Building record 7198/0/137 - Northampton House

Northampton House was built in 1910 as offices of James Pain Limited, iron ore mine owners. It was also used by the Weldon and Corby Patent Brick Company, of which James Pain was Managing Director. The architect was JT Blackwell of Kettering and the builders were A Lewin & Son. The building is of red brick with stone dressings and a Westmoreland slate roof. The plan is of a T-shaped gabled building, with a pair of smaller cross-gables projecting from either side of the stem. It is a single storey building with a basement level on part of the sloping site. All sides of the building have large Tudor-style mullion-and-transom stone windows. Internally the plan-form is intact and the hierarchy of the rooms clearly readable. All the offices retain their original fireplaces, with panelled or bracketed timber mantelpieces and lustre glazed tile surrounds. Much of the original joinery survives.

{1} Northampton House was built in 1910 as the offices of James Pain Limited, iron ore mine owners. It also served as the offices of the Weldon and Corby Patent Brick Company, of which James Pain was Managing Director, and as Pain's estate office. The architect was JT Blackwell of Kettering, and the builders were A Lewin & Son. Blackwell's plans and drawings for the building survive in the Northamptonshire Record Office.

Northamptonshire sand ironstone occurs in some quantity below the ground in the Kettering area and has been exploited both as a building material and for its iron content. There were ironworks in Northamptonshire in the Roman period and furnaces in the Middle Ages. After that, the presence of iron in the area was forgotten. It was rediscovered in 1851 when samples of iron ore from Woodford were sent to the Great Exhibition in London. There was then a continuous supply of iron from Northamptonshire until the closure of the British Steel Corporation's furnaces at Corby in 1980.

James Pain (1850-1913) was born the son of a miller in Great Oakley, Northamptonshire. He began his career at the age of 19 as a small ironstone quarry miner, and by the time of his death was the head of one of the largest companies connected with the iron trade in the Midlands. He had iron ore workings and mineral leases on thousands of acres of land in Northamptonshire and Rutland, including the estates of the Earl of Dalkeith and Marquis of Exeter. His main mines were at Glendon, Wellingborough, Uppingham, Market Overton and Corby. His company had its own sidings to connect the various works with the Midland and the London and North-Western Railway Companies. Pain's obituary noted that 'he fought his way in the world by means of grit and dogged tenacity... and the manner in which he succeeded is an object lesson to aspiring and ambitious young men'.

The architect John Thomas Blackwell (1863-1951) was articled to James Bird of Leicester in 1880-84 and remained as his assistant. He attended Leicester School of Art. In 1890 he commenced independent practice in Leicester and Kettering, becoming a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1911. He was a member of the architects' panel of the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, and had offices on the High Street in Kettering.

The offices are constructed of red bricks by the Weldon and Corby Patent Brick Company, with Weldon stone dressings and a Westmorland slate roof. The plan is of a T-shaped gabled building, with a pair of smaller cross-gables projecting from either side of the stem. It is single storey with a basement level on part of the sloping site. Due to its prominent corner location the building was designed to be seen from all sides and does not have a main elevation. All sides have large Tudor-style mullion-and-transom stone windows with swept hoods and sills, leaded casements and blue brick relieving arches. The gabled roofs have swept eaves and tall brick chimney stacks with Weldon stone bands and lozenges. The gables have Derbyshire gritstone coping, and some have Weldon stone lozenges to match the chimneys. The east elevation facing the town centre has a single large window and a stone lozenge. The south elevation has an entrance porch of Weldon ashlar, with a deeply-recessed semi-glazed double door with moulded timber frame and original doorbell. On the side of the porch and directly above it there are cast iron rainwater heads with Arts and Crafts detailing. On the north elevation there are two basement-level semi-glazed doors with Tudor-style stone surrounds and moulded timber frames. The stepped brick wall curving round the site survives, as do the two brick piers on Northampton Road and the single brick pier on Station Road which appear in Blackwell's drawings. The railings detailed in his drawings have not survived.

The plan-form is intact and the hierarchy of the rooms clearly readable, from James Pain's private office in room No. 1, down to the brick company's offices in the basement. All the offices retain their original fireplaces, with panelled or bracketed timber mantelpieces and lustre glazed tile surrounds (now covered). The fireplace in the corridor also has a lustre tile hearth. Original joinery includes part-glazed panelled doors to the offices (each with its own number), moulded door surrounds, skirting, picture rails, and a service hatch between offices 4 and 5. The casement windows have elaborate metal fastenings in an Arts and Crafts style. The staircase down to the basement is also in an Arts and Crafts style, with alternating stick and panel wooden balusters and square newel posts and caps. There have been few alterations or additions: the wall between offices 7 and 8 in the basement was opened up, and some partitioning inserted into offices 1 and 6.

Regrettably, Northampton House falls short of the degree of architectural and historic interest required to make it of special interest on a national level, and therefore does not meet the criteria for designation.

SOURCES
Northamptonshire Record Office, Blackwell architectural drawings, BAP 276.
Kettering Leader, 30 June 1911, p. 2.
Temp. George V (Kettering, 1911), p. xxvii.
'Death of Mr. James Pain', Kettering Leader, 10 January 1913, p. 11.
'Obituary of John Thomas Blackwell', The Builder, Vol. 180 (1951), p. 96.
A. W. Alexander, The Foundations of a Steel Town: Corby 1880-1920 (Corby, 1969), pp. 4-7.
RIBA, Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 (Continuum, 2001), Vol. 1, p. 196. (1)

<1> ENGISH HERITAGE, English Heritage Listing File, Dr D Dishon, HPA, 15th August 2009 (Report). SNN111579.

Record last edited

Feb 17 2025 6:11PM