Grange Works

A mid-19th century needle mill and fish hook and leather factory, now divided into a spring factory and smaller units. The building is constructed of red brick with yellow brick dressings, and has a plain tiled roof with central and end ridge stacks featuring blue brick caps. It is three storeys high, with an impost band to the ground and first floors, a dentilled eaves cornice, and pedimented gable ends. The main range is six bays wide, then two bays, then five bays, with windows on the ground and first floors having round heads, and second-floor windows with cambered heads. The windows are multi-paned metal windows with stone sills. A 20th-century door has been inserted into the seventh bay. Blind circular openings are visible in the gable ends.

A central gabled wing projects from the central two bays at the rear, with a ground and first-floor round-headed window; a door has been inserted into a round-headed opening to the left, and the gable end is pedimented, containing a circular opening. A wing at the south gable end has a shallow-pitched, partly hipped slate roof and two stacks to the rear roof. This wing is two storeys high with a first-floor impost band and dentilled eaves cornice. Its five bays have first-floor windows similar to those of the main building. On the ground floor, there is a blocked window and archway, both with cambered heads, and a 20th-century door.

To the south, the building returns east as Grange House. Grange House is constructed of brick with a slate roof and end stacks. It is two storeys high with a blue brick plinth and moulded eaves cornice. The three bays include canted bay windows with a modillion cornice on the ground floor of the outer bays, and first-floor windows with rusticated lintels. All windows have moulded architraves and round-headed upper panes; the majority are 6-pane sashes, with a 4-pane sash centrally on the first floor, and a 20th-century cross-casement inserted into the right-hand first floor window. The central entrance has an open pediment, engaged columns, a half-glazed door, and a traceried fanlight.

A wing adjoining the west gable end (and the south end of the mill range) has a shallow-pitched slate roof, hipped at the end with a central ridge stack. This two-storey wing has a moulded eaves cornice continuing from Grange House, and a single bay with a 16-pane sash window with a rusticated lintel on the first floor. A door with a cambered head and large double doors is located below. An elevation to Grange Road features a first-floor multi-paned metal window with a cambered head.

In the 19th century, the factory was known as Neptune Works and was occupied by W Smith and Sons, manufacturers of needles, fish hooks, and leather goods. The mill and adjoining owner’s house are well-detailed and survive in a relatively unaltered condition to form a compact and interesting group.