Historic England is celebrating 32 remarkable and unusual historic buildings and places that have been granted protection in the North West over the past year.
Newly listed historic gems added to the National Heritage List for England in 2025 include the striking Modernist-style Renold Building at the UMIST Campus in Manchester, and three unusual cast-iron guideposts charting Cheshire’s roads, craftsmanship and motoring history in Ashley, Cheshire.
When the Renold Building opened in the early 1960s, it wasn’t just another university block, it was a game-changer. Designed by W.A. Gibbon of the Manchester-based firm Cruickshank and Seward, this striking structure became the first purpose-built lecture theatre block in an English higher education institution. With its daring form and sculptural Modernist style, the Renold Building announced a new era of academic architecture.
The building’s concept was as practical as it was visionary. Instead of scattering lecture halls across campus, it consolidated them into a single structure with three larger lecture theatres in the podium and six lecture theatres stacked vertically in the tower, creating space for 3,000 students under one roof.
The Renold Building also dazzled with its zig-zag east wall, transparent stair tower, and dramatic concave rooftop curve. Inside, much of the original layout survives.
Three cast-iron guideposts in Ashley, Cheshire, offer a glimpse of early road transport in England. Dating from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, each guidepost, standing at a triangle of minor roads in the parish, displays a slightly different design. They illustrate the evolution of fingerpost styles in response to motor travel legislation from the 1888 County Councils Act to Ministry of Transport guidance in the 1920s and 1930s.
Crafted by W H Smith & Co (Whitchurch) Ltd, the posts feature scalloped or squared finger ends and distinctive finials, including the firm’s signature chess pawn motif. They have become increasingly rare after the 1960s as modern road signs replaced them.
