Building record 3738/10/1 - Barker Shoes & Earls Barton Museum of Local Life

Barker and Sons shoe factory is set back on the west side of Station Road. The earliest building on the site dates from the 1940s and is single-storeyed and of blockwork construction with a flat concrete roof. To the north of this building is the new factory that was built in 1986, with a distinctive polygonal two-storeyed office block.

{1} History:
1880 A Barker & Sons Ltd established (SLN, xviii)
1899 Orchard & agricultural land (OS 1:2500, 46.1)
1906 A Barker & Son, boot mfrs, Earls Barton (Kelly’s)
1967 A Barker & Sons Ltd, 400 employees (ISE)
1974 ‘Shoe Factory’, including north extension (OS 1:2500, SP 84/85 63)
1990s New factory opened to north
1999 Barker Shoes Ltd (modern factory); Earls Barton Museum (old factory)

This shoe factory, probably dating from around 1940, is set back on the west side of Station Road. It is single-storeyed, of blockwork construction with a flat concrete roof. It extends nineteen bays or more from east to west. The windows have raised surrounds and metal frames. The two easternmost bays appear to be offices, with a separate entrance in the east end. The works entrance is in the south wall, immediately west of the offices. A single-storeyed red brick range to the north, with a low-pitched asbestos roof, is now the factory shop. A very large new factory to the north, with a polygonal two-storeyed office block, dates from the 1990s.

{2} Situated in the former Vista shoe factory building in the grounds of Barkers modern shoe factory in Station Road, adjacent to the Factory Shop. Reconstructions include the ground floor of a shoe worker's home in the early 20th century and the 'shop' of a shoe worker with the artefacts which may have been used there

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

<2> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 2001, A Guide To The Industrial Heritage Of Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Gazetteer). SNN104759.

Record last edited

Feb 5 2025 6:16PM