Casting House

A three-sided nearly square building. From E to W the length of the casting house was 22 m, and the span was 23 m. It stood immediately E of and in front of the two furnaces, and its rear was fully open towards them. The opposite face, to the E, is a striking segmental gable, complete to its full height, and the building is architecturally symmetrical. The masonry is in the local sandstone, with all dressings in limestone, and is almost complete.

The front (E) wall has three large ventilation apertures. There are three archways with internal buttresses to the jambs; voussoirs with stressed imposts and keystones. Above them is a symmetrical group of 3 large circular ventilation holes, with stressed voussoirs. Between the archways are arch-headed recesses in the walls, about 2 m high by 50 cm wide.

The side walls also survive to their full height. The S wall is complete, but the N wall has been cut back at its W end slightly. In each side there are two large openings, arranged symmetrically, that to the E slightly higher than that to the W. At the archway positions the walls are thickened and there is also a buttress between the archways.

The shed is now roofless, but was roofed in five or six structural bays. In some places fragments of the truss tie rods remain fixed in the heads of the walls, with turnbuckles. The present paving in the building has obscured any internal features, such as plant or column bases or machinery pits. It is impossible to say now where the cupolas or the reverberatory furnace stood.