Crescent Waggon Repair Shop

TL1898NE THORPE ROAD 819/4/10018 (North side) 12-JAN-01 Crescent Waggon Repair Shop

II*

Railway waggon repair shop. Built c1870 by the Midland Railway, slightly altered in 1950 and 1970. Large wholly timber framed building clad with vertical boarding and with an asbestos sheet and glazed roof. Rectangular plan with four parallel gabled ranges, three of which have paired double timber doors for the two roads making six roads in all while the fourth gable has a single large iron framed window of 8 x 7 panes lighting the workshop bay. One long wall has twelve windows of 6 x 7 panes, this is to the main repair shop. The long wall to the workshops and offices has fewer windows, either 6 x 7 or 6 x 4 panes. The other gabled elevation again has six double doors to the through roads while the workshop bay on the left has two 6 x 7 pane windows. The whole carcass of the building appears to be virtually unaltered apart from the loss of the original slating and has only a few small brick additions dating from 1950. The interior shows the timber framing very clearly with three rows of twelve timber posts separating the parallel aisles. These posts are bracketed in four directions to support the roof trusses and the gutter plates. The trusses are wide span kingposts. The roof has purlins supporting boarding under the slates and continuous glazing on both sides of the ridge. The whole structure is complete and unaltered. The only major internal change was the replacement of the timber floors with concrete in 1970. History : This building is a classic example of a large mid C19 timber framed industrial building, unaltered and still in use for its original purpose. It displays Victorian carpentry skills of a very high standard and is a development of the first railway goods sheds which were often timber framed, such as the Brunel designed goods shed at Bristol Temple Meads built in 1840-1. Using a timber building for a workshop and in Peterborough in the centre of the brick making industry is more unusual. It displays Victorian carpentry skills of a very high standard and is said to be the only all timber wagon shop still surviving in Britain.

Listing NGR: TL1855798688