Monument record 1966/27 - Standard Works (Coles Boot Co.), Spencer Street

The remains of a once extensive shoe factory on the north side of Newman Street. The factory was built around 1908 for the newly established Coles Boot Company. This company retained the factory until at least the 1960s. An illustration of 1916 depicts a factory building of two storey north-lit sheds.

{1} A large industrial works is in existence in the same location as the 'Boot and Shoe Factory' shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1926. The works comprises a number of small rectangular buildings with skylights, in a similar design to the Whitney and Westley Shoe Manufacturers building on Finedon Street. The complex would appear to be the original works shown on the map, but there have been a number of additions and changes and there is little visual integrity to the buildings. The complex appears to be still being utilised as a factory, but there was no indication as to which industry this might be.

{2} The current premises of the Dana Automotive Group on the north side of Newman Street and the east side of Spencer Street are the remains of a once extensive shoe factory, probably built in 1908 for the newly established Coles Boot Company. The same company retained the factory until at least the 1960s. The 1924 OS 1:2500 map shows a large roughly square-plan factory with some outbuildings set at the north end of a long, enclosed yard leading from Newman Street, with alternative access from Spencer Street. A bird’s-eye view published in 1916 a factory building of two-storeyed north-lit sheds with an office block and dispatch department in one corner. As with many such illustrations the extent of the factory may have been exaggerated. A part at least has survived of the north-lit sheds from the 1908 factory. These are located on the east of the site and are visible from Spencer Street. They do not appear to be two-storeyed buildings as depicted in the 1916 illustration. The roofs are covered in the diamond-shaped asbestos-cement tiles often found on other shoe factories of this period. The remains of brick piers on the east side of the sheds suggest that further sheds may have been demolished. To the south of these sheds is another block of north-lit sheds. The corrugated asbestos roofs and Fletton-type brick walls suggest that they are a later addition; they were present by 1970. The current factory entrance is located in a single-storeyed block in the south-west corner of the site, fronting Spencer Street. The use of a brown-red brick and the inclusion of details such as soldier courses in the projecting gable and a concrete porch supported on brick piers of recessed orders suggest that it may have been built in the 1930s.

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

<2> Sampson Walton Holmes and Partners, 1980, Express Lift Tower - Scheme Design and Alterations, Burton Latimer site 5 (checked) (Plan). SNN107075.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, EHC01/044 (Archive). SNN113193.

<4> Historic England, Undated, Former Standard Works, Newman Street/Spencer Street, BF103783 (Archive). SNN113199.

Record last edited

Aug 17 2022 12:08PM