Listed Building: Joseph Cheaney & Sons (1752/0/10001)

Boot and shoe factory. 1896 and 1930’s. For Joseph Cheaney. Red brick with concrete tile roof (1896 range) and brown brick with parapeted flat roof (1930’s range). 2 Storeys. Earlier range faces Regent Street. 8-window range at first floor of cast-iron framed windows under round-arched heads. Similar on ground floor with entrance to centre right and altered window to left, probably steel-framed under flat lintel, which is similar to the 2-storey 1930’s range to left. This is a 5-window range and returns to link with the probably 1970’s extension. The front to Rushden Road is also of the 1930’s and is in similar style with a 5-window range to left of the centre goods entrance and a 3-window range to right for the offices. This has an entrance in the centre. The austere front has panels of brickwork with raised lines emphasising the horizontal lines of the block. This is followed by the lines of the 1970’s extension to right. INTERIOR. This factory retains particularly well the characteristic interior of a boot and shoe factory with the making room on the ground floor, the pit for soaking shaped leather pieces, the humidifier room, the 1st floor clicking room, conveyor belt system in the finishing room, last racks, hoist mechanism and leather storage loft. HISTORY. The world famous firm of Joseph Cheaney and Sons Ltd. was founded in 1886, was in Desborough by 1893 and established on the current site in 1896. By 1924 the factory had been extended to Rushton Road behind the original range with probably a north-light shed. There was a major extension in the 1930’s and another smaller one probably in the 1970’s. In 1967 the firm amalgamated with the equally famous Church’s of Northampton and it continues to make high-quality men’s shoes. SOURCES. EH Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Site Report No. 91. Morrison, Kathryn A., with Bond, Ann, ‘Built to Last? The Boot and Shoe Buildings of Northamptonshire’, forthcoming, p. 23. This boot and shoe company has continued to manufacture footwear on the same site for over a century. The factory is a very good example of a characteristic of the industry, i.e. of a factory which extended to meet expansion in order to remain close to the workforce base rather then move to a new site. It retains the evolved characteristic interior. It is only rivalled by Crockett and Jones (q.v.) and Grensons (q.v.) in having continued to make footwear on the same site for over a century.

Record last edited

Dec 13 2021 4:47PM