Archaeological Building Recording of the Cornhill Works, Edward Street and Solly Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire

In April 2006 ARCUS were commissioned by Merlin Estates Management Ltd to report upon a programme of archaeological building recording undertaken in 2003 of a large five storey building from the Cornhill Works in Sheffield (NGR SK 34728758). The completed report was a requirement of a planning condition prior to the redevelopment of the site. Archaeological recording took the form of room descriptions, measured and annotated floor plans and sections, accompanied by black and white 35mm and medium format photography, colour slides and digital images. The site is characterised by a significant change in level from north to south, forming the Cornhill Works on Edward Street, and the Cambridge Works three storeys above on Solly Street. Both were developed during the nineteenth century, although the site appears to have operated as a single complex until the end of the nineteenth centuy, when the lower part was renamed as the Cornhill Works. The surviving tower building appears to date to the latter quarter of the nineteenth- century and is unusual in having divided access from both the lower and upper Works within a single building. The ground floor is significant in that has an unusual ceiling, being built with brick jack arches supported on cast-iron columns. This is significant in terms of its construction, a technique that was widespread within large cotton mills to act as a means of fireproofing the factory floors. Within Sheffield however, it is associated with grinding workshops, or hulls. Recessed arches at ground level also indicate the provision of ground level power transmission, key features of grinding hulls. Less than ten other sites are known to survive within the city with this ceiling type and therefore the building is an important survival. The first floor has a solid stone flag floor and evidence for line-shafting, with an access hatch to the ground floor. It is likely to have housed machinery involved with cutlery and edge tool production that required no grinding or hot working. Access to both the ground floor and first floor was via an external stone flight of steps against he west elevation of the building. This stair originally continued up to the Solly Street courtyard, although it was sealed off in the early twentieth-century, most likely when the Works was split. The character of the top three floors is noticeably different to the lower two. All the rooms are well provided with windows and small hearths. Evidence for benches along the north wall of the second floor, and a low loading doorway in the south elevation opening onto the Solly Street courtyard indicates that activities related to the assembly, finishing and packaging of cutlery and edge tools may have been undertaken in these areas of the building. The building is one of the few surviving examples of an integrated grinding hull and cutlery workshop. Minimal internal features survive, although this survey has identified sufficient evidence to allow functional interpretations of each floor to be suggested.

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