Melting Shed at Gwasg Gee

Cadw's description

Location

Located to the rear of the main Gwasg Gee complex on a raised, grassed terrace, its rear gable built into a low revetted bank.

History

The Gwasg Gee printing works was established at these premises c1830 by Thomas Gee senior of Denbigh. He had purchased the business c1814 from Thomas Jones who had set up the first independent Welsh press in Ruthin in 1808. Following his apprenticeship and work experience in London, Thomas Gee junior joined his father here in 1838 and subsequently took over the business on his father's death in 1845. Thomas Gee junior (1815-1898) emerges as one of the most important political and religious figures in Victorian Denbighshire and was of seminal importance for the promotion and dissemination of the Welsh language. Through his twice-weekly newspaper 'Y Faner', Gee exercised great influence on the political and social life of north Wales. A great reforming Liberal, Gee supported the anti-Tithe faction during the 'Tithe Wars' of 1886-91, encouraging opposition to the Tithes in his editorials and speeches; he even named his horse 'Degwm' (Tithe). In addition to his work as journalist, publisher and printer, Gee was a Calvinistic-Methodist minister (ordained in 1847) and frequently preached at Capel Mawr at the end of the street. At his funeral, in 1898, over 2,000 mourners attended the service at Capel Mawr and it is recorded that the funeral procession down Vale Street extended for over a mile.

Of the many works produced at Gwasg Gee, perhaps the most significant (certainly the most ambitious) was the publication of 'Y Gwyddoniadur', a ten-volume Welsh encyclopaedia; begun in 1854, it was completed in 1878 at a cost of £20,000.

The Melting Shed is a mid or third-quarter C19 building. Here the plates used for hot-metal printing were formerly melted down for re-use, following the completion of an edition or contract.

Exterior

Small, single-storey rectangular building of limestone rubble with a partly pitched slate roof and a squat brick chimney to the rear gable. The SE roof pitch (L) is slated and has a long glazed skylight; the NW pitch (R) has corrugated iron replacement. The front gable has a boarded door in a pegged, chamfered wooden frame. The building was found to be somewhat overgrown at the time of survey.

Interior

Slate-flagged floor. At the rear is a cylindrical iron furnace with stovepipe connected to an inwardly-projecting chimney breast.

Reason for designation

Listed as an integral part of the important C19 Gwasg Gee printing works, a virtually complete surviving complex.

Group value with the main works complex at Gwasg Gee.