Building record 2878/0/6 - Symingtons: Bosworth Brothers: Co-operative Store, Station Road

Clothing Factory = Stay (corset) Factory

{1} Factory, Factory Street. The large structure shown on Factory Street (now Burghley Close) has been re-faced and is now in use by a Co-operative store. The building was originally built as a stay manufacturing structure for Symingtons and was used for this purpose between 1879 and 1906. It was later used by the Bosworth Brothers as a shoe factory between 1910 and 1934. There are industrial buildings to either side of the main structure that may relate to the main building. To the north a three-storey, four bay structure appears to have been industrial in function and was possibly a warehouse or ancillary works. To the south a single bay three-storey structure would also appear to have been industrial in nature.
Desborough Co-operative Society Ltd (Hardware and Clothing store). Located on Station Road on corner of Burghley Close (previously Factory Street).The building was originally a stay factory and then became a shoe factory. It was bought by the Co-operative Society in 1934 and was re-faced at this time. There is a date stone on the front of the building which appears to read 1937. The building is still in use as a hardware store for the Co-operative Society.

{2} This building has been subjected to considerable changes since it was first built as a factory in 1879. As with so many factories questions of retention have to concern themselves with the merits of the existing building and regretabley, as is the case here, because so many factories are basically brick shells within which manufacturing processes have been undertaken, the arguments for retention focus increasingly on the historic merits of the standing fabric. In this case much of the original 1879 factory building has either been removed or obliterated and little of the factory's fabric is now visible externally. The rectilinear façade decorated with provincial versions of Art Deco lettering represents alterations that originate from the mid 1930s and a series of street level windows that appear to be of 1970s origin. In Burghleys Close the greater part of the original factory details have been obscured. All original windows have been replaced on the Station Road elevation and all the windows and the original loading bay opening on the Burghleys Close elevation have been blocked. All the external standing walls have been covered with successive coats of rendering and masonary paint. As a consequence of the progressive series of alterations over an extended period of time the basic building retains no real survivals of original details that might prove diagnostic evidence of its 19th century origins and its various functions over the period of its existence.

{3} This three-storey building, now converted into two shops, is reputed to be the original show factory of Joseph Cheaney, established in 1886 when Cheaney left Benjamin Riley's firm on Gladstone Street. It was built just to the east of a large building on the corner of Factory Street - presumably the factorya that gave the street its name - which is now the site of a Co-op. The present building, which maps show to have had an L-plan, and to have been considerably larger that neighbouring houses, appears to have been linked to this earlier factory, and maps indicate the presence of numerous backyard workshops in the vicinity. If this building was indeed Cheaney's factory it must have passed into other hands or uses at an early date - perhaps in 1896 when Cheaneys moved to Regent Street. The building, on the north side of Station Road, is gabled north-south and brick-built with a cogged eaves band. The shop fronts have obscured the original ground floor of the four bay front elevation. The original segmental-headed openings survive on the upper floors, with modern fenestration.

<1> Ballinger, J, 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Desborough (Industrial), (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100502.

<2> Smith, D, 2004, An Historical Evaluation of No's 41-43 and 72 Station Road, Desborough, Northamptonshire, being properties owned by Desborough Co-operative Society, pg 9 (checked) (Report). SNN104989.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Desborough site 6 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

Record last edited

Aug 17 2022 12:53PM