Building record 7198/0/21 - Cobden Works (Spence and Page), Field Street

Former boot and shoe factory of three storeys. Probably of two phases, the earliest built in 1878, the latest phase certainly by 1885

{1} It is possible that this building was the Boot and Shoe Manufactury owned by Edward Spence and listed in Kelly's Trade Directory of 1894 - or E Mull and Co Boot and Shoe Machinery Manufactury, Field Street
Three storey industrial building on corner of Upper Field Street / Cobden Street. The building is dated 1878, displays decorative use of brickwork. Now 'Branagan Court' offices or flats? The building is much smaller in scale that the other industrial buildings on that corner. Film 14, photo 12,13.

{2} It would appear, judging from the difference in detail between the Cobden Street and Field Street elevations, that the factory was built in two phases, the range fronting onto Field Street, which has an 1878 datestone in the gable, being the earlier. However, the extension fronting onto Cobden Street, giving an L-plan overall, was present by 1885 on map evidence, together with a narrow range on the north side of the rear yard (OS).
The nine-by-two-bay Field Street range is gabled north-south and is constructed in polychrome brickwork. The pier-and-panel south gable has panels with semicircular heads turned in buff brick, and incorporates the datestone in a roundel of the same material. It is surmounted by a stack. The windows have semicircular heads except on the second floor of the east front, where they are segmental. They have keys formed from stone and blue brick, set in buff brick arches, which are linked at impost level by flush bands of blue and buff brick. There are similar bands at first- and second-floor level. The eaves incorporates moulded brick (?) brackets, and the verges of the south gable are dentilled. The cast-iron window frames appear to be original. The entrance is at the south end of the Field Street elevation. It may have given access to an office, but there is no architectural differentiation of a bay or bays at this end of the building unless the pier-and-panel treatment of the gable is read as such. Taking-in may have been accomplished at the rear of the factory.
The Cobden Street range consists of five wide pier-and-panel bays, each with generally a pair of openings per floor. It is constructed in a similar coloured brick but with variations in the details. The piers are treated as pilasters, with mouldings defining ‘capitals’ and entablatures at first- and second-floor level, formed from a dentilled lower moulding and a more substantial moulding at sill level. The impost-level bands are continued in the form of a moulded course over a flush band of buff brick. There is also a moulded eaves cornice. The windows broadly mimic the style of the Field Street range but in rubbed brick. The westernmost bay is differentiated by a south-facing gable and by different fenestration. On the ground floor there is a former hooded entrance (now a window) flanked by tiny paired windows with brick aprons, probably indicating the position of an office; on the first floor there is a standard pair of windows, and on the second a triplet. In the easternmost bay, adjoining the Field Street range, there is a yard entrance with a moulded segmental arch incorporating a keystone.
The roofs of both ranges have been re-laid with concrete tiles.

{3} Three-storey show factory dating from 1878, built of red brick with attractive white and blue brick linings for the round arched windows and now converted to flats.

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

<2> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Kettering site 3 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<3> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2001, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage Of Northamptonshire, p.42 (checked) (Gazetteer). SNN104759.

<4> Bellamy B, 1993-4, Boot and Shoe factories in Kettering, P39, P42 & P43 (Photographs). SNN111256.

Record last edited

Jul 12 2023 1:44PM