SNN111308 - Historic Building Record: Former R Rudlen & Co Ltd, Boot and Shoe Manufactury, Mill Road, Wellingborough, December 2018

A historic building record was made of an abandoned late 19th century and early 20th century boot and shoe manufactory in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, prior to its conversion to residential apartments. Formerly known as R Rudlen & C. Ltd., the building is located in the north-western quarter of the town, an area once known as the Victoria Estate, which is characterised by rows of late 19th century terraced houses, interspersed with large contemporary edifices - former boot and shoe factories, schools and places of non-conformist worship. The building, which is brick-built, has an L-shaped plan with its frontages on Strode Road and Mill Road, and is comprised of three storeys and a basement. Its external walls are load-bearing, with each storey carried on steel beams and the roof supported by a steel frame. The report greatly expands on a preliminary study of the building and record of its exterior, made by English Heritage in the course of the ‘Northamptonshire Boot and Shoe Survey’ (2000). Principally, the present study uses primary sources to place the building into its historical context, particularly its early years as a boot and shoe manufactory. The boot and shoe making business founded by Robert Rudlen in 1862 was one of a few Wellingborough firms which manufactured the complete article. After Rudlen’s death in 1891, the business was developed as a limited company (R Rudlen & C. Ltd), and continued to expand and prosper over the next three decades, until being sold to another footwear manufacturer in 1936. The building is understood to have last been used for footwear production in the 1970s. The report identifies four main phases of factory construction and development. The first phase was completed in 1898 and consisted of a three-storey rectangular block with its frontage on Strode Road, an enclosed yard to the rear with a detached outbuilding. The second phase witnessed a doubling of the size and capacity of the factory with the addition of the three-storey Mill Road wing; and probably the construction of additional outbuildings at the rear. In the late 1920s or 1930s a threestorey bay was added to the Phase I wing, at which time an existing lift was upgraded and a second lift constructed. The final phase saw the building converted into an engineering tool-making factory in the 1970s, whereby outbuildings were demolished to create a modern factory floor. By means of photographic catalogue, scaled elevations and plans, the report provides a descriptive and illustrative account of the building’s interior and exterior in its present ‘as found’ state.