Former Bailys Tannery And Leather Working Factory On West And East Sides Of Beckery Old Road

Former Baily's Tannery and Leather Working Factory, Beckery Old Road, Glastonbury

A substantial Victorian tannery, sheepskin factory, and leather working complex established in 1867 and substantially completed by 1896. The works occupy a long triangular site on both the west and east sides of Beckery Old Road.

The buildings are constructed in dressed lias stone to the front and red brick at the rear, with Double-Roman tile and slate roofs featuring hipped and gabled ends. The complex is three storeys throughout.

On the west side of the road, the first phase comprised an office to the north, set at right angles to the road, and a seven-bay tanning and manufacturing range to the south, with drying sheds and yard behind. Before 1884, the office was extended northward to form an L-shaped plan block, and the tanning and manufacturing range was extended by six bays to the south with additional drying sheds and yard. The office is faced in rusticated stone with a canted stone bay window on the north gable end; margin-pane sash windows with cambered arches, and a later glazed porch. A rusticated stone garden area wall with two small gate-piers stands in front. The adjoining tanning and manufacturing range features windows with glazing bars and cambered rustic arches, with a carriageway entrance similarly arched. The six-bay southern extension has twin gables and windows with cast-iron frames; a loading door occupies the south gable end. Behind the north range lies a yard surrounded by three-storey drying sheds with timber louvered bays set between slim brick piers.

In 1890 and 1896, the works were extended onto the east side of the road with a glove factory, boiler house, and drying stoves. The north range comprises a seven-to-three-to-one-to-two bay composition with segmental headed window openings fitted with timber and cast-iron windows with glazing bars. A 1960s insertion in the centre features wide sliding and loading doors. A tall tapered square chimney of brick with Lombardy frieze cornice and stone base stands behind the north range. A detached three-storey drying stove was built to the south in 1896.

The interior of the office retains much original joinery, including panelled doors, cupboards, and a staircase with splat balusters and turned newels, together with a tiled hall floor. The drying sheds feature tie-beam trusses and louvres. The ranges on the east side of the road contain king- and queen-post roof trusses supported by thin cast-iron columns, with timber floors and original reinforced concrete floors.

The following twentieth-century additions are excluded from the listing: concrete sheds on the east side of the east range, fire escape and cladding on the north end of the east range, the 1960s infilling between the two east ranges, a later scouring house attached to the west side of the west range, a lavatory block in the north-east corner of the yard of the west range, and a concrete shed on the north end of the west range.