General Office Building Shotton Steelworks

QUEENSFERRY - In Queensferry but not of it, the former General Office Building of Shotton Steelworks (now the headquarters of Corus Colours) stands isolated on the north bank of the River Dee, opposite the town and close to Hawarden Bridge railway station. The works, which originally made corrugated galvanised iron sheets, was established in 1896 by John Summers & Sons, a clog‑nail making firm from Stalybridge, and expanded rapidly during the early years of the twentieth century. Production at Shotton soon outstripped that of Stalybridge and it was decided to move the head office to Shotton; the General Office Building was erected in 1907‑8 to the designs of the architect James Harold France (b1872) of Manchester, a friend of the family. France was in partnership with the Blackburn‑based architect Harry Smith Fairhurst from around 1901; the partnership was dissolved in 1905, after which Fairhurst immediately began designing some of Manchester's most notable buildings, including several of the massive Whitworth Street warehouses.

Perhaps the Summers & Sons commission was the opportunity for France to show his erstwhile partner that he could also build on a grand scale, for the General Office Building is a tour‑de‑force in ochre terracotta, most likely by J. C. Edwards of Ruabon, with unusual art nouveau detailing and a gloriously confident turreted facade. The imposing porch is reached by a terracotta bridge over what could easily be interpreted as a moat. Inside, the little‑altered entrance hall is lined with green‑glazed and tube‑lined tiles, perhaps by Wooliscroft's, with some hand‑painted tiles on the stairwell. The stained glass and other fittings are equally ornate. The building was wholly appropriate for a company which was one of the world,s largest manufacturers of galvanised sheeting by the 1920s. Ownership of the works was transferred to the British Steel Corporation in 1967, and then to Corus in 1999, following British Steel's merger with Koninklijke Hoogovens. The General Office Building, with its feast of ceramic decoration, is currently (2004) unprotected by listing.

Reference           TACS Gazetter, Wales