Clock Tower Works

Clock Tower Works, Haverthwaite

A mid-19th century saltpetre refinery associated with Lowwood Gunpowder Works, built on the site of an earlier 18th century ironworks. The building is Grade II* listed.

The building is constructed of slate rubble with slate detailing beneath pitched slate roofs and is U-shaped in plan. The stepped south-east front façade features a stepped arrangement with modern iron railings flanking steps that lead to two doors accessing the warehouse wing. The main block projects forward as a gable, accessed by a ramp leading to a tall round-arched doorway containing double timber doors and a radial bar fanlight. A prominent clock tower projects from the left side of the gable, displaying a mix of round-arched and rectangular sash windows with glazing bars. The tower includes a band over the first stage, a weathered band over the second stage, and is topped by a pyramidal roof with lead flashing and a decorative wrought-iron finial incorporating a weather vane. A round-faced clock displaying Roman numerals sits in a square recess on the north-west face of the tower.

The left return comprises the gables of two single-storey wings. One contains two windows between which there is a gable stack; the other contains an inserted large sliding door. The rear elevation is more complex: the side elevation of one single-storey wing contains three windows and evidence of blocked doorways; the gable of the main block possesses two ground-floor doors with two upper-floor windows and ventilation slots beneath a datestone dated 1849; and the north-east warehouse wing has two ground-floor doors with two flanking windows and windows above. The right gable return has three first-floor windows with a centrally-placed datestone of 1849.

Interior

The upper floor of the refinery's main block now functions as a retail outlet and has a suspended ceiling that partially covers a row of high windows in the left wall. Doors in the right wall access a stock room and kitchen in the former warehouse. A door in the south-east wall leads into the first floor of the clock tower, where stairs ascend until access to the highest floors is blocked. The right half of the upper warehouse floor is accessed from the front elevation and contains an office with a modern partition, beyond which is a kitchen.

The ground floor is accessed from the rear. The north-east warehouse wing contains two bays originally divided by a wall that now has a large opening inserted. The main block contains a long passage with five round-headed arches to the right, giving access to one of the single-storey ranges now used as a workshop. At the passage's head is access to the clock tower where a round-headed window and blocked door survive. Steps lead from the passage head into a parallel former boilerman's passage containing six iron furnaces, all subsequently modified; three are now blocked. The iron furnaces survive incompletely while the boiling vats they heated remain in place. Original features associated with the refining process include cast iron taps for draining the boiling vats above two furnaces and a drain thought to have collected left-over solution from crystallising pans and/or washing water.

The southernmost of the two single-storey wings is subdivided into three cells by a modern partition. The central cell is used as a workshop. The western end cell has a chimney breast beside which a window has been inserted into a blocked doorway, and this cell also contains a modern subdivision.

History

Lowwood Clock Tower Works was originally the saltpetre refinery for Lowwood Gunpowder Works, which opened in 1799 on the site of an earlier 18th century iron furnace and forge complex. The main refinery was totally rebuilt in 1849, destroying all physical evidence of the early refining process. The south-west range of the casting house from the furnace and forge was partly reconstructed as two single-storey sheds before 1846; apart from their very northern ends, these sheds appear unaffected by the 1849 rebuild. These sheds are thought to have functioned as crystallising or washing sheds both before and after 1849. The 1849 rebuild provided larger and more modern facilities for the refining process and more spacious warehousing, retaining the earlier ironworks bridge house and southern wings while adding a five-storey clock tower.

The main block has remained relatively little-altered since 1849. Principal changes include the recent insertion of a first floor across its entire interior in place of the original split-level first floor, and demolition above the new floor of a long chimney stack from the ground-floor furnaces. The eastern of the two southern wings is now divided into three parts by an inserted stone wall and a modern timber partition.

The refinery had closed by the mid-1920s. The south-western southern wing was then used as a sulphur store and the north end as a saltpetre store. Throughout the building are numerous blocked doors and windows, with replacements fitted to accommodate its current use as retail outlets and workshop spaces. The building was listed at Grade II in 1985 and subsequently upgraded to Grade II*.