Carrow Works Block 92, Thorpe Hamlet, Norfolk

Summary

Block 92, the former administrative offices of J and J Colman Ltd of Norwich, built in 1857 and enlarged in 1874 and 1878.

Description

Block 92, the former administrative offices of J and J Colman Ltd of Norwich, built in 1857 and enlarged in 1874 and 1878.

MATERIALS: the roof has a slate covering, and walls are constructed of Somerleyton red brick with gault brick dressings.

PLAN: irregularly-shaped on plan with a curved south-west corner and angled north-west corner.

EXTERIOR: the former office building is two and half storeys in height over a basement, and features a hipped slate roof with six segmental-headed dormer windows, three red brick lateral wall chimneystacks, and projecting eaves. The walls are constructed of Somerleyton red brick laid in Flemish bond with gault brick dressings. The window bays are slightly recessed, and a decorative gault brick and red brick stringcourse separates the ground and first floors. The north, south and east elevations each have four window bays. The west elevation has five window bays and is curved to the south-west corner where an entrance was introduced from Carrow Road in the mid- to late 1870s; the north-west corner is angled with two window bays. All windows are flat arched with gauged brick lintels, and generally contain two-over-two timber sashes. The south elevation has two recessed gauged-brick door surrounds, both approached by short flights of steps. The central entrance has a date stone over inscribed ‘1878’ and contains late-C20 double-leaf doors; the entrance at the south-west corner contains a half-glazed timber door. A two-bay four-storey block was added to the east side around 1910, linking the former office building with a former flour mill to the east (destroyed during the Second World War). This two-bay four-storey block is excluded from the List entry, as indicated on the map.

INTERIOR: internal partitions and acoustic ceiling tiles were introduced throughout the interior in the mid- to late C20. Plain cast-iron columns survive on the ground floor, some of which are semi-concealed. The joists of the first floor appear to have been recently replaced, and additional steel supports introduced on the ground floor.

History

The Colman’s mustard business began in 1804 when Jeremiah Colman (1777-1851) commenced the milling of flour at a smock mill outside Magdalen Gate. In 1814, Colman moved his business to a larger mill at Stoke Holy Cross on the River Tas, when he took on the stock and trade of Mr Edward Ames, and commenced the milling of mustard (Norfolk Chronicle). Colman took his nephew James (1802-1854) into partnership in 1823 and the firm became J and J Colman. James’ eldest son Jeremiah James Colman (1830-1898) joined the partnership in 1851 upon his great-uncle’s death and played a significant role in the expansion and success of the family business. By 1850 the company was rapidly outgrowing its Stoke Mill premises, and the decision was made to purchase land belonging to the Norfolk Railway Company at Carrow on the southern outskirts of Norwich, between the River Wensum and the ruins of Carrow Abbey. Between 1856 and 1862 the factory was moved to Carrow, and the earliest buildings were constructed alongside the river and adjacent the newly built railway, providing highly advantageous transport links. The company's administrative offices were completed in 1857 and remains one of the oldest surviving buildings on the site; originally built as a rectangular-plan block, it was extended to the south in 1874, and to the south-west in 1878 when a rounded corner was added at the entrance from Carrow Road.

Colman’s rapid development of the Carrow site is illustrated in AD Bayne’s ‘Comprehensive History of Norwich’ (1869), in which a visit to the factory in 1868 describes mills for mustard, flour and paper, factories for starch and laundry blue, and workshops for engineers, carpenters, coopers and tin-box making. An undated plan held in Norfolk County Record Office, probably drawn in the 1870s, shows the early layout of the factory buildings and their uses, facilitating the processing of raw materials through to the packaging of finished products. Mustard seed arrived at Carrow in thousands of tons and was stored in sacks in one of eight seed warehouses. Samples from each load were checked in the laboratory for quality and condition, before the seed was cleaned, dried in huge kilns and sent off to the mustard mill. Before the advent of roller milling in the 1880s, stampers powered by steam were used to crumble the hard mustard seeds to release and powder the kernel. In the mill the seed was crushed in break rolls, husk removed, sieved in purifiers, and gradually reduced to a fine powder with frequent siftings. Brown and white mustard seeds were milled separately, and the flours blended to obtain a range of products. Part of the company’s success lay in their ability to separate pure mustard flour from small fragments of brown husk, providing Colman’s mustard with its distinctive yellow colour. Mustard was originally packed in wooden casks made on site in the cooperage. The tin shop produced tins in a variety of sizes, and brightly-coloured labels were printed by the firm’s paper mill.

During the late C19 the company systematically acquired adjoining parcels of land on which to expand their venture, including the Carrow estate from the Martineau family in 1878. The subsequent expansion of the business is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1888; some buildings were reconstructed on the same footprint following a serious fire in 1881. Colman’s bought out rival mustard manufacturer Keen Robinson and Company in 1903, and by 1926 the premises had expanded to cover some 50 acres with a frontage of nearly a mile along the River Wensum. Amalgamation with Reckitts in 1938 saw the formation of Reckitt and Colman, an industrial conglomerate with interests spanning pharmaceuticals, household products and food. Following the air raids and destruction of the Second World War, Colman’s instigated a major reorganisation of the Carrow works site in the 1950s. In 1995 sections of Colman’s were purchased by Unilever and Robinsons, and manufacture at the Carrow site ceased in 2019.

Reasons for Listing

Block 92, the former administrative offices of J and J Colman Ltd of Norwich, built in 1857 and enlarged in 1874 and 1878, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a sophisticated and fine building which has been little altered, and retains attractive red brick façades, polychrome detailing, sash windows, and door surrounds;
* as an impressive administrative building which commanded the north-west entrance to the former Colman’s manufacturing site, and succeeded in communicating the quality of the Colman’s brand to arriving employees, visitors and passers-by.

Historic interest:

* as tangible evidence of the regional, national and international success of the Colman’s brand in the mid- and late C19;
* as a key surviving building from the earliest phase of the Colman’s manufacturing site at Carrow, a significant proportion of which was affected by bomb damage in the Second World War.

Group value:

* for the contribution it makes to the historic group of industrial buildings at Carrow, which includes Carrow House, Block 60 and Blocks 7, 7A, 8 and 8A, all listed at Grade II and built in the mid- to late C19 within the setting of the scheduled remains of Carrow Priory and Grade I listed Carrow Abbey.

External Links

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