Building record 1966/33/1 - Alexandra Works, Rear of Station Road

A large north-lit single-storey shoe factory on the south side of Pioneer Avenue was constructed between 1900 and 1914. The building is of brick with a slate roof. Large parts have been demolished

{1} The Alexandra Works Boot and Shoe factory is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1926. The works is still in existence today although it was not possible to tell how the structures were being utilised. The complex appears to comprise of a number of functional structures, some of which are additions to the original complex.

{2} History:
1899 Not depicted on OS 2nd edition
1906 Buckby Brothers, boot and shoe mfrs (Kelly's)
1916 Buckby Brothers
1922 Buckby Brothers, 'Tested Service Works'
1924 'Alexandra Works (Boot and Shoe)
1937 As 1922
1966 Arthur Jones Footwear Ltd/ Buckby Brothers
1970 'Foundry'
1999 A.M. Kelly Automotive Specialists

The factory was built on a vacant plot to the rear of houses lining the south side of Station Road. Many of these houses appear to have had garden workshops and this may be connected with the site chosen for the factory. Access to the factory was by a lane leading from the west side of Kettering Road. Subsequently this lane was curtailed by the construction of another works (occupied by Arthur Jones Footwear in 1966) to the east. The two firms had perhaps amalgamated by this date. Most of Arthur Jones' north-lit factory appears to have been demolished leaving a gable end and two or three bays as part of a car showroom on the site. The surviving parts of the Alexandra Works are brick-built and single-storeyed with a north-lit roof. Comparison with the 1924 OS map suggests that the majority of the north-lit factory floor survives; the presumed offices and service ranges at the east side of the works may have been demolished.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Industrial Period, (checked) (Digital archive). SNN4.

<2> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Burton Latimer site 1 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<3> Historic England, Undated, Alexandra Works, 56 Pioneer Avenue, Burton Latimer, BF103784 (Archive). SNN113201.

<4> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, EHC01/044 (Archive). SNN113193.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 6:16PM