An Intricate Edge
Cheese and Butter Warehouse (Wolverhampton)
The cheese and butter warehouse is situated in Wolverhampton along the part of the canal system which was run by Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) between 1767 and 1948. It had once been sandwiched between Union Mill and the various Albion Works and Mills.
The building complex was probably constructed in the early 1840s. By 1845 it was in the occupation of James and William Barrow, 'corn and butter merchants, cheese factors and tallow chandlers', as listed in a local trade directory. Tallow chandlers were candle makers. A later map marked the surviving building as the 'warehouse' and neighbouring buildings as 'lard refinery', 'stables', 'offices' and 'workers' houses'.
The surviving building rises directly from the edge of the canal, is made from handmade red bricks, and has eight bays and three storeys. An off-centre pediment to the right has three levels of loading doors, one for each storey, with stone keystones above each door.
Around it, similar buildings have either been demolished or converted and made polite additions to the canal side. The old cheese and butter warehouse rudely resists either fate.