A three-storey red brick building on the site of a former iron foundry. There is a sack hoist on the top floor and hoist access doors on the first and second floors. Much of the brick work is now rendered.
The site of this building is alongside the River Clwyd on the seeward west side, just before the bridge into Rhuddlan. The town had been a major port for much of the area, before the Foryd Bridge was built down-stream in 1880, preventing schooners from docking there. It has been part of the former Phoenix Foundry Works which were formed in 1858, and was in the process of demolition while recorded (2011). Allthough altered slightly it retains good evidence of its original usage as a warehouse.
This building is an early 19th century, brick-built, slate-roofed 3-storey, warehouse of 2-units, with contemporary lofted lean-tos at each end. These were soon extended from each end along part of the rear, south side. The south-east corner part lean-to retains a fireplace and two blocked doorways. The hand made brick walls of the main building are 50cm thick at ground-floor and of English bond with three rows of stretchers to every row of headers. At the loading doorways the wall is an extra 10cm thicker.
The front north elevation of each unit originally consisted of arched 2-light windows (with internal shutters), flanking a central loading doorway at each floor, and a projecting canopy roof over a loading hoist. The surviving lean-to at the east-end of the north elevation has an entry with a loading doorway over, and this was probably replicated at the west end. The rear south elevation once had central 2-light windows to all floors of each unit, although those to the west have later 3-light flat-headed windows at attic-floor, perhaps to light the stair and passage between units.
On the ground-floor, the west unit's rear window became a doorway to accesss a lean-to, with adjacent site of a ladder stair. A ladderstair is in-situ between first and attic floors. The east unit has a separate later doorway to accesss a lean-to at the rear. The ground and first-floors to each unit are supported on 4 transverse, softwood, chamfered ceiling-beams with run-out stops, and a similar central chamfered post, with a timber pad. A probably later doorway in the cross wall on ground and first-floors links each unit and relates to a later stair line visible in the east unit. A ground-floor doorway to the west end lean-to is secondary.
The attic floor has a secondary doorway in the cross-wall against the rear wall. The roof of each unit is supported by two softwood tie-beam and queen strut trusses with collars, having two pairs of side-purlins and a vertical ridge-piece. Between the queen-strut and tie-beam the truss has an extra packing piece. The truss apex has a mortise and tenon joint as does the tie and truss, all pegged. There are plain chiseled Roman numeral assembly marks. Interestingly the rafters meet the nicely chamfered wall-plate and stop flush, rather than notch over them as usual. Presumably the stone slates were large enough to extend beyond the eaves. At the loading doorway there is an arched timber over to support the extra weight from the hoist gear. The arched timber is supported by timber brackets nailed to the tie-beams. A mortise in the tie-beams for a joining cross-timber (see detail) was part of a timber hoist assembly.
This warehouse could be compared to those at Cardigan, also built just below the bridge,although here built of stone, one in the 1830s and the other of 1740s date. The Rhuddlan warehouse shown on the OS maps 1878 and 1900 indicate lean-tos at each end and part of the rear. A rectangular building is also shown on the 1821, OS 2?:1 mile map as the only building at that time.
Its hand made brick walling and stone slates might indicate an earlier date than its softwood beams and roof timbers suggest, but combined with map evidence it must have been newly built shortly before 1821. It is a great shame to have lost this building illustrative of the early 19th century river trade at Rhuddlan.
Site visited, at the request of Mark Walters CPT, and Rhuddlan Local History Society. Recorded whilst demolition was in progress, Geoff Ward, 30/03/2011.