Building record 953/6/1 - Castle Factory, King Street

Three storeyed boot and shoe factory on the north side of King Street takes its name from the earthwork castle about 150 metres to the south west. It consists of two principle phases. The earliest phase of circa 1880 is to the west. Its low, broad proportions contrast strikingly with the taller storeys and more numerous windows of the later phase built by 1884. The adjoining house to the north-west, No.22 may also be associated with the factory. The building is still extant and is currently used as offices. The façade is intact, but considerable change to interior. Locally listed building.

{1} Castle Factory, King Street. Erected between 1885 and 1890 the factory was built by Mr J Howe who had previously owned a small factory behind the Lindens. The building is still extant and is currently used as offices. The façade is intact, but considerable change to interior.

{3} History:
c1870 Eyre Bros & Howe, boot & shoe mfrs
1874 Eyre & Co., shoe mfrs, no address (Whellan); William Sanders acquired Eyre Bros & Howe factory
1884 Both phases of factory shown (OS 1:2500, 36.8)
1899 As 1884 (OS 1:2500)
1906 E Howe, boot & shoe mfr, Castle Factory
1972 ‘Factory’ unchanged (OS 1:2500, SP 62/63 67)
1977 George York & Son, boot & shoe mfrs, Castle Factory
2000 Offices
This three-storeyed factory on the north side of King Street takes its name from the earthwork castle about 150 metres to the south-west. It consists of two principal phases. The earlier phase, to the west, is potentially one of the earliest surviving shoe factories in the county. Its low, broad proportions contrast strikingly with the taller storeys and more numerous windows of the later phase, built by 1884. The adjoining house to the north-west, No. 22, may have been associated with the factory.
The original factory has a three-bay south elevation; it occupies a cramped site that tapers towards the rear, and in addition the western bay changes alignment owing to the curve of King Street. The walls are built in Flemish garden-wall bond (sometimes known as Sussex bond), with a cogged eaves. The windows on the south front are broad, with cambered brick heads and modern three-light frames wit timber sills. To the rear just two small windows are visible on the second floor; these have timber lintels and have also been re-fenestrated. The entrance, now blocked, was at the east end of the front elevation. No taking-in doorway is evident. A stack with three (?) flues rises on the east gable, where it is enfolded by the later factory extension. To the rear a small lean-to appears on the 1884 map. The present corrugated iron roof replaces an earlier, more steeply pitched roof.
Before 1884 — perhaps as early as circa 1870’ — a taller three-storeyed extension was built to the east, incorporating a fragment of an earlier stone building. The west gable of the new building overlies the earlier factory. It has a south front of four pier-and-panel bays, each bay containing two windows per floor except for the westernmost, which has just one. The brickwork is in the same bond as the earlier phase. The elevation has a chamfered blue brick plinth, pitched blue brick window sills, and chamfered window openings with keyed stuccoed segmental heads. The windows, which are taller on the ground and first floors, retain cast-iron frames with a central four-pane opening section. At the west end the whole width of the bay is occupied by a yard entrance; a fireplace (for an office?) on the gable wall indicates that the opening is inserted. It may replace a shop front depicted in the late-i 9thcentury view of the works. A taking-in doorway (now a window) was positioned above on the second floor, where there is a paint shadow from a former crane. This contrasts with the evidence of the published view, which shows two windows per floor in this bay, and places the taking-in doorway in the eastermnost bay, above a ground-floor entrance.
The rear is much plainer and incorporates two bays and two storeys of roughly cursed rubble masonry. There are four bays of openings with segmental brick heads and blue brick sills, but not every bay is fenestrated on every level. In the second bay from the east there are openings only on the upper floors, and these (at least in their present form) are insertions. In the westernmost bay there is no second-floor window. Two openings in the next bay to the east have been converted into doorways in connection with a fire-escape stair.

{6} Three storeyed boot and shoe factory on the north side of King Street takes its name from the earthwork castle about 150 metres to the south west. It consists of two principle phases. The earliest phase of circa 1880 is to the west. Its low, broad proportions contrast strikingly with the taller storeys and more numerous windows of the later phase built by 1884. The adjoining house to the north-west, No.22 may also be associated with the factory.

Historic England, Undated, Castle Factory, 20 King Street, Long Buckby, BF103867 (Archive). SNN115720.

<1> BALLINGER J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Long Buckby (Industrial), (part checked) (Digital archive). SNN100506.

<2> Foard G.; Ballinger J., 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Long Buckby, (unchecked) (Report). SNN101574.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Long Buckby site 5 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<4> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 1996-2013, Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group Newsletter, Issue 112 p.7 (unchecked) (Newsletter). SNN55360.

<5> Daventry District Council, 2021, Long Buckby Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, p. 69 (Policy Document). SNN112476.

<6> Historic England, Unknown, Oral information, correspondence (not archived) or staff comments (Oral Report). SNN111577.

Record last edited

Dec 1 2023 2:50PM