Monument record 3884/62/1 - Midland Foundry (Iron), Dryden Road/Midland Road

The Midland Foundry was built in the mid 19th century and produced principally cast-iron items for the agricultural and shoe making industries. The majority of the foundary has been demolished leaving only a 14 bay brick-built gabled building on the north side of Midland Road. This building may have been the casting floor and fuel store. The site is now used as a builders yard.

{1} The majority of the Midland Foundry has been cleared to provide space for a builder's yard. The principal remaining building is a single-storey, partly basemented structure. The original building corresponded to the current six-bay central section and was extended before 1885 by four bays at either end. The building has received considerable alterations over time however.

Description from record 3884/62:
{1} Series of buildings on plot of land between Dryden Road and Midland Road shown on maps of 1885, 1900 and 1926. The original building remains and in now in use by a number of small industrial groups, but some of the later structures have been demolished.

{2} Situated at the end of Midland Road, near the entrance to the station yard (SP 903 680)
1865 Foundry under construction, the undertaking of the Chilvers Coton Foundry Co, near Nuneaton (Owned by Joseph Williamson)
1871 Joseph Williamson & Co, Engineers
Initially, the main product of the foundry was intended to be railway chairs (for securing rails to sleepers) but by the 1870's the range of products included plain and ornamental cast iron columns, windows, pilasters, tanks, fluted and other lamp colums, tomb railings, kitcheners, ranges, ovens, boilers and cooking apparatus but the speciality was railway chairs.
1873 Business was carried on by Mrs Mary Ann Williamson
1877-1920- Joseph Williamson & Co
1928- Joseph Williamson & Co Ltd, engineers, iron and brass founders
The firm manufactured every description of cast iron work for the building and allied trades "also for railway companies and corporate bodies"
Later Williamsons became part of the Hunter-Penrose Group, printing engineers
1963 Foundry closed February/March
There are many examples of cast iron kerbs by Williamsons, particularly in Rushden and Wellingborough and often intermingled with those produced by other Wellingborough foundries eg on north side of Castle Road leadinginto Castle Fields (SP 897 677) where there are also examples from Reynolds at Harrowden and from the Northamptonshire Direct Casting Co. Ltd.

{3} Foundry making boot and shoe machinery.

{4} The Midland Foundry was built in the mid 19th century and produced principally cast-iron items for the agricultural and shoe making industries. The majority of the foundary has been demolished leaving only a 14 bay brick-built gabled building on the north side of Midland Road. This building may have been the casting floor and fuel store. The site is now used as a builders yard.

{5} All the factory buildings are demolished and the land used as a car park.

Historic England, Undated, Midland Foundry, Midland Road, Wellingborough, BF103768 (Archive). SNN113934.

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

<1> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, (part checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<2> STARMER G., 1981, A Check-List of Northamptonshire Foundries, p.23 (unchecked) (Extract). SNN103905.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<4> Historic England, National Buildings Record, File No. 103768 (Archive). SNN109319.

<5> Info Terra Ltd; Blue Sky; Tele Atlas, Google Earth Imagery, EARTH.GOOGLE.COM 01-JAN-2004 ACCESSED 25-MAR-2019 (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN112157.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 6:39PM