The Old Foundry

The Old Foundry

Iron foundry built in 1820-21, designed by engineer John Urpeth Rastrick for Foster, Rastrick and Company (the renamed Stourbridge Ironworks, previously John Bradley and Company). Later additions and alterations include lean-tos added around the 1960s.

The building is constructed of reddish-brown brick in irregular English Garden Wall bond (three rows of stretchers to one row of headers) with a hipped slate roof, the apex at centre now fitted with perspex. It is a single tall storey externally described as two storeys, rendered in Georgian style.

The north front facade contains seven bays arranged 3:3:3:1:3:3:3. The centremost bay features a full-height, wide, round-arched opening. The remaining bays are articulated by full-height plain pilasters, which also clasp the angles, and contain round-arched windows to both first and ground floors, three windows per bay. (Two pairs of windows to the ground floor at the centre have been widened.) The central three bays are surmounted by a wide pediment with large oculus. A continuous dentil cornice and stepped eaves run across the facade.

The east and west returns are identical, each with three bays articulated by pilaster strips. The first floor of each bay has two round-arched openings; the ground floor has large round-arched recesses, one to each side open and one with clear semi-circular surround now blocked.

The south rear facade contains nine bays articulated by pilaster strips, with alternating rhythms of one and two round-arched first-floor openings to each bay. The ground floor alternates between round- and wide, cambered-arched recesses, with the centremost opening remaining accessible.

Several window openings to the front facade retain original round-arched, multi-pane wrought-iron glazing bars in imitation of 8/8 sash windows with radial glazing to the heads, though these were never intended to be glazed.

Interior

The interior remains remarkably intact. The roof structure comprises six massive, cambered cast-iron beams spanning the width of the building. The two end bays each contain two cast-iron beams placed diagonally across the corners. All beams are connected by wrought-iron tie-bars running east-west, north-south and diagonally. A further tier of horizontal wrought-iron tie-bars connects diagonally and vertically to the first. Towards the west end stands an iron cross-piece which formed the top centre for a crane. The roof represents an early example of fire-proof construction. Three cast-iron crane supports are present on the north elevation. At ground-floor level are the remains of core oven hoods, with hinges and partial remains of oven doors surviving in one bay. The lean-tos to front and rear do not significantly affect the original fabric.

Historical Context

The Stourbridge Ironworks originally operated as John Bradley and Company. Following Bradley's death in 1816, a new partnership formed in 1819 between James and William Foster and engineer John Rastrick, a specialist in engine design, who designed this new foundry building. In 1821, Joshua Field described the works as "the largest and most complete of any in this part of the county and perhaps the most so of any in England", particularly noting the roof: "the tie beams are of cast iron, the rafters cast iron & all the braces etc. round wrought iron bolts very well contrived". Each tie-beam could be adapted to fit a crane, with "the centre of each tie beam has a boss adapted to receive a crane post, diagonal braces from these centres running all through the roof". By 1821 the foundry employed over 450 people. Rastrick was utilising waste-heat recovery processes here some seven years before patenting the technique. Between 1820 and 1882, the foundry was reorganised and core ovens and hoods installed. The building has remained in continuous use as an iron foundry since 1821. The Stourbridge Lion, the first locomotive to run in the Americas, was engineered here.