Jackfield Tile Museum Front Block

Front block of tile factory, now museum. Designed in 1874 by Charles Lynam for Craven Dunnill Tile Company. Built in English garden wall bond plum brick with red brick dressings, featuring gabled plain tile roofs and brick end and ridge stacks.

The building follows an L-plan with a rear left wing and tower set at an angle between the wings. The front block is two storeys with a three-window range. A central through-entry is surmounted by an iron lintel with decorative wrought-iron panels to double doors. A stone impost band links three pointed-arched windows with decorative tile tympanae; the ground floor has glazing-bar casements while the first floor has 4-pane sashes set within two gabled dormers that flank a 2-light geometrical-style window in a larger gabled dormer over the entrance. The right side of the first floor has a segmental-arched 4-pane sash. The tower, which has lost its spire, features pointed-arched 2-light sashes with similar decorative tile tympanae.

The rear wing is two storeys with a seven-window range to the front. Geometrical windows are divided by pilaster buttresses, with similar pointed-arched windows having glazing-bar casements over segmental-arched casements at ground floor level. Segmental-arched sashes and casements appear to the rear.

Internally, the stair hall features a decorative tile dado and mosaic floor, with turned balusters supporting an open-well staircase. The first-floor showrooms and drawing office have braced open timber roofs, with two small rooms off the drawing office having decorative tile walling.

The building was constructed to house various offices, including the first-floor Drawing Office where tiles were designed, and a showroom for displaying products of the Craven Dunnill works, one of the major Victorian tile factories. The ground floor of the rear wing served as a warehouse.