Premises of Guest and Chrimes, Boston Castle, Rotherham

Summary

Brass and iron foundry workshop ranges. The northern range dates to around 1857 with eight eastern bays built shortly afterwards; the middle range was constructed between 1857 and 1888; the southern range around 1857 (two storeys) and the late C19 (three storeys). Built for the company Guest and Chrimes.

Description

Brass and iron foundry workshop ranges. The northern range dates to around 1857 with eight eastern bays built shortly afterwards; the middle range was constructed between 1857 and 1888; the southern range around 1857 (two storeys) and late C19 (three storeys). Built for the firm Guest and Chrimes.

MATERIALS: the ranges are built of red brick in English garden wall bond; the northern range has a Welsh slate, corrugated sheeting and felted roof covering; the middle and southern ranges have Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: three long, parallel ranges orientated roughly east-west. The northern range is of three storeys with a large, double-height crane hall towards the west end with an adjacent engine house with a water tower over. The middle range is of three storeys, the upper floors at the east end supported on ironwork over an open ground floor to formerly enable entrance into the yard through the cart entrance in the front range (now demolished). The southern range is mostly of three storeys with a two-storey block at the west end.

ADVISORY NOTE ON BUILDING DESCRIPTIONS: exterior access was limited and no interior access was provided by the applicant during the site visit undertaken in September 2019. The following descriptions mainly rely on photographs dating from 2012 provided by the listing applicant, which provide full external coverage and partial coverage of the interiors at that time.

NORTHERN RANGE
EXTERIOR: the range is built of red brick in English Garden wall bond (mostly 5:1). It is 34 bays in length, with a straight joint between the 26 bays to the west and eight bays to the east, though otherwise similarly detailed. There is a cross wall and ragged outer walls at its east end where part of the return angle to the front range has been demolished.

The range is three storeys with the exception of a two-bay rectangular water tower towards the west end, which has an additional two storeys supporting an iron water tank. The tank is painted pinky red and carries the name GUEST & CHRIMES on the north and south sides and GUEST & CHRIMES LTD on the east and west sides. The three bays to the west of the water tower have a hipped roof covered in roofing felt. To the east of the water tower are blocks of bays separated by cross walls which project above the roof level. Adjacent to the water tower are 10 bays (a crane hall rising through two floors) with modern corrugated sheeting on the pitched roof; to its east are 11 bays also with modern corrugated sheeting on the pitched roof, and the eight bays at the east end have a Welsh slate pitched roof. The closely spaced windows have segmental-arched heads of narrow bricks and projecting stone sill bands. Those which retain window frames have cast-iron, 30-pane frames incorporating six-pane opening hoppers.

The long north elevation indicates the former presence of a later, abutting two-storey building by the white painted brickwork and mortice holes for trusses above the first-floor windows. On the ground floor the majority of openings appear to be in-filled with brickwork. There are the end plates of bracing rods. At the left-hand, east end is a segmental-arched cart entrance through the building. Many of the first-floor windows have also been either bricked up or boarded over, whilst many of the window frames remain on the second floor. From the left-hand end there a brick eaves stacks between the third and fourth bays, the tenth and eleventh bays and the sixteenth and seventeenth bays. The windows in the water tower have been bricked up. There are the end plates of bracing rods on both floors.

The long, south elevation formerly had later buildings against part of its ground floor, indicated by white paintwork and cut-off steel girders projecting from the wall. The ground floor has end plates of bracing rods. The windows are similar to the north elevation, with a number bricked up. There are wider, segmental-arched doorways to the engine house (bricked up), across the fourteenth and fifteenth bays of the crane hall and at the right-hand, east end is the opposing segmental-ached cart entrance. There are also a number of taking-in doors with segmental-arched heads to the upper floors. Towards the right-hand end of the elevation a fretted iron rail which probably supported an external walkway is attached to the wall above the first-floor windows. The water tower towards the left-hand end has bricked up windows and a boarded up doorway at third-floor level, with end plates for bracing rods on both floors.

Due to demolition, the east end gable wall is formed by a former cross wall, with ragged side walls projecting forward. It has socket holes for joists for first and second floors, with doorways at these levels with metal fire doors.

The west end wall is blind with the second-floor projecting stone sill band continuing across the wall from the side elevations. This is interrupted in the centre where there is a bricked-up opening and there are diagonal scars from pitched roofs of former attached buildings. The wall is painted white. At first-floor level there are a number of end plates for bracing rods. There is a modern opening at ground-floor level.

INTERIOR: internally, the range is divided into a series of rooms by brick walls. On the ground floor the rooms to the east of the engine house are interconnected by axial round-headed openings. The engine house towards the west end of the range has a large circular scar marking the position of a flywheel at the right-hand, south end of the east internal wall. At the left-hand, north end are bearing boxes to transmit power through to the adjacent crane hall. There are also bearing boxes in the west internal wall. There is a timber ceiling inserted at first-floor level. The crane hall rises through two storeys with wooden rails along the north and south walls supported by brick piers which are integral to the building. The second floor is supported on steel girders running across the building. The ground-floor workshop on the east side of the crane hall has timber cross beams, now supported by an axial row of steel stanchions. The room above, on the first floor, has a floor of double timber boarding and steel cross girders are supported by an axial row of steel stanchions. The cross walls contain bearing boxes.

On the second floor, the floor of the large workshop room over the crane hall and that of the adjacent room to the east are concrete. This part of the building has been re-roofed with steel trusses. The workshop at the east end is said to have a roof structure of bolted timber king-post trusses with raking struts and side purlins (Briden, C and Moore, G, July 2012, 11). The west cross wall of workshop immediately east of the water tower bays has a wide original opening with a timber lintel and a brick relieving arch over. A large iron bearing bracket is attached to the wall.

MIDDLE RANGE
EXTERIOR: the range is built of red brick in English Garden wall bond (5:1) with a hipped Welsh slate roof. It is three storeys high, eighteen bays long and four bays wide. In appearance the range is similar to the northern range with closely spaced windows with segmental-arched heads of narrow bricks and projecting stone sill bands. A number of cast-iron window frames remain with 30 panes incorporating six-pane opening hoppers. Many are boarded up or bricked up and others have modern casement frames.

The long north elevation formerly had a later, abutting single-storey building, indicated by white paintwork and cut-off steel girders projecting from the wall. There are a number of doorways on the ground floor and taking-in doors to the upper floors, all with segmental-arched heads. From the left-hand end there are six brick eaves stacks, between the third and fourth bays, the sixth and seventh bays, the ninth and tenth bays, the eleventh and twelfth bays, the thirteenth and fourteenth bays and the fifteenth and sixteenth bays. There are a number of end plates for bracing rods across the elevation. At the east end, the first and second floors of the two left-hand bays are supported on an iron lintel carried by a cast-iron column at the corner. This end of the range is built as an uneven acute angle with the upper floors of the southern side of the angle formerly abutting the rear wall of the front range (now demolished). The three-bay, northern side of the angle continues the iron lintel, carried on a second cast-iron column towards the left-hand end. This arrangement gives an open ground floor at the east end which previously allowed vehicles to enter the yard through the cart entrance in the front range.

The long south elevation has closely-spaced windows to the left-hand end and more widely-spaced windows to the right-hand end. There are also a number of doorways on the ground floor and taking-in doors to the upper floors, with segmental-arched heads. The first and second floors of the two right-hand (east end) bays are also supported on an iron lintel carried on a cast-iron column towards the right-hand end. There are five brick eaves stacks, between the third and fourth bays, the fifth and sixth bays, the seventh and eighth bays, the ninth and tenth bays and the tenth and eleventh bays.

The ground floor of the angled east end is curved and set back beneath the over-riding upper floors. The ground-floor projecting stone sill band continues round from the long side walls and the two windows are similarly detailed. The southern side of the angled upper floors is left open following the demolition of the front range.

The west end wall has four windows on each floor, the upper windows apparently always blind, and those on the ground floor more recently bricked up.

INTERIOR: internally, the range is divided into a series of rooms by brick walls. The joists of the timber floors sit on timber cross beams supported by axial rows of slim cast-iron columns on the ground and first floors, with the exception of the four bays at the west end of the ground floor, which are said to have a fire-proof jack-arched ceiling (Rose-Deacon, A and Jessop, O, June 2006, 9). On the ground floor there is hearth with an iron frame in a partially demolished internal wall which is aligned with a stone-lined culvert entering the building from the north. There are also cast-iron bearing brackets bolted to a reinforced timber framework fixed to the ceiling. The second floor has bolted timber king-post trusses with raking struts and side purlins. The second-floor east workshop has a rope hoist with a timber frame fixed into the roof structure.

SOUTHERN RANGE
EXTERIOR: the range is built of red brick in English Garden wall bond (5:1) with Welsh slate roofs and a similar appearance to the two other ranges, with closely spaced windows with segmental-arched heads of narrow bricks and projecting stone sill bands. The majority of windows have either been bricked up or boarded, though several windows retain small-pane metal window frames. The majority of the building is of three storeys and was originally of fifteen bays to the south elevation and thirteen bays to the north elevation; the south elevation is now fourteen bays at first-floor level and less at second-floor level due to demolition. At the west end is a two-storey, four-bay building. There is a straight joint at first-floor level between the two sections and the first-floor sill bands are not completely aligned. The roof over the three-storey section previously had an angled hip at the east end where it abutted the narrower caretaker’s house in the front range; the hipped part of the roof has been demolished along with the caretaker’s house, leaving a ragged east end to the building. The roofs are double-pitched with gable walls at the west end.

The north elevation has a number of doorways on the ground floor and taking-in doors to the upper floors, with segmental-arched heads. At the right-hand end of the two-storey section is a wider cart entrance with a segmental-arched head and to its immediate left is a more recent wide opening with a steel lintel. At the left-hand end, part of the wall at second-floor level has been demolished. There are two brick eaves stacks to the three-storey section, between the tenth and eleventh bays and the twelfth and thirteenth bays. There are a number of end plates for bracing rods across the elevation.

The south elevation originally had closely-spaced windows on all floors; on the first floor, the fourth-bay window of the two-storey section and the adjacent window in the three-storey section were later converted to doorways. There is a more recent wide opening with a steel lintel in the eighth and ninth bays of the three-storey section. There are a number of end plates for bracing rods across the elevation.

The east end has no external wall as it previously abutted the caretaker’s house.

The west gable walls of the three-storey section and the two-storey section are blind. There is the outline of a former single-storey building with a double-pitched roof in white paint on the outer gable wall.

INTERIOR: internally, the range is divided into a series of rooms by brick walls. The timber floors have timber cross beams with axial rows of slim, cast-iron columns, those at ground-floor level said to be strengthened with under-slung iron tension trusses (Rose-Deacon, A and Jessop, O, June 2006, 7). Wooden staircases provide access between floors in the three-storey section and there is a small electric passenger lift towards the east end. The second floor has bolted timber king-post trusses with raking struts and side purlins. Towards the west end is a rope hoist partly suspended from the roof structure and partly supported on heavy posts. The two-storey section is open to the roof, though joist sockets indicate a removed first floor. The roof structure is a timber king-post truss, which may be a replacement (Rose-Deacon, A and Jessop, O, June 2006, 8).

History

In 1845 a directory first listed a brass-founding business under Chrime Brothers; Edward, Richard and Peter were the sons of Edward Chrimes senior, a plumber and glazier. In the same year Edward Chrimes junior patented the 'high pressure loose valve screw-down cock', fore runner of the modern domestic tap; it involved a screw down and replaceable rubber washer, which produced the first leak-proof tap. Before October that year Peter and Richard left the business and Edward junior formed a short-lived partnership with Thomas Neatby, the firm trading as Chrimes, Neatby and Co, ending with Edward’s death in 1847. His brother Richard returned from London initially on a temporary basis to run the company. He then entered into partnership with John Guest, with the company becoming known as Guest and Chrimes. In 1848 the firm also started making sluice valve bodies cast in one piece, and from 1849 they manufactured patented New York style fire hydrants, which were widely exported. John Guest described the hydrant as being covered by the same principle as the Bib cock, which substituted a ball valve for the metal disc valve of Chrimes’ patent. They also manufactured Siemans’ and Adamson’s water meters. In 1851 Guest and Chrimes had a stand at the Great Exhibition held in Crystal Palace. In the second half of C19 public health legislation led to the spread of piped water supplies, and there was also a growth in the use of gas for lighting. Allied to the large expansion of domestic, commercial and industrial buildings, this produced a massive increase in the demand for the firm’s taps, valves, hydrants and meters, both in this country and abroad.

The first foundry, known as Butter Market Foundry, was situated close to the River Don and the Market Place. In the mid 1850s the firm was awarded a large contract for valve gear and plumbing equipment for the Madrid Water Company in Spain, which necessitated an expansion of manufacturing. A new larger site was purchased beside the River Don and in 1857 the present factory was built on Don Street on a previously open field. The firm now had the facility for casting and machining both brass and iron. An early, but undated birds-eye illustration of the new factory, probably drawn for a trade directory, shows a three-storey front office range facing the river to the east, with a two-bay caretaker’s house at its left-hand end and an angled return at its right-hand end continuing as a long, three-storey manufacturing range to the rear with a water tower towards its far end. The central yard is enclosed on the opposite, south side by a long range of single-storey buildings incorporating a two-storey, four-bay block approximately half way along, and to the rear by one- and two-storey buildings with a number of wide stacks and a circular chimney in front towards the right-hand end. The yard also contains a very tall, circular chimney adjacent to the northern range with the water tower. A previous report (Briden, C and Moore, G, July 2012, when the whole building was extant) indicates that there was a straight joint between the main office range and the 12 eastern bays of the front range, with another between the 14-bay angled return and the long, rear range, which remains apparent in the brickwork. The angled extension acted as a link connecting the front and rear ranges and it contained both offices to the front and industrial workshops to the rear angle which abutted the manufacturing range. Externally it shared an appearance and detailing from both ranges to which it was attached. It is likely that the construction date for all three components is close, with all then appearing in the aforementioned illustration.

The 1:500 Ordnance Survey Town Plan published in 1888 shows an expanded complex of buildings set out on a lozenge-shaped site and identified as 'Foundry (Iron and Brass)'. The front range has been extended northwards and four attached parallel rear ranges of differing lengths are shown. The northernmost range was not shown on the earlier illustration, nor was the range built in the yard, which abuts the original cart entrance through the front range. The earlier three-storey range remains attached to a range of buildings at the rear, western side of the site, which incorporates a deep, rectangular building, probably the foundry. The southernmost attached range has a gap and then a stepped building abutting the rear range at an angle. A separate, long, narrow range is also shown on the south side of the site. Next to the tall, circular chimney is a separate, small rectangular building, probably a boiler house. An early, but undated photograph (in Rose-Deacon, A and Jessop, O, June 2006) taken from the south shows the complex with the tall chimney and the southern range in the foreground, which retains the two-storey, four-bay block, but the single-storey buildings to the right have been replaced by a three-storey, fifteen-bay range with eaves stacks between many of the windows.

By 1923 the two northernmost rear ranges had been joined by the addition of a structure over the narrow yard between them, which is likely to have been a pitched roof covering, rather than an actual building. Walkways also connected the rear ranges, and various small subsidiary buildings had been added to the complex.

The 1:2500 OS map revised in 1934, published in 1936, shows that the complex had expanded westwards and northwards from the original site. The boiler house and tall chimney have been demolished. Subsequently large parts of the rear, western range were demolished and rebuilt as large sheds, as was the northernmost attached range. Further construction took place to the south of the former boundary.

The premises of Guest and Chrimes were listed at Grade II in February 1986. In 1999 the complex closed. All the post-1934 buildings were demolished in the early C21, having gone by 2012. In July 2018 there was a fire in the front, eastern range. Subsequently the whole of the front office range, caretaker’s house, eastern extension and part of the angled return were demolished, leaving eight bays attached to the long rear range with the water tower. The remaining extant buildings on the site are the three C19 manufacturing ranges which were formerly attached to the rear of the demolished front range, and part of the C19 angled return.

Reasons for Listing

The premises of Guest and Chrimes, a brass and iron foundry, are listed at Grade II listed for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the three workshop ranges constructed in the second half of the C19 are representative of the large-scale manufacture of brass and other metal components, being narrow and well-lit and containing features which are evidence of the industrial processes they housed;
* the prominent water tower is a local landmark which provides a clear connection between the buildings and Rotherham, illustrating the importance of brass founding to the industrial history of the town, and more widely, the importance of the metal trades to the South Yorkshire region.

Historic interest:

* Edward Chrimes’ invention of a leak-proof tap, the fore runner of the modern domestic tap, was an integral component to enabling the supply of safe piped water supplies and thus great improvements in public health in towns and cities both here and abroad from the mid-C19;
* built on this new site in the second half of the C19, these premises are testament to the success and rapid expansion of Guest and Chrimes, driven by the company’s entrepreneurial skills in developing new products.

External Links

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