Drying Shed And Attached Pit Shed At The East Side Of The Manor Tannery Group

Drying shed and attached pit shed, dated 1839, with additions from around the mid-19th century and few later alterations. Part of the Manor Tannery group on the east side, located on the south side of Fore Street in Grampound.

The buildings are constructed in slatestone rubble with granite dressings and quoins. The drying shed has a slate roof with ridge tiles and gable ends, topped with a ventilator on the roof ridge. The pit shed has a roof in three sections, combining bitumenised slate and corrugated iron, with a gable end to the front and a hipped roof to the rear, featuring a stack with brick shaft at the end.

The drying shed is rectangular in plan with the drying room occupying the upper storey. It connects to the pit shed by a corridor at first floor level. The pit shed is set at right angles to the drying shed, running roughly north to south, with a drying loft at the south end and the pits at the north end. The north end is open on its outer side, containing tanks for liquor used in soaking the skins. The skins were kept in motion in the liquor, formerly powered by a waterwheel located some distance to the south.

The drying shed is two storeys. The front gable end has a plank door with cambered stone arch. The first floor features a stable-type plank door for loading, also with cambered stone arch and a small single window. At the right side, a corridor at first floor leads to the pit shed, with a similar plank door at ground floor and a double-height plank door to the right. Wooden ventilation louvres are located at loft level.

The pit shed comprises three separate builds, all two storeys. The rear end is hipped with a stack featuring a brick shaft. The side facing the drying shed has two plank doors and a window at ground floor, with ventilation louvres at loft level and a blind on the outer side. The middle range has a corrugated iron roof, with a door and 20th-century window at ground floor on the side facing the pit shed, ventilation louvres faced in corrugated iron at loft level, and a plank door with overlight and wooden louvres above on the outer side. The front end range is the pit shed proper, featuring a gable end to the north with a window with timber lintel. The outer side has two openings with cambered stone arches to the right, and to the left two wide openings with timber lintels, divided by granite monolith piers with a central drain. Inside are the pits, lined with brick, with a cobbled front path. The upper level is faced in corrugated iron with a loading door, and to the right is a 19th-century two-light five-pane casement with cambered stone arch.

The interior of the drying shed bears the date in the plasterwork on the loft wall. The loft roof has trusses set close together, with the tie beams forming racks for hanging the skins. The principal rafters cross at the apex and are pegged. These buildings appear to be the earliest surviving structures on the tannery site; other buildings on the site have been substantially rebuilt and altered during the 20th century.