Buildings At Stuart Crystal Glassworks (White House Complex) Including The Mill Engine House, Managers Office, Former Flour Mill, And The Former Flour Mill Extension (Bone Mill) And Engine House

This listing covers a group of attached buildings at the Stuart Crystal Glassworks in Wordsley, comprising the Mill Engine House, Manager's Office, Former Flour Mill, and Former Flour Mill Extension (bone mill) and Engine House. Each building is described individually below, with shared historical context provided at the end.

Mill Engine House

Plan and Structure

A narrow rectangular building with its long elevations facing east and west. The west elevation adjoins the mill building, whilst the east is abutted by a low mid-20th century structure. The north end wall faces the canal, and the south adjoins the former flour mill extension and engine house, separated by a narrow gap.

Exterior

Now a four-storey brick structure, the lowest section of brickwork at canal level may relate to an earlier mill, but most of the building is early 20th century, post-dating a fire that destroyed part of the flour mill in 1896. The roof is slate, the main section of mansard form with a lean-to section (now with corrugated sheeting) facing the canal.

The canal-side elevation is of three storeys, originally with two round-headed openings to each floor (all now with late 20th century timber windows), but the first and second floors now have an additional segmental-headed 20th century opening inserted to the centre. Above the lean-to element is a full-width row of nine late 20th century windows in the weatherboarded end wall of the mansard-roofed section. Remains of a flue are visible on the east elevation, which served the early 20th century boiler house on the site of the present mid-20th century structure directly to the east.

Interior

The ground floor has a number of substantial brick piers on each long wall, presumably designed to support the engine. In its later years the building's first and second floors have served as offices and the top floor of the mansard-roofed section as a boardroom. This is now partly open to the roof with some exposed timber trusses, but a high-level door in the south end wall suggests that there may originally have been a separate level within the roof.

Manager's Office

Plan and Structure

A short rectangular structure aligned east-west, attached at right-angles to the east elevation of the Mill Engine House (of which it is effectively a part), with the north elevation facing the canal.

Exterior

A three-storey brick building with a slate roof. Coped verges and kneelers survive to the west end wall, which abuts the lean-to element of the Mill Engine House. There are two round-headed openings with late 20th century timber windows to the ground and first floors on the canal side (north) elevation, but three round-headed openings on the second floor to north and south elevations and two to the west end wall. These upper openings all retain their original multi-paned cast-iron windows set in stone surrounds with moulded keystones and imposts.

Interior

The roof is a two-bay king-post structure.

Historical Note

This is believed to be the manager or overseer's office, with top storey windows to all three outside walls providing good views out to the canal, High Street and Vine Street.

Former Flour Mill

Plan and Structure

A large rectangular early 20th century structure with long elevations facing north and south. The east elevation is largely obscured by the Mill Engine House, whilst the west is abutted by the mid-20th century lower Vine Lane Glassworks factory, which also overlaps the mill on its south side.

Exterior

A four-storey brick building with a roof now covered in late 20th century corrugated sheeting. The north canal-side elevation is essentially unaltered. The five ground-floor (canal level) openings retain their original multi-paned cast-iron windows with sluice openings beneath, but the corresponding windows on the first and second floors now have late 20th century timber windows. The centre openings on the first to third floors were originally loading doors, but those to the upper levels have now been partly in-filled and the doors replaced with windows. The straight joints in the brickwork and the break in the stepped eaves detail suggest that there may formerly have been a projecting gantry to the upper two floors.

The south elevation has a similar fenestration pattern, although this is largely obscured by the glassworks factory, which also partly obscures the west elevation. The west elevation has been further altered by the addition of a late 20th century fire escape staircase.

Interior

Each level was a single space, with timber floors supported by substantial timber beams on a series of columns. These columns are of different form at each level, reflecting the weight they support and the individual function of each floor. The columns to the three lower floors are cast-iron, designed to take temporary partitions of varying heights, but the third floor has simple timber columns. The wide-span timber trussed roof retains a World War II firewatchers' platform.

Historical Note

Evident on the 1883 Ordnance Survey map, the flour mill was rebuilt in its present form in the early 20th century. By 1938 the mill had been incorporated into the glassworks and later became offices for it.

Former Flour Mill Extension (Bone Mill) and Engine House

Plan and Structure

Forming the stem of the T-shaped mill complex, this building appears to be slightly later than the canal-side element as it partially obscures one of the latter's south elevation windows, from which it is separated by a narrow gap, probably on account of the different functions of the two mills. The bone mill is actually in two sections, comprising a four-bay, four-storey structure to the south and a single-bay engine house to the north.

Exterior

Constructed of brick with a late 20th century corrugated sheet roof. The southern section is plainer with piers separating each bay and simple round-headed windows. The engine house is more elaborate, with a tall arched recess in the piers, stepped eaves detailing and a large round-headed window containing circular and round-headed timber tracery. The roundel reputedly housed the clock for the whole premises. An open walkway on the upper level of the west elevation links the bone mill to the flour mill, and brackets on the same elevation (now inside the mid-20th century glassworks factory) suggest that there may have been a similar walkway at lower level.

Interior

Originally the engine house would have been a single space, but it has been converted to offices. The marks of the fly-wheel are, however, visible on the north wall and large stone bearings survive in both this and the south wall. The southern section of the building is divided at each level by a substantial brick wall into two equal-sized spaces that have had a staircase and modern partition inserted.

History of 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 (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, presumably leading 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 glassworks. The Newhouse furnace was constructed in circa 1925, and in 1934 a large glassworks 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 east, the Grade II* Redhouse Cone and scheduling below Newhouse, Whitehouse Glass Cone and the Redhouse Cone. Whilst 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 glassware) include evidence from the earliest phases of glassmaking 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 and on one site.