Double Century Works

Double Century Works is a needle factory with an attached house, largely dating from circa 1810, with additions and alterations made during the mid-19th century, late 19th century, early 20th century and mid-20th century. The building is constructed of brick with slate and concrete tile roofs.

The factory has an irregular L-shaped plan across a corner plot. The High Street frontage features an early 20th-century single-storey range of four bays to the left, followed by a 19th-century two-storey range of eight bays, with entrances in the fifth and eighth bays. To the right is a projecting range of ten bays, in a similar style, containing an off-centre elliptical arched cart entrance flanked by blocked windows; this range has round-arched cast iron casements and dentillated eaves. Further to the right is a late 19th-century addition of two storeys and three by two bays, with steel casements. A parallel rear range, four bays in a similar style and date, is adjoined by a late 20th-century two-storey addition at the north end. Rear ranges to the north, single-storey and dating from the later 19th century, were formerly used as hardening shops. Rear ranges to the south enclose a polygonal courtyard; the north side of the courtyard is two storeys and was raised in the later 19th century, featuring round arched windows. Wooden external stairs and an enclosure are located to the left. The east side of the building has a mid-20th-century wooden infill connecting the rear ranges to the house.

The house itself is three storeys and three by two bays, with gabled and hipped roofs. It has a central doorcase with a fanlight and a late 20th-century door, flanked by windows on the ground floor and above, which have flat arches with stepped keystones. A cornice is present on the central first-floor window. All windows have late 20th-century glazing. A mid-19th-century factory building to the left, three storeys and three by five bays, also has late 20th-century glazing in original segment-arched and round-arched openings, and a 20th-century door in the south-west gable.

The interior was not inspected.

Needle-making was a long-established industry in the Redditch area, and Double Century Works was owned by the Butler family and their descendants, the Smiths, until 1956, with needle manufacture apparently commencing in the late 17th century. The site represents historic specialist industrial processes concentrated in and around Redditch.