ENN110019 - Land rear 4 & 5 Cambridge Street, 2020 (Building recording)

It is deduced that it was purpose-built, in the late 1870s, by John Hobson Bearn, who ran a long-established corn dealership and bakery business, primarily based at Silver Street, Wellingborough. The Cambridge Street premises were purchased in 1900 by George William Hollis, a baker and confectioner of Wellingborough, who also bought up the Silver Street elements of Bearn's bakery. After change of ownership in 1915 the building was put to other uses. Its tenant throughout the 1920s was a motor cab proprietor. This was followed by a builder, c. 1930 to c. 1945. From then onwards until c. 2010 it was used as a workshop for two successive building maintenance companies. On the ground floor were two suspended overhead flat belt-drive counter shafts bolted to floor joists. These are surmised to have been a part of the apparatus for driving a gas-powered corn crushing mill, installed in the late Victorian period. In addition, there were a few fittings in situ from the building's later use as a workshop.