Building record 3884/0/205 - G J Cox, Westfield Road

The factory is an example of an early 20th-century boot and shoe factory built for the Co-Operative Wholesale Society in 1922. Later used as a CWS corset factory and then a doll factory before reverting to a shoe factory. The brick built two storey and basement, office and services block fronts a range of single-storey north-lit sheds. It is now the premises of G J Cox Ltd.

{1} Boot and shoe factory, Westfield Road
Boot and shoe factory shown on map of 1926. The building is still in existence and in use as a shoe factory 'Geo J. Cox Ltd wholesale and export boot and shoe manufacturers'. The exterior has been modernised with new windows etc. (Film 18, photo 10, Film 19 photo 4).

{2} This large boot and shoe factory was built circa 1920 for the Co-operative Wholesale Society. After a period as a CWS corset factory and later a doll factory, it has now reverted to boot and shoe use. The factory conforms to a common plan for later large boot and shoe factories with a 2-storey office range fronting a series of single-storey north-lit sheds.It is notable that this factory was built with loading facilities for motor vehicles as an integral part of the design. The CWS factory was externally little altered after its construction, despite changes of use.

{3} Level 3 historic building survey (including plans and photographs). The factory is an example of an early 20th-century boot and shoe factory built for the Co-Operative Wholesale Society in 1922. From 1940 the building was used by the CWS for corset-manufacturing, thence passing into new ownership for the manufacture of dolls in 1966. Doll manufacture continued until c. 1978. During the early 1980s the building was again used for footwear production by Lattaway, this continuing until the late 1980s when Astraseal and Graham Holmes Plastics, producing replacement windows, occupied the building until c. 1992. The building was unoccupied from 1992-1994, and Geo. J. Cox Ltd produced shoes from 1994-2007. The building has been empty since then.

The external elevations of the Co-Operative Wholesale Society Boot and Shoe factory constructed in 1922 remain largely unaltered, with much of the original fabric remaining. Internally, little evidence for the use of the building complex survives, apart from pieces of machinery and materials relating to the latest phase of use by G.J. Cox Ltd for the manufacturing of footwear up until 2007.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Wellingborough (Industrial), (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100290.

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

<3> Shaw, H., 2017, Westfield Road, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire: Historic Building Record, 2017 (Report). SNN110738.

<4> Crank, N. (Editor), 2018, South Midlands Archaeology (48), p. 58 (Journal). SNN111393.

<5> Historic England, Undated, Geo J Cox Ltd (formerly Co-operative Wholesale Society Shoe Factory) , Westfield Road, Wellingborough, BF103778 (Archive). SNN113949.

Record last edited

Aug 26 2022 3:15PM