Williams_Bros_crucible_kiln_Green_Lane
Williams_Bros_crucible_kiln_Green_Lane

CRUCIBLE TO BE TURNED INTO BIN STORE

I bet this headline frightened a few of you snooker fans out there!

No, it’s not the famous and much loved one but another one down at Shalesmoor.

Sheffield had lots of these dating back to the early days of steelmaking and there are still some survivors. This particular one is on Green Lane and stands on the old William’s Brothers site near to one of the many new housing developments down there and it is planned to turn it into a bin-store. It used to be surrounded by concrete buildings so you probably didn’t know it was there. These have now been demolished however revealing the Crucible Kiln in all its glory and you can now get an even better view as sadly the early William’s Brother’s buildings have suddenly been swept away (see Blog – GRAB AT STRAWS – NOT BRICKS). The crucible building now stands alone in isolation but remarkably the cellars are all still intact but blocked over and the only access down there is a staircase which is to be boarded up. Some of the barrel vaulted ceilings on these sites can be quite impressive and it is a shame that a full restoration scheme will not take place. The one on Malinda Street has been restored properly but unfortunately the one on Blonk Street has been surrounded and thus spoilt. The Conservation Advisory Group commented that this one at Green Lane should be sensitively restored and that measures should be taken to ensure that the furnace would be recognisable externally as well as internally. It was also suggested that a bike store would be a better use for the building. Somehow this would be better than a bin-store and a little less of an ignominious end for such an important part of Sheffield’s industrial history.

CRUCIBLE TO BE TURNED INTO BIN STORE

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