York: Leeman Road: Former Permanent Way Workshops

Interim Report on Historic Structures

Dr. Bill Fawcett, 16 December 2011

Abstract: This report considers a group of workshops situated in Leeman Road and forming one

continuous building, owned by Network Rail and until recently used in connection with the

maintenance of permanent way (railway track). They originated in the eighteen-seventies as the

premises of York’s Phoenix Foundry but have been in railway ownership since 1905. This has

entailed extensive changes to the building but it is shown that a majority of the original walls

survive and that the original distinctions between the various shops comprising the foundry can still

be traced. Although several major workshops have had their roof structures entirely replaced,

some original structures evidently survive. Other than flues and chimney stumps for smiths’

hearths, no evidence has been found for the machinery originally employed by the foundry; the

buildings appear to have been generally stripped out when they came into railway ownership.

Location:

Location plan based on Network Rail survey.

AS is the former smiths’ shop belonging to

the Albion Foundry, which was located next

to the Phoenix Foundry and merged with it.

This is not in Network Rail ownership. The

two long buildings shown shaded grey at the

bottom of the plan are modern workshops,

scheduled for demolition.

Contents:

1. Outline History of the Site

2. The Phoenix Foundry: Outline Business History

3. The Phoenix Foundry: Outline Site History down to 1907

4. Developments in Railway Ownership

5. Survey

6. Recommendations

7. Sources and Bibliography

8. Appendix 1: Survey Photographs (supplied separately on disk)

9. Appendix 2: Network Rail Survey: ‘Leeman Road Yards’ (supplied separately on disk)

Contact details: bill_fawcett_gta1@btinternet.com

1..Outline History of the Site

The buildings under consideration originated

as the Phoenix Iron Foundry of Messrs. Close

& Ayre, who relocated from premises within

York’s city walls to a green-field site lying

between ‘Thief Lane’ (now Leeman Road)

and the railway serving York’s goods station

(now the National Railway Museum Station

Hall). Construction of the foundry began in

late 1873, most of the buildings being erected

within the 1870’s, and by 1889 the site had

already developed to its full extent, shown in

fig. 1, which contrasts the buildings existing

on a plan of 1900 with those surviving in

December 2011. From this it can be seen that

the present workshops largely retain the walls

of the foundry buildings, though the roof

structures have been extensively replaced

while very little internal evidence survives of

their original function.

Fig. 1. Phoenix Foundry site in 1900

The Phoenix Foundry closed and was sold in 1905 to the North Eastern Railway, which in 1908

adapted the buildings as Permanent Way workshops. This included a degree of reconstruction,

which can be identified in parts of the existing fabric, although drawings for this work do not appear

to survive in the Network Rail collection. More drastic changes were made in various phases after

1927, which are documented, while development of and around the site has continued until quite

recently. The maintenance workshop for track machines (E) was still in operational use in 2008,

but today occupation is confined to the general store (A) at the north end.

2..The Phoenix Foundry: Outline business history

The original foundry was established in 1838 by Edwin Thompson, and developed on a site in the

east end of central York, between George Street and the city walls. Thompson was a serious rival

to the better-known business carried on by John Walker and his son William at their Victoria

Foundry, near Walmgate. By 1859 Thompson was keen to retire and pursue other activities, so he

sold the business to a partnership formed for the purpose by John Close, John Ayre and William

Nicholson. Close was a well-known figure in 19th century York, a confidante of George Hudson, the

Railway King, and Secretary to his York, Newcastle & Berwick Railway.

The partnership traded as Close, Ayre & Nicholson until the first two members bought out the

share owned by the widow of William Nicholson, who died in 1870. They then incorporated

themselves as the York Engineering Co., and moved to the Leeman Road site, which gave them

enough space to lay out a new works in an efficient fashion. It also enabled them to have a railway

siding laid in from the North Eastern Railway (NER) goods lines, avoiding the need for road

cartage to and from a railhead. In what seems to have been a co-ordinated move, the proprietors

of the much-smaller Albion Foundry, also based in the city centre, moved their operation to a site

adjoining the new Phoenix Works on the east side. They incorporated themselves as the York

Railway Plant Co., and merged into the York Engineering Co. in 1882. Despite having merged, the

two groups of foundry buildings remained largely distinct and are now in separate ownerships.

At one time, most towns boasted an iron foundry, manufacturing fabricated ironwork as well as

castings, but a variety of factors led to their decline in the closing years of the 19th century. One

thing was the increasing competition from mass-produced items, conveyed cheaply by the far-

reaching railway network. In addition, however, some firms seem to have faced problems making

the changeover from iron to steel technology, a move which also brought a reduction in the use in

building construction of cast-iron elements, such as columns, in favour of rolled-steel joists.

The Walker foundry struggled on until about 1923 but the York Engineering Co. only just made it

into the 20th century. In the summer of 1905 the premises were offered to their big neighbour, the

North Eastern Railway Co., which purchased them without any clear idea as to how the site might

be used. However, in December 1907 the railway decided to move their permanent way (i.e. track)

maintenance workshops there from a site near the passenger station. The requisite alterations to

the foundry buildings were carried out in 1908.

3..The Phoenix Foundry: Outline site history down to 1907

The development of the Phoenix Foundry site is, fortunately, chronicled in a series of architect’s

drawings submitted to York Local Board of Health (with powers in respect of drains and sewerage)

from 1873 onwards, although one group of workshops (F, G & H on fig. 1) is absent from this

archive. An additional check is provided by the OS survey carried out in 1889 and the NER plan

made in 1899 for their Parliamentary Bill in the session 1900.

To understand the evolution of the site, one must briefly consider the operations carried out there.

The term ‘Foundry’ is slightly misleading, in that the firm made both iron castings and fabricated

ironwork. If one considers York’s first railway station, for which Edwin Thompson supplied some of

the cast-iron columns, the distinction becomes apparent. The trainshed roof (1840, extended 1845)

comprises cast-iron columns and spandrel panels, the latter forming an arcade which supports the

roof valleys. The roof trusses are fabricated entirely from rolled wrought-iron sections: angle

section and round bar.

Thus the Phoenix Foundry contained an iron foundry, comprising cupola furnaces and a casting

shop; associated with this would have been a pattern shop in which highly-skilled woodworkers

produced the patterns from which the casting moulds were made. However, much of the firm’s

production involved fabrication from wrought-iron plates and sections. This required a machine

shop, in which to cut, bend and drill (or punch) these items, and a smiths’ shop, in which more

complex shaping, forging and riveting could be carried out. In reality, the smiths’ shop was the

largest individual workshop within the Phoenix Foundry.

Fig. 2 (next page) is a ground plan of the proposed works, made in 1873 by the architect Charles

Toft Newstead. The full scheme was not carried out immediately, since the firm could for a while

defer expenditure by continuing some operations at its old site. Thus construction of the

foundry/casting shop was delayed until 1878 and carried out to a modified plan; it corresponds to A

in fig. 1. The largest interior space was the smiths’ shop (E in fig. 1), depicted by Newstead with

four spans running north-south. In practice, the westernmost span was not built and the adjoining

workshops were made shorter than on plan in order to line up with its west wall. The building was

never extended west to the line originally proposed; instead, by 1878 a roofed loading area

(shaded beige in fig. 1) had been built in front of the west wall, sheltering the railway siding which

extended into the site from the North Eastern Railway goods lines.

Newstead showed three almost identical spaces to the north of the smithy: D as a wheel shop, and

C as a fitting & machine shop, divided lengthwise by a wall rather than the present line of cast-iron

columns. He depicted the eastern half of the north bay of C as being higher than the remainder,

perhaps to include an overhead crane, but this idea seems not to have been implemented.

Fig. 2. Ground Plan of the proposed Phoenix Foundry, made in 1873 by Charles Toft Newstead.

(North is to the left)

From observation on site, it is evident that the first build comprised shops C, D and E but by 1878 a

wheel shop (B) had been built onto the north side of it, utilising the north wall of shop C but

stopping about 45 feet (13.7m) short of its west end. The north wall of this wheel shop was

adopted in 1878 as the south wall of an L-plan casting shop (A). Newstead also showed a

detached girder shop, across the yard to the west, but there is no corresponding building on the

OS 1889 survey.

Newstead’s ground and site plans were

accompanied by a number of cross-sections,

revealing proposed roof structures which do

not survive in the present building, although

again some may have been changed in

execution. The most interesting of the original

interiors would have been the Smiths’ Shop

(E), with wrought-iron trusses carrying a roof

with a raised ridge ventilator, borne evidently

on arched walls running N-S and spanning

between the brick clusters of flues and

chimneys, each cluster serving four smiths’

hearths. That has been replaced by a free-

standing portal-frame roof within the original

outer walls.

Fig. 3. Cross-section (E-W) through Smiths’

Shop, showing the hearths and their hoods.

In 1878, Close & Ayre got round to building the casting shop (A), employing the architect Walter

Penty (senior). His drawing shows the substantial walls to north and east already existing as part of

the site boundary and simply raised a little to the eaves height of his roof. The south wall is that of

the already existing wheel shop (B). The casting shop was L-shaped in plan, with an open space in

the angle which Penty shows equipped with a pair of cupolas, which would have been supplied

with pig iron from other producers.

Fig. 4. Walter Penty’s ground plan for the 1878 casting shop, with the new walls shown in red (N is

to the bottom). The three large circles are the turning circles of the cranes serving the Heavy

Casting shop, outside which is seen a pair of cupolas mounted on a stage. The south wing of the

shop is shown as being used for light castings. The foreman’s house is shown to the right (W) of

the yard entrance from Leeman Road, here given its old name: Thief Lane. The workshop walls

shown in black still remain (December 2011) though the ‘new’ ones (red) have gone in the 1943

rebuilding of this area as the general store.

The last addition to the main block of workshops appears to be the range denoted F,G,H in fig. 1,

which was in existence by 1889. The loss of range H and unroofing of range F prior to recording

make a full account difficult. However, range F was photographed from the east in 2001, when it

retained a hipped roof with a raised ridge ventilator. Sawn-off beams in the wall head indicate that

it had timber trusses, probably like those remaining in block G. In addition, there are surviving flues

and chimney stumps indicative of the presence of smiths’ hearths within ranges F and G. Range G

was, unfortunately, inaccessible as all openings have been blocked, and there is therefore a need

to record its roof structure and walls in the course of demolition. Likewise, range B was also

inaccessible internally and could only be glimpsed through a partially blocked window and door, so

requires photographic recording, especially as its eastern half appears to retain an iron-trussed

roof which may survive from the foundry era.

4..Developments in railway ownership

Having purchased the whole of the York Engineering Co. site in 1905, the NER decided at the end

of 1907 to adapt the premises as maintenance workshops for their District Engineer, York. His

existing workshops had only been built in 1882, but were situated just west of York passenger

station on a site likely to be required for further platforms.

The main function of the workshops related to the maintenance of permanent way, along with

items such as level-crossing gates, but also extended to the manufacture of wooden signal posts

and signalboxes. Thus they had quite different requirements from the former foundry, with a need

for facilities such as a sawmill and joiners’ shop. It seems therefore that the foundry buildings were

largely stripped out in 1908. What is less clear is the extent of the immediate alterations to the

fabric of the buildings. Records exist as to the money expended but the only surviving drawing for

the 1908 alterations relates to a toilet block. Useful evidence is, however, provided by later

drawings and an aerial photograph taken in 1936, which forms the basis for fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Plan based on fig. 1, modified to

comply with an aerial photograph taken in

1936, with the roof ridges indicated by broken

red lines. Comparison with fig. 1 shows very

little outward change apart from the removal

of the covered loading area on the west side

of the building and the infilling (1932) of the

open area in the angle of A which had

allowed access to the two cupolas.

The three parallel blocks east of the

workshops, running N-S from Leeman Road,

were terraces of housing built for foundry

workers. The westernmost one (Carlisle

Street) has been demolished but the others

survive. The buildings east of shops F-H were

those of the Albion Foundry, whose casting

shop still survives (December 2011) in a little-

altered state.

One problem with the original shops is that the majority were built as long compartments,

earmarked for a specific function and divided from each other by brick walls bearing a single roof

span. This was not an entirely convenient layout for the railway, and we see shops C and D

opened up internally by replacing the dividing walls with columns. This arrangement is still evident

in C but not in D, where the roof structure has been replaced and a modern blockwork division wall

introduced. The lack of drawings for the early period of railway ownership makes it unclear whether

this alteration was made by the railway or the foundry, but the internal evidence of the buildings

themselves reveals a remodelling by the NER of the west wall of C and D, with the insertion of

characteristic door and window openings. The railway also removed the external loading-area roof

attached to the west elevation of shops C to E.

The NER adapted A, the former casting shop, as the District Engineer’s store, inserting additional

windows into the south and west elevations to fit it for this purpose and subdividing what had been

one open space. In 1932, the gap between this and shop B, formerly occupied by the cupolas, was

partially filled by further storage, lightly built with wooden Belfast Roof trusses. By then, shop B had

been lengthened to a new west gable, lining up with shops C to E.

From the beginning of 1923 the NER had become the largest partner in the new London & North

Eastern Railway (LNER). The NER had been Britain’s fourth-largest railway and one of its most

profitable, but the decline in the North East’s traditional industries: coal, shipbuilding and heavy

engineering, put the LNER under pressure even before the onset of the Depression. Despite this,

they continued to invest in improving the Leeman Road workshops.

In 1943, the LNER rebuilt shop A, the general stores. To do so in wartime, when materials were

very hard to come by, suggests that the building’s roof had probably been damaged in the April

1942 air raid, which severely damaged the railway station and engine sheds; there has been no

time to investigate this possibility further. A totally new roof structure was provided and the building

was cut back on the west to line up with the other shops and allow for improvements to the site

entrance, a new gatehouse being provided on the opposite side of this. The original walls survive

to north, east and south.

Further ‘renewals’ were carried out under the nationalised British Railways/British Rail (BR). The

most significant are those to shops D and E. Shop E retains the earlier outer walls but the roof, of

three spans running north-south, was replaced by a free-standing portal frame structure in two

spans running east-west. The northern span is served by a pair of railway tracks equipped with pits

and was used for servicing track-maintenance machines such as tampers. Photograph E27, taken

as recently as 2008, shows one such machine being dealt with on the northern track.

Photograph E27, taken in 2008 by J.L.

Longfellow. This is looking west out of shop

E, the track vehicle maintenance shop, with

work being carried out on a vehicle on the

adjoining pit.

Shop D was re-roofed with a low-pitched steel-framed structure resting on the existing south wall.

Shop H was totally demolished between 1936 and 1944, probably through war damage, while F

has been unroofed. In addition, a number of free-standing buildings have been created over the

years in the yard to the west of the main range. Those currently extant are of modern construction,

with profiled metal cladding, and are recorded in the Network Rail survey carried out in 2011 and

referred to in the next section; they are not considered here.

5..Survey.

The key plan for the survey is the 1936 roof plan (fig. 5). Each of the sections delineated on this: A,

B etc, is considered individually, using the appropriate portion of a May 2011 Network Rail survey

plan to identify features and the orientation of photographs. The latter are organised in a series of

folders, one for each section, within each of which the photographs follow a separate numerical

sequence. Only some of these views are incorporated into the main text.

Network Rail carried out a measured survey in May 2011, providing a detailed ground plan of the

workshops, except for the inaccessible interiors of B and G, together with the main external

elevations. This was followed up by a photographic survey. Together, the two comprise the

document filed as Leeman Road Yards, which is referred to here by the prefix NR. References to

drawings held by Network Rail’s York Record Centre are given in the final section.

A. General Store, formerly casting shop, rebuilt 1943.

All this retains of the foundry building is the wall sequence: f-a, a-b, b-c. The west wall is a pier and

panel load-bearing structure of 1943, finished in smooth red engineering brick and forming a

dignified frontage. The broad central doorway accommodated a standard-gauge railway track

flanked by roadways for motor vehicles, serving a loading dock. The 1943 roof employs steel joists

as principals, supported on the E and W walls and two intermediate lines of rolled-steel stanchions.

It is clad with corrugated cement sheeting, and largely obscured from view by a suspended ceiling.

Walls a-b and b-c were shown as already existing on Walter Penty’s 1878 plan, and were clearly

part of the original construction but carried out as boundary walls which could be incorporated into

a building. The buttresses on their internal face are original and respond to the rising ground level

(to east) outside. The walls were raised in 1878 to the eaves level of Penty’s foundry roof, which

was a hipped roof with a ridge ventilator; Penty shows it with a wrought-iron roof truss. Wall b-c

was raised in 1943 to a shallow gable to conform with the new roof, to which it provides a parapet.

Wall a-f was built between 1873 and 1878 as the north wall of a Wheel Shop (B). This did not

extend so far west as the other early buildings, probably in order to free up access to the planned

furnace yard in the angle of the L-plan foundry, which contained 2 cupolas. The remainder of the

south wall: d-e, was built as an extension of shop B after it came into railway ownership.

A13 (left): Wall b-c from Leeman Road: the change in brick shows how it was heightened in 1943.

A8 (right): The west front (c-d).

A1 (left): View towards the corner of the strongly-buttressed walls c-b (left) and b-a (right). The roof

is concealed by a suspended ceiling.

A7 (right): This blocked window originally faced out from the north wall of the wheel shop (B) which

in 1878 became the south wall (a-f) of the casting shop’s south wing.

B. Former Wheel Shop, later Sawmill.

This is shown as an open area on Newstead’s 1873 plan, bounded by the east wall, a-g. By 1878

this had been built on as a wheel shop, shown as existing in Penty’s drawing. The wheel shop did

not extend so far west as the other shops, the original north wall being a-f. The railway converted

the building into a sawmill and, prior to 1932, extended it west to a new gable d-h. The extension

has a narrower span than the original roof, hence a set-back in the north wall at e-f and a step in

the roof itself. The south wall g-h originated as the external wall of shop C.

B1: view along the west front of the workshops, showing the step in the roof of B and also the dust

extractor associated with its role as a sawmill. (see also NR photos 34-39)

The older, eastern part of this shop appears to be roofed with a wrought-iron truss of the ‘Euston’

variety, which became a common feature of Victorian industrial buildings, while the western

extension is roofed with a truss fabricated from steel sections. Internal access was not possible,

and photographs of the eastern roof trusses are required prior to demolition, along with

photographs of wall g-h. Roof cladding is slate on timber boarding with continuous laylights along

the ridge.

Leading up towards the dust extraction plant from the west is a piece of mixed-gauge, three-rail

track (photos B2 and NR40), which appears to be a combination of standard gauge and the narrow

gauge system used for manhandling small wagons around the site when in railway use.

B2: west gables of shops B (left gable), C (next pair of gables), D and E. Mixed gauge track in the

foreground and a characteristic NER window in the nearest gable of C.

B5 (left): view along wall g-h. This began life as an external wall of the machine shop (C) and is the

best surviving example of an original exterior of the foundry. A better view of the steel roof trusses

at this end of shop B is found in photo NR39. B6 (right): view into shop B from one of the windows

in wall g-h. This is taken at the junction of the steel-trussed railway roof (left) and the earlier roof

with what appear to be classic wrought-iron trusses. The original cast-iron window frames

(presumably cast at the old Phoenix Foundry) appear to survive throughout this wall, although the

openings have been largely blocked up. Consideration should be given to their recovery for

possible re-use.

C. Former Machine Shop.

This is shown by Newstead as a ‘Fitting & Machine Shop’, roofed in two spans separated by a

brick wall with three openings giving access through shop D into the aisles of the smiths’ shop.

Walls i-g, g-h, h-j are original, although the latter has been remodelled by the NER with new door

and window openings. The exterior of the north wall, g-h, seen in part from the entrance to shop B,

comprises a line of segment-headed windows (B5) interrupted by round-arched doorways inserted

presumably when shop B was built. The south wall i-j is a modern blockwork structure. Shop C was

used by the railway as a joiners’ shop, conveniently located next to the sawmill.

(left) Detail of 1873 section by Charles Newstead, showing C (left and middle spans, RH is shop D)

with a timber king-post truss. C24: Detail of the present roof, looking towards corner h.

Newstead’s division wall between the spans has been chopped down to floor level, where it is still

visible, with the roof valley now carried on a line of 5 cast-iron columns bearing a rolled-steel I-

beam. The roof has timber queen-post trusses rather than the king-post roof of Newstead’s

drawing; this may have been a design change or the roof may have been renewed by the NER,

which probably remodelled it with the very extensive laylights now seen. The columns feature a

series of staggered lugs, as if for attaching the framework of a partition, though the present

partition between the spans is modern.

C6 (left): West gable of the south span, showing what is likely to be an original entrance of 1873.

C7 looks east inside the south span, with the original buttressed wall at the far end and a modern

blockwork wall on the right, behind which support is provided by the roof stanchions of shop D.

C9 (left) and C15: Views within the north span; the small window in the largely-blocked north wall is

that through which view B6 was taken.

C23 (left) Floor detail and, just visible in front of modern partition, what appears to be the base of

the former division wall. C19 (right) Column with staggered lugs.

C20 (left) Column detail: the spacers above the I-beam bear the valley gutter. C18 (right) Corner g

showing an archway made to communicate with the wheel shop (B) and a window of 1873, both

blocked. The archway was aligned on the axis of the east aisle of the smiths’ shop. The buttress on

the right is part of the original building.

D1: East wall of shop D (level parapet) and C (twin gables), showing blocked original windows.

C1: Detail of east gable of south span of shop C.

(see also NR45)

D. Former Wheel Shop

This is shown by Newstead as a Wheel Shop, roofed in a single span, comparable with those

which made up C. The original north wall, i-j, has been demolished, and was probably replaced by

a colonnade like that dividing C, so that 3 roof spans (comprising C and D) could have been

available as a single space. A modern blockwork partition now occupies the site of the north wall.

The shop has been re-roofed with a steel structure which could be described as a half-portal

frame. Thus the original south wall, k-l, raised by some extra brick courses, bears one end of the

roof girders while steel stanchions carry the north end of these. The original east and west walls

survive, re-profiled to suit the modern roof. Thus i-k has been cut down to form a flat parapet,

concealing the roof, while j-l has been cut down to a very shallow gable.

D8 (left) View east with modern wall on left. D2 (right) west gable, with the taller shop E beyond.

This west gable, j-l, betrays successive stages in the history of the shop. Thus there is a blocked,

round-arched axial entrance from the first build of 1873. Within this and to its right is a pair of

broad, segmental windows characteristic of NER work and presumably dating from 1908 (see

NR23 and 24 for details). To the left, another NER window has been partially blocked for the

insertion of a modern vehicle doorway with a steel lintel. By the nineteen-forties, this shop was

grouped functionally with its neighbour E, though remaining physically distinct. The reconstruction

of its roof will have been carried out by BR at the same time as their remodelling of E as a

maintenance shed for track maintenance vehicles, to which it latterly served as a store.

E. Former Smiths Shop; Maintenance Depot for Track Maintenance Vehicles

The 1873 roof was of 3 spans running north-south and still visible on the 1936 photograph, where

they are seen to have gabled ends. Assuming that Newstead’s smithy layout was followed, this

would have accommodated 53 hearths, with chimneys running in a single line along the three

external walls and in pairs down the two roof valleys. The middle of each span can be thought of

as an aisle lining up with round-arched doorways in the walls of the shops to the north; it is likely

that narrow-gauge rails would have been laid along these routes to facilitate the movement of

materials and products by hand-operated trolleys and wagons.

Although much original external wall survives, the general impression is of a spacious modern

workshop, thanks to the rebuilding carried out by BR. This replaced the original roof with a free-

standing portal-frame structure in two spans. Thus a large open space replaced an interior which

had formerly been cluttered up by the piers formed by the clusters of redundant flues and

chimneys. The LNER had retained some hearths in use, denoting shops E and D collectively in

1944 as ‘Blacksmiths, Fitters, Machine and Plumbers Shops.’ However, the move to mechanised

track maintenance meant that BR required maintenance facilities for the increasingly sophisticated

vehicles involved. The rebuilt shop E provided this, with the northern span of the new roof being

served by a pair of railway tracks, each equipped with a concrete pit providing access to the

underside of the vehicle.

The southern section of E has two subsidiary areas opening off it. To the west is a steel-framed

lean-to annexe. To the east is an amenity area for the workforce, with toilets and a small

messroom; this has pedestrian access through a doorway in the east wall into the yard to the east,

formerly belonging to the neighbouring Albion Foundry. The facilities are formed within an area

outside the boundary of the original smiths’ shop and originally covered by a right-angled return of

the roof over shop F (see fig. 5 roof plan). It is delineated by green shading on the plan above and

occupies the wall run: m-n-o-p. In the BR rebuilding, a flat roof replaced the original.

E2 (left) West gable of the north span combines original brickwork, flanking the entrances, with

modern. E7: View from the NW corner across the two pits into the stretch of east wall opened up to

give access into the amenity area.

E12 (left) One of the two pits, with fluorescent strip lighting set into the concrete wall. E14: View

into the NE corner; towards the east end of wall l-k can be seen a blocked archway. This originally

lined up with the east aisle of the smiths’ shop and with identical arches in the walls of shops B to

D, including the one seen in C18.

Of shop E’s bounding walls, the north and south, k-l and p-q, remain. The east wall, k-p, has been

cut away at m-p to give access to the east annexe; it has also been raised to provide a shallow

gable conforming to the present roof. The west wall, l-q, has been much cut about to provide new

entrances, and also raised to form a pair of gables. The two blocked windows and doorway at the

south end of this wall, within the lean-to, appear to date from the NER alterations.

F. Former Smithy; Signal Material Reconditioning Shop

Now unroofed, this shop is one of a group of three (F, G and H) added to the south end of the

original range of buildings some time before 1889. Since their east wall followed the boundary with

the neighbouring Albion Foundry, they may have been built prior to the merger of the two concerns

in 1882. The west wall is taken further out than the earlier shops (stepping out at q-r) and is angled

to bring the building close to the railway siding which served the Phoenix Works.

The survival of flues within the north and south walls suggests that the eastern parts of both F and

G housed smiths’ hearths. Under the LNER, all three ranges – F, G and H – were appropriated to

the Signal Engineer. Although his main maintenance workshops were on a site within York’s city

walls, now occupied by George Stephenson House, larger items required the more spacious

surroundings of Leeman Road; F being used to recondition reclaimed materials.

F1 (left) East wall (u-s-o) of shops G and F seen from the former Albion Foundry yard in 2001. The

roof ran W-E along the long axis of shop F, turning at right angles along the east wall to embrace

the area on the right, which is the amenity area shaded green in the plan of shop E and given a flat

roof by BR. F16 (right) shows the westernmost of the flues and chimney stumps surviving in the

north wall of shop F and indicating the former presence of smiths’ hearths.

Shop F had a hipped, slated roof with a raised ridge ventilator, which has been removed quite

recently. Remaining fragments suggest that this had timber trusses, presumably identical with

those surviving in block G.

G. Former Smithy; Crane Shop; Signal Materials Store

A 1927 LNER drawing shows this building being adapted from its former use as a crane shop to a

signal materials store. The north wall retains external evidence for smiths’ hearths but this does

preclude the shop having been used for fabrication in a specialised area, rather than as a general

smithy. Access inside was not possible, since the entrances have been walled up for safety. The

roof is still slated on its southern slope but largely unclad on the northern one, allowing a glimpse

from shop F of timber trusses; apparently queen-post ones with diagonal struts.

The building formerly continued with one further shop (H) which was apparently identical in design.

This was demolished between 1936 and 1944, and was probably an air-raid victim. The south-east

corner, u, of G bears the scar where the east wall of shop H formerly took off, while the stump of

the west wall of H survives at v. The east walls of both F and G retain blocked round-arched

openings, dating from their original construction.

G1 (left) East wall of shops G and F, with the latter’s roof removed. F12: North wall of shop G seen

from inside the shell of F; shallow corbelled panels mark the sites of flues and chimneys within G.

G6 (left) South wall of shop G, showing blocked arch which formerly led into shop H. G8: detail of

roof truss seen from shop F.

6..Recommendations.

Further Surveys:

1. Lack of access to the interiors of shops B and G, means there is a need for these to be

photographed prior to demolition. Particular interest focuses on the wrought-iron roof

trusses in the eastern half of B, which are likely to date from the foundry era, and the south

wall of shop B.

2. One of the roof columns dividing shop C should be photographed after dismantling to

record the nature of the column bases, currently concealed.

3. Consultation with the City Archaeologist, John Oxley, is required to determine what

investigations might be carried out after demolition and in advance of further development

on the site. For example, does any trace of the footings of the hearth/chimney clusters of

the original smiths’ shop survive beneath the concrete floor of shop E?

Retention of Fabric:

The suggestion was made of retaining in whole or part the east wall of the building as a boundary

to the amenity space/playground in Carlisle Street and the former Albion Foundry yard; the survival

of blocked window/door openings serving to express something of the history of the site. It has

been indicated that this is impractical on grounds of cost/public safety.

Consideration might be given as to whether any elements of the original fabric might be reclaimed

for re-use; I have in mind cast-iron window-frames of 1873-4 which appear to survive intact within

the blocked windows in the wall dividing shop B from shop C (photo. B6). These were presumably

manufactured by Close & Ayre at the old Phoenix Foundry premises within the city walls.

Bill Fawcett – 17 December 2011

7..Sources and Bibliography

York Central Library (Discovery Centre): York Local Board of Health – drawings filed under

‘Leeman Road’ include:

1. Charles Toft Newstead: 1873: Site Plan, scale 32ft/1in. This also give the layout of the

adjoining Albion Foundry of York Railway Plant Co. and the same sheet bears an 8ft/in

section taken N-S through the proposed (but unbuilt) casting shop, denoted as ‘foundry’.

The line of section means that it reveals the queen-post truss of the north span and the

west elevation of the south span of this L-shaped shop.

2. C. T. Newstead: 1873 (November): Ground plan and sections through the machine and

smiths’ shops at 8ft/in reproduced here in figs. 2 & 3 and on page 12.

3. C. T. Newstead: 1873: Site plan for the proposed Albion Foundry at 4 chains/in, showing

the Phoenix Foundry site as unbuilt on.

4. C. T. Newstead: 1873: Plan, section and elevation for Albion Foundry Smiths’ Shop.

5. C. T. Newstead: 1873: Plan, sections and elevation for Albion Foundry Casting Shop

(denoted ‘foundry’).

6. Walter G. Penty: 1877 (December): Plan and section for Reading & Lecture Room for

Messrs Close & Ayre [at the housing near the foundries].

7. W. G. Penty: 1878 (June): Plan for new Phoenix Foundry Casting Shop at 8ft/in.

8. W. G. Penty: 1878: Site Plan for new Phoenix Foundry Casting Shop at 40ft/in reproduced

here as fig. 4.

Network Rail Record Centre, York:

LNER drawing images catalogued under Reel/Frame Numbers (CD Image 01220028) – 58/62 and

various ones in the range 122/28 to 122/57.

National Archives, Kew:

RAIL 527/48 NER Way & Works Committee 10 August 1905 min. 16534: authority given to

purchase the foundry site.

Ibid. 2 December 1907 min. 17662: authority given for moving permanent-way shops to the

foundry site and for specified expenditure on adapting and equipping the premises.

J.L. Longfellow, The Phoenix and Albion Iron Works: The Archaeology of a Victorian Foundry, MA

Buildings Archaeology Dissertation, Dept. Of Archaeology, University of York, September 2008.

This explores the origins of both foundry businesses and also the nature of the community

associated with them. This provides a very useful background to our understanding of the site, but

the building sequence proposed by Longfellow for the development of the Phoenix Foundry is

superseded by that given in this report.