South Building of Weardale Steel, Wolsingham; Listed building (Wolsingham)

WOLSINGHAM A689 (South side) NZ 03 NE Wolsingham 22/329 South building of Weardale Steel (Wolsingham) Ltd. II

Former Wolsingham Ironworks. 1864 and later for Charles Attwood. Thin courses of sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and quoins; asbestos-covered roof. One high storey, 2 builds of 10 and 7 windows; small low pent addition on rear elevation. First build has round-headed windows, with slender vertical glazing bars and overlapping panes, in chamfered alternate-block surrounds with sloping sills. Second build to north has square-headed windows with flat stone lintels and projecting stone sills; segmental-headed vehicle door, between fourth and fifth windows, is partly blocked and has C20 doors inserted. Right and left returns have renewed sliding doors. Hipped roof with drum-shaped ventilators.

Interior: queen-post roof; girder frame supports crane along length of shop.

Historical note: C; Attwood, whose first works at Tow Law were for the manufacture of iron, was in 1862 granted patents for an improved method of manufacturing steel; it was cheaper and more reliable than the cementation method, and was said to have advantages over Bessemer's, which was patented in 1855.

Source: J. Robinson The Attwood Family Sunderland 1903, pp. 15-19.

Listing NGR: NZ0834236811