Building record 1160/489/1 - Nos.42-44 Victoria Road

Datestone of 1873. Boot and shoe factory- in 1890 William Hasdell and by 1893 Barratt & Barker. Later Brook Manufacturing Co, T Richardson and Kingswell Shoe Co

{1} It is considered that later buildings for boot and shoe manufacture were influenced by the development of heavier machines for lasting and attaching uppers to soles, and eventually the very heavy presses for the bottom stock. The arrangement of the building was thus generally a three storey building with an additional row of windows at pavement level for the sub-basement 'bottom stock' rooms. An example of this type of factory can be seen on the east side of Victoria Road, which were the premises of the Kingswell Shoe Company. These have a frontage of 40-50 feet and stretch back approx. 80 feet from the road. The front of the building has three storeys, together with half windows at pavement level in Victoria Road. In the centre rising about 6.5 feet above the eaves, is a stone capped pediment. Within this is a small rectangular date stone inscribed '1873'. Below this at second storey level, is a full length wooden door, surmounted by a semicircular brick arch and with the swinging jib, of simple straight line design, for an external hoist, mounted on the wall at the right hand side. The only other doorway is at the left hand opening onto the pavement. This doorway and the five ground floor windows all have semi-circular brick arches. These windows, iron framed as are those on the other two storeys, have vertical glazing bars ending in spikes above the top horizontal bar, except for the centre vertical bar from which spring two diverging curved bars, forming two Gothic arches with inwardly curving outside members of the frame. The windows on the upper storeys, and those at pavement level, are much simple with only curved brick arches.

<1> Goodfellow A.V.; Starmer G.H., 1970, A Survey of Part of Victorian Northampton, P. 8 (checked) (Interim Report). SNN102467.

<2> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Site 143 (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<3> Starmer G.H., 1968-9, CBA Record Cards: Industrial Archaeology in Northamptonshire, Photo of 1968 (Recording Form (Not SMR)). SNN1627.

Record last edited

Feb 6 2025 12:16PM