Buildings At Stuart Crystal Glassworks (White House Complex) Including Newhouse Furnace Building, Former Engraving And Cutting Shops, Structures Attached To The South Of The Cutting Shop And West Of The Furnace Building

This listing covers a group of interconnected buildings at the Stuart Crystal Glassworks on the northeast corner of Vine Street and High Street in Wordsley, immediately north of the site of the demolished Whitehouse Cone. The complex comprises the Newhouse Furnace Building, former engraving and cutting shops, and various attached structures dating from the early 19th century through to the mid-20th century.

Newhouse Furnace Building

This roughly rectangular building has its long elevations facing east and west. The south elevation faces a yard and Vine Street, the east faces High Street, the north directly adjoins the canal, and the west is abutted by other buildings. It is a two-storey gabled structure with some spaces at canal-level basement.

Although some early 19th-century brickwork from a canal-side building remains in the lower section of the north gable end and the basement, the majority of the brickwork dates to around 1925, when the building was constructed to house the Newhouse furnace. Some later rebuilding on the south elevation apparently dates from when the building was truncated after the Whitehouse cone was demolished. The roof is covered in sheet metal.

The south elevation has late 20th-century sliding doors positioned off-centre to the left and a small mainly late 20th-century lean-to outbuilding (whose east wall dates to around 1925) attached to the right. The east elevation, which follows the slope of the road from north to south, has four infilled segmental-headed windows at upper level. The north elevation has four levels of openings, the three lowest all now infilled. From bottom to top these comprise wide rectangular openings at canal level; segmental-headed windows and two flat-headed door openings flanking a shorter segmental-headed one. Only the upper level of openings remains unblocked and comprises three late 20th-century casement windows.

The interior is now on two floors. The first floor, which cuts across the infilled openings on the east elevation and the third level of openings on the north, is late 20th century, as is much of the roof structure—only the principal steel trusses appear to belong to around 1925. There are several spaces at basement level, including alongside the canal a long narrow space which was probably the lowest level of the 19th-century structure. This earlier structure appears to have extended further west than the existing building.

The base of the Newhouse furnace survives virtually intact in the centre of the building. A brick-lined tunnel served this from the canalside and another tunnel extended north-west, providing access to the base of the Whitehouse cone and possibly to an open yard. A short section of an earlier tunnel survives close to the base of the cone, which may originally have provided a way through the subsidiary structures on the north of the cone or have been part of a larger tunnel system extending to the canal. Part of the brick floor surface around the Newhouse furnace can be seen on the ground floor of the building and more may survive beneath the modern screed.

The building was originally constructed to house the Newhouse furnace and was most recently used as a dispatch warehouse. While of limited architectural interest, it has particular special interest as it is believed to be the only early 20th-century glass kiln surviving nationally, and for the role it plays in the significance of the Whitehouse complex that represents technological changes in glass production over a wide period of time on one site.

Former Engraving Shop

This narrow rectangular building has its long elevations facing north and south. It is a three-storey flat-roofed brick structure directly adjoining the west side of the Newhouse furnace building. The building has been much altered and rebuilt in the 20th century, but the earliest parts—the low-level brickwork alongside the canal and parts of the south and west walls—are early 19th century and probably part of a larger structure, elements of which survive in the Newhouse furnace building.

Above the 19th-century brickwork on the canal elevation are two tiers of window openings with concrete lintels (dating to around 1925): eight to the upper level and seven to the lower, all symmetrically arranged. The building has been extended southwards to join the former cutting shop.

Reputedly built as an engraving shop, the building was most recently used as part of the packing operation.

Former Cutting Shop

This narrow rectangular building has its long elevations facing north and south, with the north elevation attached to the former engraving shop and the east to the Newhouse furnace building. It is a late 19th-century brick building, originally with narrow open spaces between it and earlier buildings to the north and south. Originally single storey, between 1919 and 1938 the building was raised in height and extended to join structures to the south. It has a late 20th-century metal sheet roof. All elevations are obscured from view by attached buildings, so originally external features are described with the interior.

At ground-floor level, a short section of the early south wall remains together with segmental-headed openings (probably originally windows) in the north wall. The 20th-century timber floor structure has cross-beams and an irregular pattern of later posts, reputedly quickly installed when the floor began to collapse under the weight of storage above. Decorative corbelled brickwork to the original west gable end survives below the line of the existing roof.

The building was reputedly constructed as a cutting shop but was later converted into a warehouse.

Structures Attached to South of Former Cutting Shop and West of Newhouse Furnace Building

This collection of structures was built between the Whitehouse cone, Newhouse furnace building and the structures to the north and west. The only sections visible externally are parts of the south and east elevations facing onto the yard on the site of the Whitehouse cone; all late 20th-century brickwork and door and window openings post-date the demolition of the cone in 1970.

At ground level on the northern side adjoining the former cutting shop is a narrow shallow-vaulted brick passage (a lehr associated with the Newhouse furnace) with to the south the western end of a ramp leading down to the tunnels below the Newhouse furnace building. The southern space at ground level is reputed to have been a kiln associated with the Whitehouse cone, although the brick south wall is late 20th century. On the first floor, several offices contain walls and other structural elements clearly belonging to earlier phases, the orientation of some of which probably reflects the radial layout of structures around the Whitehouse cone.

Electric-Powered Former Cutting Shop

This rectangular building has its long elevations facing north and south, with the western part of the north elevation attached to a mid-20th-century building running north-south. It is a two-storey red brick structure, built between 1919 and 1938. The east wall was rebuilt in the late 20th century after the truncation of the Whitehouse cone, with a window on each floor facing the yard. Despite alterations, the original fenestration pattern is still discernible on the south side, with the first-floor windows in cast iron and those on the ground floor now timber. The roof is late 20th-century metal sheet.

The interior has a metal truss roof with timber purlins. The building was constructed as an electric-powered cutting shop but has recently been used as offices and for storage.

History of the Whitehouse Complex

The Whitehouse complex appears to date from the late 18th century—the cone appears on a 1785 map of the adjoining canal. By 1839 (as shown on the Tithe Map) it had been extended with a building alongside the canal, to the west of which was a separate flour mill. By the 1880s the Whitehouse site included the cone with a range of ancillary structures to the north and west; there was a building along the road frontage and another alongside the canal, and the flour mill had been extended.

Part of the mill was destroyed by fire in 1896, which presumably led to the construction of the present buildings in various phases at the beginning of the 20th century. Stuart & Sons acquired the lease of the site in 1914 and subsequently purchased both it and the Redhouse complex (which it had leased since 1881), including the flour mill, which was later incorporated within the glass works. The Newhouse furnace was constructed around 1925 and in 1934 a large glass works factory was added to the west of the mill, later expanding to the east until it eventually abutted the mill. The Whitehouse cone was partly demolished and capped in 1940 and its above-ground remnants removed in 1970. Glass manufacture, which in latter years took place entirely within the post-1934 factory, finally ceased on the Whitehouse site in 2001.

Significance

This group of buildings has strong group value with other designations on the site, including the separately listed group to the west, the Grade II* Redhouse Cone, and scheduling below the Newhouse and Whitehouse Glass Cones and the Redhouse Cone. While of limited architectural value, the buildings have considerable archaeological, historical, social and technological significance.

The Whitehouse complex has a strong visual and functional relationship with the Redhouse complex to the east of Wordsley High Street. This includes the Redhouse cone, a structure of international importance and a prominent local landmark symbolic of the British glass industry. Together the two complexes, which were responsible for experimentation in and the development of many of the processes of glass manufacture—ranging from broad glass, bottle glass, cut glass, crystal glass to cameo, fancy and coloured glass ware—include evidence from the earliest phases of glass making in the Stourbridge area, through the Victorian and early 20th-century industrial era to some of the most innovative post-war experimentation phases. These buildings are therefore of particular interest for their cumulative representation of technological changes in glass production over a wide period of time on one site.