14, Freer Street

1690/0/10054

WALSALL FREER STREET 14

27-MAY-05

II Early C19 house with lorinery workshop to rear. The building is of red Flemish bond brick with painted stone dressings and plain slate roof.

It is of three storeys, with three bays to front. There is a gable end stack to left and originally to right also. The building has a symmetrical classical style façade with 6/6 sashes to ground and first floors with painted stone sills and bracketed lintels. The second floor has smaller square windows with plain stone lintels and sills which were blocked at the time of survey [2004]. There is a central doorway to ground floor with more elaborate console and projecting lintel. The left ground floor window has been converted to a doorway. The reveals to the façade are blank.

Cornices to ground floor front rooms and fireplace to one ground floor room. Open string staircase with moulded tread ends to lowest flight, but the newel and balustrade have been removed.

Workshop: to the rear of the property single storey red brick workshop ranges extend around the southwest side and the rear of the courtyard with a blocked window to the S.W. wall with a segmental brick arch. The courtyard appears to have been roofed at a later date and a hearth also built there. The interior of the workshops have brick floors.

History: the site was originally used by a harness manufacturer, later by a manufacturer of harness ornamentation, and during the C20 the workshop produced purse and handbag catches. This reflects the changing nature of the leather industry in Walsall from the C19 to C20. As demand for equestrian goods declined, especially after World War I, production shifted to 'fancy goods' such as purses, handbags, suitcases etc.

14 Freer Road is an interesting and very rare survival of the Walsall leather industry. It represents the earliest 'domestic' phases of the industry with owner's accommodation and workshop occupying the same site. The presence of hearths within the workshop is of particular note.