Description

SHEFFIELD

784-1/0/10182 MOWBRAY STREET
07-AUG-07 Kelham Island
(North side)
30

II
Workers' housing. 1850s. Handmade bricks, stone plinth and dressings, slate roof.
PLAN: Rectangular blind-back cottage facing south into the street, with slightly smaller rectangular blind-back cottage to rear sharing party wall and facing east into narrow yard. Each cottage has a single room on 3 floors, with separate scullery area on ground floor beneath staircase, and a cellar. Staircase against east wall of front cottage and west wall of rear cottage. Main stack in centre of west wall of front cottage, with small stack at north-east corner, and centre of north wall of rear cottage, with small stack at north-west corner.
EXTERIOR: Main elevation of the front cottage is built in Flemish bond brickwork, with a stone plinth, and hipped slate roof. Single, off-centre (west) hung-sash window on each of 3 floors, that on the second floor shorter than the windows below. All have stone sills and stone wedge lintels, with a single pane-over-two pane sash on the ground floor, four-over-six panes on the first floor, and three-over-six panes on the second floor. Doorway set right (east) of centre is raised up two shallow steps cut in the plinth, with a stone wedge lintel. The four-panelled door has been later reinforced with sheet metal. Above is a rectangular overlight. Set in the pavement beneath the windows is a coal drop into the cellar. Side elevation walls of irregular bond with no plinth. Both side walls were originally blind, now two small inserted windows (boarded over) on ground and second floor of east wall; no sills or lintels.
Main (east) elevation of the rear cottage is built in irregular bond, with no plinth, and roof gabled to north elevation. Single, off-centre (north) hung-sash window on each of 3 floors, that on the second floor shorter than the windows below. All have stone sills and brick soldier lintels, with six-over-six panes to the ground and first-floor windows; the second-floor sash is boarded over. Doorway set left (south) of centre has brick soldier lintel, and original four-panelled door with three-pane rectangular overlight. Set into the yard to north side of windows is a coal drop into the cellar. The side and rear elevations are blind.
INTERIOR: Originally two unconnected units, now with inserted doorway through ground-floor party wall. Stone flagged ground-floor rooms with main fireplaces both containing cast-iron range from Shales Moor Foundry, and an adjacent cupboard, that to the rear cottage retaining original panelled doors. Timber staircases, rising immediately adjacent to the door of the front cottage (missing door), and rising from the south side of the west wall in the rear cottage, with four-panelled door. Front cottage has partition wall separating narrow scullery from main room, with doorway on south side with original moulded architrave, and adjacent, inserted doorway. Position of copper in north-east corner, next to inserted window. Single, plastered room on first floor with fireplace with stone surround, and cupboard beneath stairs. Gas light mount on east side of window. Single room on second floor, open into hipped roof space, with plastered walls and vertical boarding to east wall. No fireplace. Double-vaulted cellar with brick barrel vaults built on low stone walls, and brick steps with stone treads.
First and second floors, and cellar of rear cottage were not inspected.
Features of note include staircases, four-panelled doors, hung-sash windows, moulded architraves, and fireplaces with surrounds.
HISTORY: There is little known history for this modest dwelling. Mowbray Street appears to have been laid out in the early 1850s, but identification of the property in contemporary trade directories is not possible. The historic Ordnance Survey map published in 1894 shows the area to be heavily built-up, with steel works and a saw mill on the south side of the street, whilst the north side, and adjacent streets to the north, have high-density workers' housing. The majority of the housing in the area was cleared post 1935.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION
30 Mowbray Street is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The building is an extremely rare surviving example of a pair of free-standing urban blind-back cottages.
* The vulnerability and frailty of this type of building, which was built speculatively and is highly relevant to our understanding of the rapid industrialisation of C19 urban centres, has led to substantive loss nationally.
* It is indicative of the type of C19 workers' housing built pre-bylaw, before speculative builders were regulated.
* It highlights the symbiotic relationship between industrial factories (works) and adjacent workers' housing, largely lost due to later C20 clearance of the housing.
* It remains substantially intact as built, with original plan form and fabric, displaying a subtle hierarchy of accommodation, and interiors retaining many original fixtures and fittings.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26671420

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bristol (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  For the Record
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)