Workshops On Diglis Island, River Severn

WORCESTER

SO85SW DIGLIS DOCK ROAD 620-1/3/2 Workshops on Diglis 01/02/99 Island, River Severn (Formerly Listed as: Workshops on Diglis Island)

GV II

Workshops, formerly workshops, stable, accommodation and chapel. c1840 with later additions and alterations. Red brick in English bond with blue brick sills, slate roofs, blue clay ridge tiles, brick stack with corbelled cap and pot to rear roof slope of southern building; cast-iron frames to windows. Plan: continuous range of 2 long, narrow buildings with covered entrance range between; the north range is shorter, narrower and lower. Single storey, 14 windows (8:6) to east facade. Brick detailing includes: plinth, double corble course at eaves, dentilled verges to gable end, openings mainly with semi-circular arches (single full-brick arches to windows, double half-brick arches to doors), sills have double row of canted bricks. Multi-pane windows with ornate, lattice pattern glazing bars and small side-hung opening section in centre. Two windows in northern section retain some red and blue glass to lower panes. Entrances: off-centre right; braced and framed door with blind fanlight gives access to courtyard. Within, there are facing entrances to gable ends: the southern range has inserted, part-glazed and plank, off-centre right, double doors to its north gable end and with oculus to apex with radial glazing bars and 3 concentric rings; the northern range has entrance to its south gable end with pair of round-arched plank doors, the upper part glazed, between blind, round-arched recesses. West facade: northern range has 2/2 sash window and pedestrian doorway. INTERIOR: southern range has single, open pace with 6 exposed king-post trusses on internal brick piers; store rooms off to rear (west) under outshot. Otherwise not inspected. HISTORICAL NOTE: the workshops on Diglis Island were built as part of the river engineering works and included a chapel or 'Bethel' for the navvies engaged on the site in addition to its further use as accommodation and workshops. The locks and weir on the River Severn at Diglis were completed in October 1844 under the direction of the Worcester engineer, E. Leader Williams. They were constructed along with similar devices further upstream in order to maintain navigable water-levels regardless of season. (Old Worcester - People and Places: Gwilliam H W: Old Worcester - People and Places: Worcester: 1977-: 104).