entrance. The roof comprises braced mono-pitch trusses with principal rafters and tie beams extending from posts set within recesses in the furnace stack.

The building is thought to have housed the firm Wheatman and Smith, which manufactured steel and produced saws, files, and edge tools. The majority of Russell Works' principal buildings have been demolished, and this crucible furnace is now incorporated into the Kelham Island Museum site.

Crucible steel furnaces were critical to Sheffield's industrial development. In the 1740s, local man Benjamin Huntsman developed the process of refining blister steel to produce a superior quality steel known as crucible or cast steel, transforming the city into a major centre of innovation. These furnaces remained the most suitable means of producing specialist alloy steels throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, with many important variants, including stainless steel, invented and perfected in Sheffield. This building is one of a very small number of once numerous crucible furnaces to survive, making it a rare and highly significant example of this specialist industrial building type. England retains only a handful of extant examples.