See important guidance on the use of this record.

If you have any comments or new information about this record, please email us.

Summary

Nineteenth century glove factory, built in Victorian Gothic style.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1096065: VAUGHAN TAPSCOTT GLOVING FACTORY

Other References/Statuses

• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 490031

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• GLOVE FACTORY (Built, XIX - 1884 AD to 1884 AD)

Full description

English Heritage, 2003, Great Torrington (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV336020.

Glove factory. 1884; by W.C. Medland; for William Vaughan and Sons, glove makers. White Marland brick with red brick and stone dressings. Welsh slate roof with coped gable-ends with finials at apex and corbelled brick eaves. Brick axial stack.
Plan: Rectangular on plan. Central entrance at east end with office on right and staircase on left; ground floor with central axial passage and another staircase at rear left. First floor has later partitions; attic storey open to roof. Lean-to outshut on south side might have been the engine house. Victorian Gothic style.
Exterior: two storeys and attic. East front gable end 2:1:2 bays, centre advanced, ground floor windows have shouldered stone arches in recesses with pointed brick arches with terracotta fish-scale tympana and stone hoodmoulds and cills; central recessed doorway with similar brick arch and colonnettes with carved foliage capitals and polished Devon marble shafts, semi-circular fanlight fanlight and stone hoodmould with corbel stops in form of crossed hands; the hoodmoulds continued over narrow flanking lancets with carved stone medallions above, the right with crossed gloves and the left depicting a glove-press; above the centre breaks forward with a large stone plate-tracery window with a pointed brick arch, louvered openings to left and right and flanking windows with terracotta fish-scale tympana under red brick pointed arches. 10-bay north and south sides have continuous hoodmoulds over alternating pointed and segmental brick arches to ground floor windows and four of the first floor windows recessed with pointed brick arches to the attics in gables breaking the eaves; the south side has lean-to on right. Rear west gable end has pointed brick arches to ground floor windows with terracotta tympana and continuous hoodmoulds, arcade of six lancets on first floor and attic lancet in gable above with oculus on either side linked by hoodmould. Stone stringcourse at first floor window cill level.
Interior: Ground floor has axial passage with glazed timber screen on north side and belt drive wheels for machinery. Floors supported on thin cast-iron columns. First floor has later partitions. Attic floor open to queen-post roof structure. Two Victorian Gothic staircases, both with arcaded balustrades and chamfered newels with finials. Boarded ceilings with pierced quatrefoil cornices.

Ordnance Survey, 2008, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV340009.

Tabor, R., 2012, Vaughan Tapscott Glove Factory, White's Lane, Great Torrington. An Historic Building Recording Survey (Report - non-specific). SDV350488.

Gloving in the Great Torrington area was established from at least the early 17th century. The proliferation of the local industry culminated in the foundation of William Vaughan's factory in 1884, employing some 600 people. The building itself is a significant part of the town's archaeological heritage.
The fabric survived very well at the time of the survey, although prior removal of machinery hindered full understanding of its working organisation. It is suggested that an office and reception area was located at the east entrance. Beyond this was the main machine room, served by belt drives from a small adjacent room. An annexe to its south was probably a boiler room where power was generated to drive the belts.
Some fine work may have been carried out in the far ground-floor room, but the well-lit first floor was probably better suited to fine work. From there the finished products would have been moved up to the loft for storage, either through the hatch or via the stairs.
The west end of the upper floor clearly served as a rest area, and the bays along its north and west sides would have been storage areas for raw materials and finished products.
The factory's durability as a centre of the community is reflected in posters and graffiti surviving in the rest area. Some posters advertised local events, national political decisions and entertainment.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events: none recorded

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.