ENN111375 - 29 Victoria Road, 2024 (Building recording)

The former boot and shoe factory was originally constructed as a purpose-built factory for Frank Gibbs around 1875. It is first shown on the town map of 1883, although the buildings illustrated bear only a fleeting resemblance to the present layout. They comprise a small compact shoe factory at the junction of Victoria Road and Harold Street and a separate L-shaped range to the west, in separate ownership. The factory was significantly remodelled between 1883-1899 when the southern range was completely rebuilt to incorporate the formerly separate L-shaped western range. These works are likely the consequence of a change of ownership and function, when after 1898 and before 1903, it became the leather, shoe components and grindery (a shoemaker's material and equipment) warehouse for G.H. Frecknall. Comparisons of the southern range on Ordnance Survey maps of 1923 and 1938 and the present workshops, show that another building campaign focused upon the workshops took place after 1938, most likely fuelled by the requirements for boots, shoes and leather goods for the armed forces during the Second World War. It is annotated as a warehouse on the Ordnance Survey map of 1962-64, possibly continuing as a leather, shoe components and grindery warehouse for G. H. Frecknall, although by 1974 it was in use as a surgical boot factory. The final phase of significant alteration works occurred in the more recent past (earlier 21st century) when the central yard was floored over to increase the floor area across the first floor and more easily articulate the offices with the workshops at this level.