Workshop Ranges, Including Crucible Furnace Attched To Number 54

Workshop Ranges and Crucible Furnace, Well Meadow Street, Sheffield

This group of workshops, attached houses and a crucible furnace dates to around 1860, with further alterations and additions made during the later 19th and early 20th centuries. The buildings are constructed in brick with stone dressings and slate roofs, featuring single side wall and single ridge stacks.

The street front comprises a main block to the right, which is two storeys high with a four-window range. The gutter sits on wooden brackets. To the left is a plain sash window, with a similar sash positioned higher and to its right, both fitted with multi-keystone lintels. Further to the right are a plain sash and a tripartite sash with an inserted steel lintel. Below these, to the left, is a door with overlight, flanked to the right by two plain sashes (the right one partly blocked), all with multi-keystone lintels. A cart entrance with a pair of board doors and wooden lintel stands further right. A single-storey lean-to addition with a segment-headed window is positioned to the right again. To the left, three single-window blocks extend two storeys and step downwards from the left, with dentilled eaves and three plain sashes. Below these, to the left, steps lead to a 20th-century door with overlight and pilastered wooden doorcase. To the right is a door and a multipane workshop window under a common steel lintel, followed by a 12-pane sash with multi-keystone lintel.

The rear elevation includes a two-storey addition to the left, comprising a three-window range with a canted right corner and external side wall stack. Three 12-pane sashes are present, with a cart opening with wooden lintel to the right below. Further right is a 12-pane sash with a blocked segment-headed opening beneath containing an inserted 2-light casement. Three 20th-century casements of varying sizes follow, with a 5-light window under a concrete lintel, then a 2-light window, a door, and a 3-light window.

The rear of the complex features workshop blocks arranged around a partly-setted courtyard. To the left stands a two-storey forge with a side wall stack. Two 3-light casements are visible, below which a segmental arch contains a door and window, with a segment-headed window to the left.

The interior contains a brick forge and cutler's smithy. At the rear to the right is a two-storey crucible furnace with a side wall crucible stack containing five flues. The projecting left portion has a catslide roof and steps leading to a round-arched doorway with plain fanlight, flanked to the right by a round-arched window with a blocked coal chute below. A set-back bay at an angle features a segment-headed 3-light casement on each floor. The interior preserves five blocked crucible holes and iron shelf brackets, along with a moulded stone corbel to the roof truss.

To the left is a single-storey lean-to building with an unglazed casement window, containing remains of polishing machinery. Further left is a late 19th-century single-storey workshop projecting across the yard. Its east side has a doorway with canopy to the right, flanked to the left by a large 3-light glazing bar casement and a smaller 2-light casement, with four continuous 3-light casements further left. The rear has two similar casements. The interior retains remains of line shafting and a round cast-iron column.

A brick boundary wall with renewed brick coping and remains of lean-to sheds links the crucible furnace to the forge. On the right side of the yard stands an early 20th-century workshop in brick with corrugated asbestos roof, single storey. Two 3-light casements are positioned to the left, with a blocked doorway with wooden lintel and a 12-pane window to the right.

This complex represents a fine example of the small-scale integrated steel and cutlery works based on the crucible steel process, characteristic of Sheffield's industrial heritage.