Monument record MDR10262 - George Fletcher & Son, wheelwrights and coach builders, Derby

Wheelwrights, Motor & Coach Builders, Nottingham Road. Liversage Trust property rebuilt 1896. House, showroom and workshops through to Keys Street. Brick with red tile roofs. Established on site by 1880 as wheelwrights - George Fletcher & Son. Motor coachwork builders in early 1900s; later declined to van and cart builder. Now electrical fittings showroom and storage. Designed by local architect Alexander Macpherson in Arts & Crafts style. (1) James Brennan Associates were commissioned in 2006 by Bernard Taylor Partnership Ltd for Liversage Trust to provide a buildings record of 52 Keys Street, and an analysis of the historic development of this site and of land to the rear of 109 Nottingham Road, prior to demolition and redevelopment. The site has been owned by the Liversage Trust since the 16th century, and there is a wealth of documentary and cartographic evidence which suggests that the current complex of buildings represent the first substantial development of the plot. It was probably open land until 1796, the year in which the Derby Canal was completed, when it appears on a 'Plan of Mr Duesbury's Close, Garden and Wood Yard'. The proximity of the newly opened canal perhaps triggered commercial opportunities. The site is identified as occupying the end plot shown on the plan and includes a 'bank', with the implication that this is of some substance; it is suggested that this could have been an archaeological feature or long standing/historic boundary. A map of 1875 is the first to show buildings on the site: two sheds and a cart shed are partly encroaching onto the area. The 1901 Ordnance Survey map is the first to show the current arrangement of buildings and land, part of large-scale redevelopment of the area by the Liversage Trust in 1896, and which has remained unaltered until the present (2006) day. This part of the Nottingham Road was designated a conservation area in 1993. The buildings of 52 Keys Street form a small light industrial complex, with three workshops running back parallel with the Keys Street frontage, and incorporating a smithy and furnace. The site is recorded as being used as a carriage builders by George F Fletcher and Sons, and the present arrangement of the surviving buildings is consistent with this usage. After this it was used until the 1980s by R P George Ltd, agricultural merchants, who also used 107 Nottingham Road as their show room. Subsequently it was used by a double-glazing company then an electrical fittings company, until structural problems necessitated closure of the site in the late 1990s. No evidence could be found for the assertions by Authority 1 that the site was developed before 1896, and that the present buildings represent a rebuilding, or that George Fletcher & Sons engaged in the manufacture of motor coaches. It appears that the building was purpose-built for George Fletcher & Sons, and that the Fletcher's business was focused on the production of horse-drawn vehicles. (2)