Monument record 0845000000 - Bartletts furniture factory, Grafton Street

Group of buildings forming the large furniture factory of William Bartlett & Son Ltd. built on land between Grafton Street and the River Wye. The earliest buildings date from 1901 when Bartletts acquired the site which was then on the western edge of the town. Original building has long lantern in roof. The group includes a north-light shed and a large factory chimney bearing the company's name. Office is housed in a former dwelling house probably also built in 1901. There is also a showroom on the site. Firm best known for making Strongbow brand of reproduction furniture. The company has announced that it will cease business in April 2005. [Report and photographs](B1).
Desk-based assessment and initial (level 1) building recording and photographic survey carried out in June and July 2007 by Archaeological Solutiuons. By July 2007 many of the buildings had been stripped out and the canteen building (building 3) had been badly damaged by fire. Surviving buildings included a gatehouse or lodge (building 1) also used as offices and possibly rebuilt in the 1920s; a 1960s or 1970s office block (building 2); staff canteen with showroom above (building 3), originally used as polishing shops; the main factory building (building 4) with machining shop, boiler house and chimney; a ?1950s saw mill (building 5); a heavily rebuilt building (building 6), originally the assembling, veneer laying and upholstery departments, used in the 1970s as the assembly shop, veneer and ply store, packing and dispatch areas; two ?1930s timber stores (buildings 7 and 8), originally open-sided, building 8 with drying kilns. Remains of the transit railway track survive. See report for detail (B2).
In August 2010, AS conducted a programme of historic building recording of the boiler house and associated chimney at the site. The project revealed that the initial factory buildings were constructed in 1901/02, although it is clear from both physical evidence and information found on a number of early plans, that the boiler house and factory chimney date from a later phase of development on the site.
There appear to have been at least four significant phases of expansion following the development of a thriving funriture maunfacturers, beginning with a relatively modest array of buildings. The construction of the boiler house coincides with phases of development carried out between 1912 and the early 1920s. The development is somewhat confused, for parts of the boiler house incorporate earlier walls predating the adjoining building to the south, and hence fall into the earlier time span. Evidence suggests that the boiler and much of the building to the south was constructed fairly soon after the production of the 1912 plan. However, the chimney and remainder of the walling dates to the early 1920s, perhaps representing a new chimney constructed as a replacement for a smaller example associated with the earlier boiler (B3).
A watching brief was carried out by AS during geotechnical testpitting in July 2010. No archaeological finds or features were revealed (B4).