Building record 1301/25/1 - 59 Brook Street

A two-storey shop on the west side of Brook Street with a small boot and shoe factory at the rear. Both are brick built with slate covered pitched roofs. Ordnance Survey maps suggest that they were built c.1890. It has not been certainly identified as a shoe factory or other leather-trades building, but has the characteristics of one.

{1} Former industrial works of 2 storey, 4 bay construction (5-6 bays deep) date stone 'JHC 1887". The first floor lift hoist remains. The building is partially in use as an office licence, but the rest is out of use and boarded up.

{2} This two-storey industrial building has not been certainly identified as a shoe factory or other leather-trades building but has the characteristics of one. It may have been occupied by one of the several shoe manufacturers for whom addresses are not given in early directories. The building stands on the west side of Brook Street and consists of a main range, placed gable-end on to the street, and a later extension bridging the yard entrance which passes along the north side of the main range. The main range was built between 1884 and 1899, replacing the northern end of what appears to have been a row of small houses set back from the street frontage. The east front has been remodelled on the ground floor to provide shop windows, but the first floor retains four segmental-headed windows with stone sills and cast-iron frames incorporating a central opening section. The gable is treated as a pediment, defined by stepped brick courses, and incorporates a single attic-level window, similar in form but not so tall. The north elevation has similar windows, but with chamfered blue brick sills, and incorporates a loading bay. The latter has a ground-floor entrance beneath a first-floor loading doorway (both with bull-nosed blue brick quoins) and an iron crane. The extension across the yard entrance was built between 1899 and 1924 in a matching style. It is carried on I-section steel girders and has two windows to front and rear.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Industrial Period, (checked) (Digital archive). SNN4.

<2> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Raunds site 13 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<3> Historic England, Undated, 59 Brook Street, Raunds, BF103543 (Archive). SNN113883.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2022 3:39PM