Linotype Works Engine House and Chimney Base, Broadheath, Trafford

Summary

Engine house and chimney base. 1897 by Stott & Sons for the Linotype Company. Chimney reduced in height in late C20.

Description

Engine house and chimney base. 1897 by Stott & Sons for the Linotype Company. Chimney reduced in height in late C20.

MATERIALS

Engine house: brick with terracotta and stone dressings and a slate roof.
Chimney base: brick with stone dressings.

PLAN: the engine house is a tall rectangular building. The circular chimney has a square base.

The buildings were not site visited and the details are from available relevant information and photographs.

EXTERIOR

ENGINE HOUSE: the engine house is built aligned north-south, with the north gable wall facing directly onto the Bridgewater Canal and intended to be seen across the canal. The chimney base stands close by on its west side.

The engine house is built in polychrome bands of red and brindle brickwork with an attic storey defined by a moulded terracotta cornice band below and a moulded terracotta eaves band above with terracotta ball finials at the corners.

The north gable wall is the principal elevation. It has a high plinth and four bays defined by brick pilasters with terracotta panels to the bases and terracotta fluted bands beneath Ionic capitals with a moulded terracotta cornice. Between the pilasters are round-headed arch windows with moulded terracotta impost bands and voussoir bands with giant keystones and stone sills. The lower part of the third and fourth windows and the dividing pilaster have been lost due to the modern insertion of a large square-headed entrance. A pedestrian doorway with a roller shutter has been inserted beneath the second window and there is a rectangular opening beneath the first window. All the windows are presently boarded. A frieze band has square outer panels separated by narrow brick pilasters. Picked out in white brick is the name LINOTYPE to the attic storey and WORKS to the frieze band below. The elevation is topped by a shaped pediment with a terracotta finial, moulded coping and decorative scrolled side console brackets. Within the pediment is the date 1897 in white brickwork.

The south gable wall has a similar shaped pediment with terracotta decoration. Beneath the lower cornice band there is the outline of a demolished abutting building. Within that outline are two large, square openings (boarded). At ground-floor level is a square-headed doorway with a sliding door.

The east side elevation is of seven bays. Scars and painted walling indicate that there was formerly an abutting building. The right-hand corner has a clasping pilaster continued round from the principal elevation. At first-floor level are seven basket-arched windows with giant keystones, all infilled with brick. Between the windows at impost level are shaped stone corbels. Above, the attic storey has seven elliptical windows with giant terracotta keystones and timber-framed, multi-pane pivoting windows.

The west side elevation formerly abutted the boiler house; the lower part of the wall is painted. It is of seven bays and is similarly detailed to the east elevation. The left-hand corner has a clasping pilaster continued round from the principal elevation. At first-floor level are seven basket-arched windows with giant terracotta keystones; all have been infilled with brick except the first window (boarded). Above, the attic storey has seven elliptical windows (boarded and the left-hand window infilled with brick) with giant terracotta keystones.

CHIMNEY BASE: the chimney base is built of brick. It has a high, square pedestal with an entablature with a moulded stone architrave and cornice. The truncated circular chimney has a stone plinth and at each corner is a small, square engaged pillar with a stone plinth and shaped stone cap topped with a ball finial.

INTERIOR

The interior of the engine house is now a single space, the engine floor having been removed. The side walls are articulated by pilasters with terracotta detailing between the windows and there is a deep dentil cornice beneath the attic storey, which retains a travelling crane. The area between the former engine floor and the sills of the side elevation windows is tiled in dark brown glazed tiles with a yellow and green decorative tile cornice at sill level (the tiles are mostly painted over at present). Between the sixth and seventh windows to the west elevation is a high-level doorway to the boiler house, now infilled behind. The decorative terracotta architrave and six-panelled, partially glazed door remain in-situ. There are several, infilled, cast-iron bearing boxes in the walls.

History

The engine house and chimney were built as part of the Linotype Works, established by the Linotype Company to manufacture specialist typesetting machinery.

Invented in America in the late C19, Linotype machines allowed a complete line of type to be set (thus the name), revolutionising newspaper publishing. In 1889 the patent was bought by a group of British businessmen, including Lord Kelvin and Sir Joseph Lawrence, who had seen the machines working on a visit to the United States. The Linotype Company Limited established its head office on Fleet Street, London, and a factory in central Manchester. Soon much larger premises were required for manufacturing purposes and the Linotype Works was created in Broadheath Industrial Park, Altrincham, on a thirty-acre greenfield site beside the Bridgewater Canal.

Broadheath Industrial Park pre-dated Trafford Park industrial park by a decade. The 101-hectare park was created in 1885 by Harry Grey, the eighth Earl of Stamford, on former estate land and was a precursor of the ubiquitous C20 industrial estate. The success of the Linotype Works, alongside the Tilghmans Sand Blast Company Limited, helped to establish the park and by 1914 there were 14 companies operating successfully from Broadheath.

The Company appointed Stott & Sons to design the new manufacturing premises. At this time they were the leading northern cotton mill architects. The factory buildings, main office block, engine house, boiler house (demolished) and chimney were built in 1897. Stott & Sons also designed an estate village of 172 workers’ houses, built between 1897 and 1901.

The engine house, boiler and chimney were built alongside the Bridgewater Canal, which formed the northern boundary of the site. The canal was used to bring coal and materials to the works and provided water for the boiler house. An historic plan of the Linotype works shows an adjacent canal layby and two jack wells for water intake are marked. Originally the engine house had two tandem horizontal engines manufactured by B Goodfellow of Hyde, but in the 1920s these were replaced by two turbines manufactured by James Howden & Co of Glasgow.

In 1912 a second engine house was constructed on the east side of the original engine house. It has since been demolished.

At the height of their success the Linotype Company employed over ten thousand people and supplied machines to 63 countries worldwide; the machines were so efficient that the major components remained unchanged for nearly a hundred years.

During the 1980s the Company was badly hit by the economic recession and a lack of updated technology. By the early 1990s the factory site was divided up and used by a number of small businesses. During the early C21 the remnants of the Company closed down or moved away and the site began to be redeveloped for housing from 2013. The chimney was reduced in height for safety reasons in the late C20 and subsequently the boiler house, which stood between the engine house and the chimney, was demolished.

Reasons for Listing

The Linotype Works engine house and chimney base, 1897 by Stott & Sons for the Linotype Company are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* for the design and architectural display of the large engine house and adjacent chimney base, particularly the quality of the terracotta detailing to both the exterior and interior of the engine house;

* for the inclusion of the works name and date on the principal north façade of the engine house, underlining the building’s integral role in the public view of the complex across the Bridgewater Canal;

* the interior of the engine house retains original decorative wall tiles and a travelling crane in addition to the terracotta detailing;

* the buildings were designed by the renowned Stott & Sons who were employed as company architects, designing both the industrial complex and estate village for the workers, and who have a number of listed industrial buildings to their name including Grade II* cotton mills.

Historic interest:
* the Linotype Works was located on the Broadheath Industrial Park, created in 1885 by the eighth Earl of Stamford, over a decade before Trafford Park, often thought to be the first planned industrial park;

* the Linotype Works manufactured Linotype machines, which revolutionised newspaper publishing by speeding up the process of typesetting, making the Company hugely successful with a worldwide market.

Group value:
* the engine house and chimney base have an associative group value with the Grade II main office block, sharing a visual appearance in architectural treatment and together providing an understanding of the layout and functioning of the former works.

External Links

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.