Historic england refuse to list the works site

Historic England (Designation) Reject at Initial Assessment Report 17 December 2015 Page 1 of 2 Application Name: Wolverton railway works Number: 1431306 Type: New Heritage Category: Listing Address: Railcare Ltd,Wolverton Works,Stratford Road,Wolverton,Milton Keynes County District District Type Parish Milton Keynes Unitary Authority Wolverton and Greenleys Recommendation: Reject Assessment CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND Historic England has been asked to consider the remaining buildings at the former Wolverton Railway Works, Stratford Road, Wolverton, Milton Keynes for listing. The site is currently the subject of pre-planning discussions for mixed use development which would involve the demolition of all existing structures except part of the lifting shop building and the brick wall on Stratford Road. The western part of the site is still currently in use as a carriage maintenance works but the buildings at the eastern end are mainly unused and derelict. The buildings are all within the Wolverton Conservation Area. A number of the buildings were assessed for listing in 2005 and deemed not listable. These were the smithy and attached water tower; joiners shop; sawmill and timber shop; and the power (boiler) house. Three of the Wolverton Railway Works buildings, on another part of the site, are listed at Grade II. These comprise the Former Railway Works Building (National Heritage List for England 1246104) and Former Royal Train Shed (NHLE 1271522) in 2001, and Former Reading Room (NHLE 1390779) in 2004. HISTORY AND DETAILS From 1826 the new railway companies began to establish their own works for servicing locomotives and rolling stock. The London & Birmingham Railway (incorporated in the London & North Western Railway in 1846) established its works at Wolverton in 1838, at a midway point between the two cities where engines could conveniently be changed and passengers refreshed. Locomotives were made here until 1861; thereafter carriage building largely took its place. In 1886 the works covered 37 acres and employed 2,000; by 1907 both figures had more than doubled, staying at these levels until the early 1960s. In 1986 the workforce was reduced to under 1,000. Today the Works is much reduced although the western end of the site is still in use. According to Wolverton Railway Works Heritage Assessment Draft by Alan Baxter (January 2015), there are twelve surviving buildings on the site which we have been asked to assess. In brief, these comprise (broadly from east to west): 1) Smiths Shop and Joiners Shop (1860 – Smiths Shop re-roofed and with an extension to the south of c1900. A rolling mill at the east end of the Smiths Shop demolished in the 1990s); 2) Saw Mill and Timber Shed (1865 - Timber Shed rebuilt c1900 and Sawmill linked to the Joiners Historic England (Designation) Reject at Initial Assessment Report 17 December 2015 Page 2 of 2 Shop in 1965-6); 3) Boiler House (1901 - later flat-roofed extension to the south. Chimney demolished post 1966. Some original machinery including a Craven Brothers travelling crane survives); 4) Wagon Building and Repairs Shop (1882 – extended twice in c1900 and post 1945); 5) Carriage Repairs Shop (1898 – extended to the south by 1909. Still in use); 6) Wheel and Axle Shop (1898 – modern two-storey extension at west end); 7) Paint and Oil Stores (c1906-1926 – flanked on either side by modern, corrugated-steel barrel roofed, extensions); 8) Carriage Lifting Shop (1900 – extended to the west in 1913, doubling its length); 9) Timber Stores (1894 – re-roofed in modern corrugated metal); 10) Asbestos Shop (1970s); 11) High Voltage Testing Shed (1982); 12) West Paint Shed (1902 – re-roofed in corrugated metal post 1945). Other items of potential interest include the site boundary wall (of uncertain date but presumably mid-C19) and the railway traversers which provide rail access to a number of the buildings (uncertain date but the carriages are likely to be modern). The buildings mainly consist of long, linear blocks of workshops, built of brick to a standard L&NWR design. These have segmental arched windows with metal frames and pitched slate-covered roofs with triple arched windows in the gable ends. According to the Wolverton Conservation Area Review (2009) at least one of the buildings is stated to have fragmentary remains of a Second World War camouflage scheme designed to make the Works buildings resemble terraced housing from the air. No photographs were provided with the application which shows this. DISCUSSION The importance of Wolverton as an early Railway Works, and at one time reputedly the largest in the world, has been previously recognised by the listing of its earliest or most important buildings. The structures that are the subject of this assessment are relatively late in the development of the railways and were not pioneering examples of engineering technology. They have also been altered. Based on the information provided, and with reference to the Principles of Selection for Listed Buildings (DCMS, 2010), and our Listing Selection Guides for Transport Buildings (April 2011) and Industrial Structures (April 2011) the remaining buildings of the former Wolverton Railway Works are not recommended for listing for the following principal reasons: * Historical interest: the structures are of lesser interest in the national context of the development of the railway system than those recognised by listing. The stated survival of Second World War camouflage on at least one building is of some historical interest but survival is fragmentary at best and does not outweigh other considerations; * Architectural interest: the buildings are of a utilitarian standardised design with little evidence of high-quality craftsmanship or distinctive decoration; * Alteration: virtually all the buildings have been subsequently altered, enlarged or re-roofed; * Machinery: with the exception of the travelling crane and some later machinery in the Boiler House, no machinery of any historic interest is understood to survive in situ; * Group value: the concentration of workshop buildings and the boundary wall clearly have group value. Group value alone, however, is not a sufficient criteria for listing and their unified character has been significantly compromised by the combination of alteration and extension to individual buildings. CONCLUSION Although clearly of strong local interest for the history of the town which grew as result of the Works, and of importance to the character of the conservation area, the buildings do not meet the criteria for listing.