Buildings at 'John Erskine Ltd. Felt Manufacturers', 135 Shore Road, Newtownabbey, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT37 9SY

Buildings at John Erskine Ltd. Felt Manufacturers, 135 Shore Road, Newtownabbey, Belfast

A group of three single-storey factory buildings with Belfast roof trusses, built at various dates between 1918 and around 1935 as part of a large felt manufacturing complex to the east of Shore Road. The buildings were constructed of various materials and sizes. By February 2007, all three buildings had been demolished and the site cleared.

Building 1, dated to 1918, was the largest of the three. It was rectangular in plan, measuring approximately 38 metres by 22 metres, and was abutted by smaller structures to the north, south and east. The façade was entirely brick and was devoid of openings except for a large vehicle entrance to the north fitted with a timber sliding door and a similar entrance directly in line with this to the south. The roof was a triple curved structure covered in felt with a central gabled roof light with corrugated Perspex to the centre of each curve.

Building 2, dated to some time prior to 1920 (possibly around 1915), lay a few metres to the east of Building 1. It was long and rectangular in plan, measuring roughly 8.2 metres in width and over three times this in length. It was constructed in corrugated metal with small sections to the left-hand side of the west elevation and the right-hand side of the east elevation in brick, and the lower portion of the south gable in concrete block. The west elevation had a pedestrian door to the left of centre with three very large unevenly-spaced multi-pane windows. The south gable had a similar style full-width window. The east elevation had a similar window which stretched over the entire left-hand side and centre. The curved roof was covered in felt. The building was in relatively poor condition.

Building 3, believed to date from around 1935, lay a few metres to the east of Building 2. It was rectangular in plan, measuring roughly 16.7 metres in width and was constructed in corrugated metal with sections in timber and much of the base in render. The front (west) gable had a pedestrian doorway to the left with a very large window in the same style as Building 2 to the right of this, and a very large vehicle doorway with sheeted sliding door to the right again. To the south elevation there was another, slightly smaller, vehicle doorway to the left with three large windows to the right of this. The other elevations were not accessible, but internal evidence showed that the east gable had a large window in the same style. The curved roof was covered in felt.

The large main factory building at the west end of the site contained at least three Belfast Truss-roofed sections. These sections were surrounded by other pitched roof sections as the whole complex had grown organically over the years. The owner believed that some of the Belfast Trussed-roof sections dated from the mid 1890s, but that they had been heightened at some point during the mid 1900s.