Building record 3656/8/1 - Walkers Shoe factory, Old Road

This three story boot and shoe factory is of panel and pier construction. It uses polychromatic bricks and has rounded heads to the bays - semicircular on the gable ends and segmental along the sides. It has a heated garret. It appears to be associated with the house next to it which has a date stone reading SW 1899.

{1} Three-storey red-brick shoe factory. The building has been constructed with the (west) gable end facing the road frontage. On this face there are three equal bays with openings (doors or windows) at every level in every bay. There are decorative yellow bricks above each of the window heads and the same bricks have been used to form string courses at sill level. The windows at 2nd floor level are round-arched and clearly decorative. There are taking in doors at ground and first floor level. A single window is located in the attic level of the building. There is a single storey extension to the south of the west face, this has a single window in the centre and is castleated above a flat roof, the toilet facilities are located in this area of the building.
The south face of the building has been constructed with the same decorative elements as the west face. The building is divided into five bays with two windows in each bay at each floor. The only addition is a modern fire escape.
The east face of the building is of three bays, but only has round-arched windows to the second floor. There are no other openings at the 1st or ground floors. This is presumbably to prevent the factory overlooking the large house The Laurels to the east of the building.
The north face of the building is of five bays with two windows in each of the bays at first and second floor level; modern garage doors have been inserted on the ground floor. There are no decorative elements on this face: the windows are all plain and there is no use of yellow brick for detailing. This face of the building is of lower status than the other three faces; it is assumed that this was due to its position facing out of the settlement of Walgrave.
The interior of the building has been considerably altered. The staircase remains and is located at the (west) front of the building. There is evidence of a former office area on the second floor, but this has been largely demolished. The roof space was clearly in use with a window in each gable end. The roof is of unusual construction with principle rafters supported by both a tie beam and a horizontal timber column. There are two sets of purlins with further horizontal timbers supporting the lower purlins.

{3}History:
1885 Not shown on OS map
1896 Walker, Stephen Boot and Shoe Mfr Listed in Kelly's directory
1900 Shown on OS map
1922 and 1937 Listed in trade directories

This three-storey factory with a west gable facing the junction of Old Road and Walkers Acre appears to have been built in association with a house to the east which has a date stone reading “S.W. AD 1899”. It has five pier and panel bays, each with two windows per bay. The gable ends have three pier and panel bays, with one window per bay. The ground and first-floor windows have segmental heads and the second-floor windows have semicircular heads. On the long elevations the panelling has a segmental head above each bay. There are windows in each gable apex lighting the attic space; the eastern end has two small windows divided by a projecting stack. The eastern elevation has no ground or first-floor windows and no second-floor window in the central bay. The western end, by contrast, has windows on all floors; in the northern bay there is a taking-in door on the first floor. Below this is a wide entrance and next to this, in the central bay, there is a smaller doorway, with top light, which may have led to the office. On the east, west and south elevations all sills and arches are emphasised by bands of buff brick, as are the segmental heads to the panels, but on the north elevation this is not the case, there being no decoration at all.
The north elevation has been radically altered by the insertion of garage doors in each of the five bays. The south elevation has had a fire escape added and doors inserted into windows on the first and second floors. At the western end of the south elevation a single-storey privy block has been added.
Neither the house (which stands to the rear of the same plot) nor the factory appear on the 1885 OS, but both are present on the 1900 map; this seems to suggest that they are contemporary and datable to 1899. The same initials appear on Crispin Cottages to the south (3656/0/11), which are dated 1895. It could therefore be postulated that a business which started as a small workshop concern developed into a factory-based operation.

{8} Undated photo;

{9} Two photos dated April 1962;

<1> Ballinger, J., 2000, Shoe Factory, Old Road, Walgrave, (checked) (Note). SNN106775.

<2> Ballinger, J., 2000, Shoe Factory, Old Road, Walgrave, (checked) (Photographs). SNN106776.

<3> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Walgrave site 2 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<4> Dobraszczyk, T., 2000, Factory Conversion at Old Road, Walgrave, (checked) (Plan). SNN106777.

<5> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 1996-2013, Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group Newsletter, Issue 119 p.10 (checked) (Newsletter). SNN55360.

<6> Bailey, B, Pevsner, N, and Cherry, B, 2013, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p. 634 (Book). SNN111989.

<7> Historic England, Undated, Walkers Works, Walkers Acre (former premises of Stephen Walker boot and shoe manufacturer, Old Road), Walgrave, BF103740 (Archive). SNN113914.

<8> Photographs of buildings in Walgrave (Photographs). SNN114090.

<9> Miss June Swann, 1960s- 70s, Miss June Swann Photographic Archive (Photographs). SNN116665.

Record last edited

Mar 5 2025 11:00AM