Building record 1301/32/1 - Wescam Engineering (Ernest Chambers Heel Factory)

Heel factory, now engineering works. c.1900. For Ernest William Chambers. Gault brick with blue brick and red brick dressings: parapeted roof with front corner pedestals supporting spiked spheres.

{1} Early 20th century heel factory on Park Road. Square building of white and blue brick construction. Now in use by 'Weslam Engineering Auto-turned parts'. Ernst and Enos Chambers are noted as boot heel manufacturers in Raunds in 1906 and may well have been in this factory because they are noted as in Manor Street in 1922 and in 1929 and 1940 in Park Road (almost certainly one and the same factory). this building is marked in the OS maps as a ‘heel factory’ at least until 1970.
This is the best preserved and most interesting structure identified in the Boot and Shoe Industry Survey as a heel factory and is one of a very few examples of purpose-built factories with specialised uses identified as being of special interest. It is a small very carefully detailed factory and exemplifies the expansion of the industry into towns surrounding Northampton at the end of the C19. It is a remarkably unaltered survival of a very unusual building type.

{2}History:
1899 Site shown as agricultural land (OS 1:2500, 33.11)
1906 Ernest and Enos Chambers, boot heel mfrs, no address (Kelly's)
1922 Ernest William Chambers, boot and shoe heel mfrs, Manor St (LT)
1924 'Heel factory': L-plan building and smaller building to rear (OS 1:2500)
1929 Ernest William Chambers, heel mfr, Park Road (LT)
1940 As 1929 (Kelly's)
1970 'Heel Factory': infill range shown (OS 1:2500, TL00/01 72)
1999 Wescam Engineering
This former heel factory stands on the east side of Park Road, opposite the eastern end of Manor Street. Its original external features are unusually complete. Not shown on the 1899 OS map, it was probably built around 1900 or shortly thereafter. It has been identified as the heel works of Ernest William Chambers on the grounds that his works is listed in Manor Street in early directory entries, but subsequently in Park Road.
The original factory was L-shaped on plan and two-storeyed on a tall plinth. The principal elevations have four bays fronting Park Road to the west, and five bays onto an unnamed lane to the north. The walls are of buff brick with blue brick details, including segmental window heads, sills, bull-nosed quoins to the loading doorways, plinth course, flush bands and a dentilled cornice. The original entrance is in the westernmost bay of the north elevation. The loading doorways (on both floors) occupy the southernmost bay of the west front; the wider ground-floor doorway has quoins extending only two-thirds of the way down from the lintel and has had its sill lowered. The upper doorway retains a wall-mounted iron crane. The windows all retain their original cast-iron frames. The shallow-pitched roof is hidden behind a parapet, which on the west front is set between red brick piers topped by spiked ball finials in terra-cotta. In the centre the parapet is raised, possibly for an inscription which is no longer apparent. On the north and south returns the parapet is ramped.
A detached building to the rear of the main factory appears on the 1924 OS map. Sight of this was limited, and it is not known whether it is contemporary with, or later than, the main building. It is single-storeyed with an entrance in the north wall. Also by 1924 the yard formed in the reentrant of the main factory had been roofed to provide single-storeyed accommodation; the roof is of corrugated asbestos. Later developments included the construction of a large roof-lit shed in the south-east corner of the plot.

{3} Heel factory, now engineering works. c.1900. For Ernest William Chambers. Gault brick with blue brick and red brick dressings: parapeted roof with front corner pedestals supporting spiked spheres. L plan originally, infilled to become rectangular by 1924. 2 storeys on high plinth. 3 windows plus a taking-in door on both floors to right and 5 windows to left side. The original cast-iron framed windows survive under segmental blue brick arches. Door to left side. The upper taking-in door has a protective rail and the original cast-iron hoist. The right side is blank and is partly single-storey. The way the 2 storeys are likely to have been used is that on the ground floor the heel shapes were stamped out of heavy gauge leather using very solid stamping machines. The second process is glueing layers of the leather together, pressing them until set and finally trimming up the edges and buffing. This would most likely have been done on the upper floor and the finished goods lowered out of the upper door.
HISTORY. Ernst and Enos Chambers are noted as boot heel manufacturers in Raunds in 1906 and may well have been in this factory because they are noted as in Manor Street in 1922 and in 1929 and 1940 in Park Road (almost certainly one and the same factory). this building is marked in the OS maps as a ‘heel factory’ at least until 1970.

This is the best preserved and most interesting structure identified in the Boot and Shoe Industry Survey as a heel factory and is one of a very few examples of purpose-built factories with specialised uses identified as being of special interest. It is a small very carefully detailed factory and exemplifies the expansion of the industry into towns surrounding Northampton at the end of the C19. It is a remarkably unaltered survival of a very unusual building type.

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

<2> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Site 7 (checked) (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<3> DCMS, 2004, Listing Schedule, (checked) (Schedule). SNN104967.

<4> Morrison K.A.; Bond A., 2004, Built To Last? The Buildings of The Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Industry, p.5+22 (unchecked) (Book). SNN104903.

<5> Historic England, Undated, Wescam Engineering (formerly Ernest Chambers heel factory), Park Road, Raunds, BF103537 (Archive). SNN113879.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 7:15PM