Taylors Eye Witness Works

A purpose-built cutlery works still manufacturing kitchen knives, constructed in phases between the early 1850s and circa 1890.

The complex is built of brick with stone dressings, and concrete dressings to the 1950 range. It has slate roofs and brick stacks.

Layout and Plan

The works follows a triple courtyard plan, forming a large rectangular block bounded by Milton Street, Headford Street, Egerton Lane, and Thomas Street. The front range faces Milton Street. The left, south-west courtyard is surrounded by a workshop range on Headford Street, a south-west workshop range on Egerton Lane, and a deep workshop range with an attached industrial chimney on the north-east side of the yard, with its gable wall on Egerton Lane. The site of a former adjoining boiler house on Egerton Lane has a deep range to its rear. The north-east workshop range on Egerton Lane sits at the rear of the large north-east courtyard. There is a corner workshop range on Egerton Lane and Thomas Street with a canted corner bay, and a workshop range on the south-west side of the middle yard, which abuts the range on the north-east side of the left, south-west yard. Workshops built gable-end on stand to the rear of the middle yard. A cross workshop range separates the right, north-east yard and the middle yard. Various small attached and free-standing buildings occupy the yards. The 1950s block on Thomas Street and Egerton Lane is excluded from the listing as it is not of interest.

Front Range on Milton Street

The three-storey, thirty-bay front range comprises four distinct blocks unified under a single double-pitched roof. The first phase is a nine-bay building at the left, south-west end. The outer bays are defined by strip pilasters with rusticated stone quoins on the ground floor. The building has a stone plinth and first-floor band. The entrance bay in the sixth bay is defined by strip pilasters with rusticated stone piers to a cart entrance on the ground floor. This cart entrance has a segmental-arched head and keystone, with double board doors. Above it is a Venetian window on the first floor and a tripartite hung-sash on the second floor. The first five bays have eight-over-eight hung-sash windows with stone sills and gauged brick lintels on the ground and second floors, and round-headed windows on the first floor. Bays seven to nine have six-over-six hung sashes, which are taller on the ground and first floors. The ground-floor window in the eighth bay is an alteration from an original doorway; the doorway in the seventh bay is a later insertion. This doorway has a door case with plain pilasters and cornice, and a six-panel door with an overlight. The first bay contains a coal chute.

To the right is a five-bay range built as two storeys and raised to three by 1905. It has a stone plinth and first-floor band. The cart entrance in the second bay has a segmental-arched head, console keystone, and rusticated surround, with double board doors. Ground-floor windows are six-over-six hung sashes, with two-over-two hung sashes on the upper floors. All windows have stone sills and brick lintels.

To the right of this is a nine-bay range. The cart entrance in the ninth bay has a depressed arch, rusticated stone jambs, imposts, and voussoirs, with double board doors. Above it is a tripartite sash window with brick mullions on the first and second floors. Windows in bays one to eight are two-over-two hung-sashes with stone sills; some are blind.

A seven-bay range at the right, north-east end was built as two storeys and raised to three by 1905. It has a stone plinth and first-floor band, which continue on the gable wall on Thomas Street. The first bay on the ground floor has two single-light washroom windows. Windows in bays three to seven are six-over-six hung sashes, with two-over-two hung sashes on the first and second floors. All windows have stone sills and brick lintels. A blocked doorway, originally a window, is in the second bay. The front has applied letters (some missing) reading "EYE WITNESS WORKS CUTLERY PLATE MANUFACTURERS."

Workshop Range on Headford Street

This is a three-storey, sixteen-bay range of mid-19th century date. The Headford Street elevation is rendered. The ground floor has widely spaced, irregular fenestration, some altered, with closely spaced windows (blocked in the 14th and 15th bays) on the upper floors. All have replacement casement windows.

South-West Workshop Range on Egerton Lane

This three-storey, ten-bay range has a double-pitched roof hipped at the south-west end, with the roof on Headford Street. The ground floor has been altered by the insertion of doorways and blocking of some windows, but original two-light glazing bar casements with stone sills and brick lintels survive in bays one to four. The upper floors have eight closely spaced windows with two widely spaced windows in bays eight to ten. All are similar two-light glazing bar casements.

To the left is a four-storey workshop range with a gable wall on Egerton Lane. Set into the west corner of the building is an integral industrial chimney stack, with a tall, square brick base, capped by a stone plinth from which an octagonal brick stack rises (now slightly truncated). On its south side is a wide brick stack built into the eaves of the yard elevation, now truncated. The gable wall has two-light glazing bar casement windows on each floor (with modern casements on the third and fourth floors) with stone sill bands and brick lintels.

To the left is the site of a single-storey boiler house, with a three-storey workshop range to its rear, hipped at its right, south-west end with a gable stack at the left, north-east end. The first floor of the Egerton Lane elevation has four large, four-light glazing bar casement windows. The second floor has ten closely-spaced two-light glazing bar casement windows.

To the left, on Egerton Lane, is a three-storey, nine-bay workshop range dating from the last quarter of the 19th century. The original blind ground floor now has inserted openings, some blocked. The upper floors are lit by closely-spaced, two-light glazing bar casement windows.

Workshop Range on Thomas Street

This three-storey range was built in 1950 with a parapet hiding the roof. It has six bays on Thomas Street, a canted corner bay, and four bays on Egerton Lane. The first bay on Thomas Street is a taller stair bay with a doorway with concrete surround, with recessed nine-pane and twelve-pane metal casements above, and a circular date stone. The staircase in the fourth bay on Egerton Lane is lit by three tall casement windows. Windows in bays two to five, the canted corner bay, and bays one to three on Egerton Lane have wide multi-pane metal casements, those on the ground floor with concrete sill and lintel bands.

Courtyards

The south-west courtyard has a mid-20th century glass-panelled roof, creating additional workshop space. The narrow middle courtyard has a twin-gabled range to the rear with an inserted first-floor loading door and two-light glazing bar casement windows with stone sills and segmental brick heads. The large rectangular courtyard to the north-east is flanked by three-storey ranges with two-light and three-light glazing bar casements. Loading doors are on the first and second floors of the cross range to the south-west side of the courtyard. There is a square attached chimney to the south. A two-storey 20th century block has been added within the yard towards the east side, with altered fenestration.

The three unequal yards around which the Eye Witness Works are arranged are not equal in size and have very different characters. The south-western yard is now glazed over to house presses; the central yard is largely filled with buildings, leaving only a comparatively small area open to the sky. The north-eastern yard is largely open, although one end of it is now occupied by a two-storey free-standing building.

Interior

The buildings have developed to contain offices, storage, and packing rooms in the Milton Street range. Traces of hand forges exist in the Headford Street range with workshops over. Traces of grinding wheels are found in the workshop range with gable wall on Egerton Lane, which also has workshops over. Workshops are also found in the upper parts of all ranges along Headford Street and Egerton Lane. These light workshops in the upper storeys of the complex are largely intact with glazing on both sides, although most of the work benches which line these rooms have been replaced over time. At ground level, the requirements of heavier machinery have resulted in substantial alterations, including the removal of walls and doorways. All interior spaces show extensive adaptation and change, often retaining fragments and traces of former functions.

Particular internal features to note are the jack-arched first floor in the workshop range with gable wall on Egerton Lane, the mid-19th century fireplace in the original board room on the first floor at the south end of the Milton Street frontage, and remnants of line shafting in a number of spaces, in particular towards the centre of the complex.

History

The Eye Witness trademark of a wide-open eye was granted to one John Taylor, a cutler who worked in St Paul's Road, Sheffield, in 1838, and is believed to derive from the line "no eye hath seen better" in Shakespeare's King Henry IV. His business was taken over by Thomas Brown Needham, who subsequently joined forces with James Veall in Eye Witness Works, which had apparently had a previous occupier and was not built for them. In 1879, Walter Tyzack joined the business which became Needham, Veall and Tyzack, renowned for their Eye Witness knives, though also manufacturing a range of pocket knives, table cutlery, scissors and, later, plated goods. In 1975, the renamed Taylor's Eye Witness was absorbed into Harrison Fisher and Co Ltd. It continues to manufacture Kitchen Devil knives at Eye Witness Works.