The Crucible Steel Furnace

Crucible Steel Furnace, early to mid 20th century

A rare example of a specialist crucible steel furnace built in brick with concrete plinth and lintels, and a corrugated iron roof. The building occupies a square site on Club Mill Road in Sheffield, originally bounded by blind walls on the south and west sides, with a narrow yard to the east.

The main structure comprises a rectangular melting shop with a distinctive double-pitched roof and a tall, wide stack on its west elevation. The stack is divided by metal strengthening ties into six individual flues serving the six melting holes. Three roughly square windows in the east elevation (now blocked) originally lit the casting floor, fitted with concrete lintels and projecting brick sills. The brickwork is laid in English bond, bonded through to adjacent structures on the west and south elevations.

Adjoining the east elevation is a single-storey ancillary room with flat roof, accessed via wide double timber plank doors with concrete lintel. Above the doorway are metal-framed windows with concrete lintels. At the left end stands a lower flat-roofed w.c. block with blocked windows and doorway. A second ancillary room adjoins the north elevation, also with flat roof and a wide opening into the yard with concrete lintel. Access to the melting shop is only possible through these ancillary rooms.

A brick-enclosed flight of steps leads down from the yard to the crucible cellar, housed in a compartment with timber plank door. The cellar has brick walls with a bolted steel girder frame supporting steel girders and metal honeycomb flooring. Six melting hole ash pits line the west side, each fitted with steel lintels and frames to support a single crucible pot. Horizontal metal tie bands above the ash pit openings strengthen the base of the chimney. The two ancillary rooms have ceilings of square ridged tiles set between beams, possibly concrete.

The melting shop originally opened to the roof and ridge louvre but now has a suspended ceiling. A late 20th century single-storey rendered extension has been added against the east elevation of the north ancillary room, incorporating the original cellar stair compartment.

The furnace does not appear on the Ordnance Survey map of 1935, though the site was purchased in 1914 by The Old Park Silver Mills Co Ltd. The precise date of construction is unknown, but it may have been built as late as World War II, making it the latest known example of this building type. These crucible steel furnaces were once prevalent in 19th century Sheffield and were crucial to the city's international pre-eminence in quality metal manufacturing. The continued construction of such buildings into the 20th century reflects Sheffield's role at the vanguard of steel alloy innovations. The melting shop and ancillary rooms remain largely intact, retaining the distinctive wide stack and cellar with six individual melting hole ash pits characteristic of the type.