Building record 1301/0/137 - Workshops to the rear of 77-87 Brook Street

Row of workshops - possibly shoemaker's workshops - to the rear of 77-87 Brook Street; a row of houses on the west side of the street. Brook Street was one of the new roads created after the enclosure of Raunds in 1800 and these houses with thier freestone walls and slate-covered roofs - appear to date from not long after this event. Anaylsis of the census data for this part of Raunds shows that it had a high proportion of shoemakers in the 19th century.

{1} Analysis of the census data for Raunds in the mid-19th century shows that Brook Street had a high proportion of shoemakers. As the trade was almost entirely domestic at this date it is possible that these houses and outbuildings were used for the production of shoes. To the rear of 85 Brook Street is a substantial two-storeyed range. Originally detached from the house and gabled east-west, it is clearly the product of two phases, both present by 1884 and demarcated by a change in eaves height and rood pitch roughly midway along its length. Now rendered and refenestrated beneath roofs of corrugated asbestos, this rnage has industrial rather than domestic characteristics. Between 1899 and 1924 it was linked to No. 85 by the construction of an infill range. The present single-storeyed outbuilding at the rear of Nos. 77-83 is gabled north-south and appears to incorporate various outbuildings shown on the 1884 OS map (there are patches of masonry on the rear wall.) The front of this range was not seen. The roof has been renewed with concrete tiles.

<1> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Raunds site 14 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<2> Historic England, Undated, 77-87 Brook Street, Raunds, BF103916 (Archive). SNN113884.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 6:36PM