Lincoln Grange, Formerly Madeley Union Workhouse

Lincoln Grange, formerly Madeley Union Workhouse

Hospital, formerly workhouse. Built 1871-75. Designed by Messrs. Haddon. Constructed in buff brick with polychromatic brick decoration and slate roof. The building comprises single and two-storey elements arranged in an H-shaped plan.

The entrance range features a two-storey central block of three bays with a central gateway. The gateway and paired lights either side have cambered heads. Above these are gabled semi-dormers. Long single-storey ranges flank the central block on either side, probably originally containing changing rooms and bathrooms for new admissions, with original horned sash windows throughout. At the west end stands the boardroom and office block, which has two projecting gables with a recessed lobby between them.

Behind the entrance range, the H-shaped arrangement of ward-wings is organised around a central range containing the kitchens and dining room. The south front of the central range faces the archway and has a door with a gabled porch featuring scissor-beam construction. Above this, set in the gablet of the half-hipped roof, is a clock within a louvred turret. The north face of the dining hall has a central projecting gabled wing with a three-light traceried window, flanked by two pairs of lancets at either side.

The ward blocks on either side of the dining hall originally connected via open-sided covered walkways, now replaced by short twentieth-century ranges. These blocks are two-storey with new uPVC windows fitted into original openings. Workshop ranges and the laundry block lie to the west; the laundry retains two timber lanterns with louvred gable ends to its roof.

Throughout the buildings, the roofs are largely original with decorative ridge tiles and louvred timber vents topped with tiled or lead caps. Most chimneys retain their original height and projecting caps; several have polychromatic tumbled brickwork to their lower bodies. Windows have mostly been replaced with uPVC units, though set within original surrounds.

Internally, the dining hall has been divided horizontally to create two floors, though the central projecting bay retains its original full height and displays a scissor-braced truss with decorative chamfering. The boardroom and office block form a separate unit, retaining panelled doors, windows, cornicing, and marble fire surrounds in the boardroom. The tiled lobby and lavatory also remain intact. Many ward rooms have been subdivided with inserted partition walls. The former infirmary block and infectious diseases ward to the east appear to be of slightly later date and have been significantly altered.

The plan-form of this workhouse represented a radical departure for its time. Rather than following the prevailing corridor plan with rooms leading off a central corridor, the design employed separate pavilions for different functions. This approach had been advocated in a Poor Law Board circular of 1868 titled "Points to be Attended to in the Construction of Workhouses", but the Madeley workhouse appears to have been the first to realise this design fully. Minutes of the Madeley Guardians record their decision "to accept a ground plan offered by a member of the [Building] Committee and to appoint Messrs. Haddon as the architect to complete and carry the same into effect".

The pavilion plan offered significant practical advantages: it prevented the spread of infections along corridors and allowed a through-flow of fresh air. Despite these merits, this pioneering example does not appear to have proven immediately influential, as other small regional workhouses continued to be built on the traditional corridor plan throughout the 1870s. Change seems ultimately to have come from larger, more conspicuous models in cities. Nevertheless, the Madeley workhouse brought early physical form to ideas that were being discussed in Poor Law administration. The building retains many original features that might have been expected to be lost, including its original roofing with turrets and louvres, and original chimneys. The plan-form remains little altered and can be read with relative ease.