 |
| Ketton limestone as seen through a hand lens |
During my walk in the industrial east end of Sheffield, to photograph various buildings for the British Listed Buildings website, I encountered several sandstones in bridges and walls and various granites used for road setts, but the vast majority of these predominantly brick buildings have historical rather than architectural merit.
 |
| The route of my walk |
Along the way, I had encountered various information panels and plaques that informed me about the role of companies such as Firth-Brown in the manufacture of steel products in Sheffield and the discovery of stainless steel by Harry Brearley, as well as the magnificent steam hammer on the corner of Savile Street East/Sutherland Street in Brightside.
 |
| The steam hammer at Brightside |
Continuing along the Attercliffe Road towards Sheffield, I went to investigate a late Victorian brick building that I had passed several times on the bus, where an inscribed panel at its eastern end refers to the Ketton Cement Store.
 |
| The former Thos. Ward Ltd buildings on Attercliffe Road |
When devising the Triton Stone Library back in 1997, I included samples of stone that had developed a good reputation as a building stone, one of which was Ketton limestone from the village of Ketton in Rutland – a Jurassic oolite that has been widely used in many of the colleges at Cambridge University and also at Burleigh House, which I had once visited many years ago.
 |
| The Ketton Cement Store |
At the time, the sample was obtained from Castle Cement, which used most of the limestone extracted from a very large quarry to make cement, but which also supplied small quantities of dimensional stone and I was curious to know if there was any connection.
 |
| A Google Earth view of Ketton |
Getting much closer, I was therefore interested to see that the window surround contains a stone that is inscribed with the words Ketton Freestone and a C20 date that is now partially illegible, although old Ordnance Survey maps show that this and the adjoining Albion House were built between the publication of the 1855 and 1894 editions.
 |
| Ketton freestone |
When examining the various middle Jurassic oolitic limestones in the Triton Stone Library and my own collection, which includes those from the Great Oolite around Bath and the Cotswolds, Portland stone from Dorset and the Inferior Oolite (Lincolnshire Limestone Formation) in the East Midlands, the Ketton stone stood out from the rest in that it consists almost entirely of uniformly shaped and sized ooliths, with no shell fragments. Looking at the limestone in the window surrounds with my hand lens, this same pattern can be seen.
 |
| Ketton limestone seen through a hand lens |
Looking at the very large lintel above the two windows at the east end, although it has a very similar colour, it has cracks, crazing and a surface texture that looks very much like artificial stone. Having undertaken some internet research, I discovered that the Ketton Concrete Company was formed by Frank Walker, who made concrete blocks and sectional buildings.
 |
| A detail of a concrete lintel |
In 1927, capital was obtained from Joseph Ward, who was the chairman of Thos. W. Ward Ltd, which also had interests in coal, fuel, machinery, scrap metal, ship breaking and took its name from Thomas William Ward and, for most of its history, it was treated as a subsidiary company.
 |
| An inscribed detail |
The initials TWW are seen in inscribed lettering in the round arched recess of the first floor window which, like the other dressings, look like Huddersfield stone and it is likely that the Ketton stone and concrete window surround were installed as a showcase for these products.
 |
| The entrance to the Portland Cement Store |
Unknown to me at the time, Thos. W. Ward Ltd also occupied the substantial Albion Works on a site that lies between the Ketton Cement Store and the north bank of the River Don, with the adjoining Albion House being built to serve the growing shipbreaking business and which were the head office from 1902 to 1935.
I didn’t take any general photos of the imposing Albion House, being more interested in the main doorway, which has a door of unknown age that is made of stainless steel, with at least three different granites being used for the surrounds.
 |
| The entrance to Albion House |
The jambs to the door are made in Shap light granite with a dark variety used for the large panels that form surrounds to the windows to either side of the doorway. These were both very popular in late Victorian buildings and can be seen in a few places in Sheffield city centre.
 |
| Shap dark and light granites |
The dark Shap granite is surrounded by another different grey granite, with large feldspar phenocrysts, which I immediately recognised as being from the Cornubian batholith that underlies much of Cornwall and Devon. One of the many business outlets of Thos. W. Ward Ltd was quarrying, with a lease held on the Cornish De Lank quarries – suppliers of biotite granite for Tower Bridge and Blackfriars Bridge – and it is therefore highly probable that this has been used here.
 |
| De Lank (L) and dark Shap (R) granites |
No comments:
Post a Comment