Building record 3738/0/42 - 38a Doddington Road (?fragment of White & Co's Progress Works)

White & Co's large shoe factory was called the Progress Works. Now demolished. 40 and 40b Doddington Road occupy the former frontage. A view published in 1916 shows an office front with a two-storeyed centrepiece linked to single-storeyed pavilions, four north-lit ranges to the rear, and a four-storeyed factory beyond them. An unnamed lane provided access along the west side of the site. All this seems to have been built by 1899. A surviving building probably associated with the works lies at 38a Doddington Road.

{1} White & Co's large Progress Works were constructed in around 1895 some five years after the company was established. A view published in 1916 shows an office front with a two-storeyed centrepiece linked to single-storeyed pavilions, four north-lit ranges to the rear and a four-storeyed factory beyond them. Apart from a fragment of pier-and-panel walling all this has now been demolished, 40 and 40b occupy the former frontage.
A two-storey building on the western side of the un-named lane is thought likely to have been associated with the Progress Works, but by the 1970s it was in separate occupation as an engineering works.

<1> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 2000, Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey, Earls Barton Site 6 (Catalogue). SNN105075.

<2> Historic England, Undated, 38A Doddington Road (formerly Progress Works), Doddington Road, Earls Barton, BF103833 (Archive). SNN114616.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:54PM