11

THE MERCHANTS' WAREHOUSE,

CASTLEFIELD, MANCHESTER

D Scattergood, S Ferguson and N Neil

The Merchants' Company Warehouse in Castle Streetis the oldest surviving warehouse on theBridgewater Canal in Manchester (The Grocers1

Warehouse, which was built 1775-1780, wasdemolished in I960). Its precise date ofconstruction is unknown but it does not appear onany maps until Pigot's of 1829, which suggests aconstruction date of sometime in the period1827-1828.

From that date the Merchants' Warehouse had aneventful history, much of which can only besurmised due to the fact that little has beenwritten about it. Unlike other warehouses inCastlefield - Kenworthy's or the Duke ofBridgewater's, for example - it is rarely named onmaps or in rate books or street directories of theperiod; it is not even known if the warehouse wasoriginally built for the Merchants's Company or if

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FIG 2 THE MERCHANTS WAREHOUSE : MAIN HOIST MECHANISM IN SECTION (ABOVE) AND ft AN (BtLOW)

98

they took it over at a later date.

However, it is known that the Merchants' Warehouseplayed an integral part in the life of theCastlefield Basin during the 19th century,receiving and shipping goods on both theBridgewater and Rochdale Canals. The building wastaken over this century by The Manchester ShipCanal Company, who in fact took over the whole ofthe Bridgewater Canal. Their records show that in1941 the warehouse suffered war damage: manywindows and doors were broken, the former beingreplaced and some of the latter bricked up. It is afairly safe assumption that the damage was causedby the bomb which is known to have exploded furtherup Castle Street. In 197! the northern end of thewarehouse was badly damaged by fire, leaving halfthe building all but gutted. The rest of thebuilding was saved only by a brick wall muchthicker than some of the others and builtspecifically for that purpose.

Structure

The Merchants' Warehouse (Fig I) is a brickbuilding, which is three storeys high on the CastleStreet frontage. In its original state it had sixvertical loading bays of 'loopholes', each crownedby a wooden hood or 'cat head" containing thehoist. On the canal frontage the warehouse stepsdown to a lower ground floor, where there are twoshipping holes centrally located. These extend fora short distance both beyond the wall of thebuilding and under Castle Street. Shipping holeswere a common feature in Castiefieid warehouses,and although the Middle Warehouse has blockedexamples, the Merchants' Warehouse contains theonly intact examples left in Castlefield. There arealso four more 'loopholes' facing the canal and afurther one on the northern side facing thetowpath. Internally the building is divided intounits by transverse brick walls at 23ft (7m)intervals, which also support the floor joists. Oneof the few remaining fittings in the Merchants'Warehouse is the hoist (Fig I and 2), situated onthe top floor and running the entire length of thebuilding. It was originally a gravity frictionhoist which, as the name suggests, employed thefriction between the driving and the driven wheels,as opposed to using cogs. It powered all the hoistsat the top of the eleven 'loopholes', as well astwo that went down through trapdoors in the floors,enabling goods to be unloaded under cover frombarges in the shipping holes. In 1941 an electricmotor was installed in the middle of the driveshaft; when it ceased operation is unknown.

The present owner of the warehouse has ambitiousplans for its refurbishment, whilst attempting toretain as much of the original fabric as possible.It remains to be seen however whether sufficientfunds will be found for the project, and the futureof the Merchants' Warehouse therefore remainshopeful but uncertain.

The drawing of the motor in Fig ! is traced fromManchester Ship Canal Company drawing No S317; theremainder of Fig I and others of the hoists weremeasured and drawn by T Jones, D Longthorne, and APercival of the Castlefield Project.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary

Bank's map of Manchester and Salford, 1828(Merchants' Warehouse not shown).

Pigot's Directory of Manchester and Salford, 1829(Merchants' Warehouse shown).

Proceedings of the House of Commons SelectCommittee of Manchester Railway, 1825.

Manchester Ship Canal Company, BridgewaterDepartment, drawings:

NoS3l7

No 4690

16th June, 1942 Merchants' Ware-house, Castlefield: general arrange-ment of new motor drive for frictionhoists 1:12.

13th February, 1972 Merchants'Warehouse, Castlefield (traced fromold drawings): sections and eleva-tions showing fire damage 1:96.

Secondary

Clegg, H 1955 'The third Duke of Bridgewater'sCanal works in Manchester' Trans LancashireCheshire Antiq Soc 65, 91-103.

Fitzgerald, R S 1980 Liverpool Road Station,Manchester; An "historical and architecturalsurvey. RCHM Supp Ser I, Manchester.

Tomlinson, VI 1961 "Early Warehouses onManchester Waterways' Trans LancashireCheshire Antiq Soc 71, 129-151.