Former William Green and Sons, Cromwell Works

This is a substantial boot and shoe factory, constructed around 1890 for William Green, and later known as Cromwell Works. The building is located on Upper Queen Street and Cromwell Road in Rushden. It is built of red brick with stone dressings and has slate roofs, arranged in an ‘L’ shape. The building is four stories high, with a ten-window facade facing Cromwell Road and a five-window facade facing Upper Queen Street. A striking corner turret rises through the upper three floors and roof, topped with a steeply pitched octagonal roof, lucarnes, and an ogee dome with a weathervane at the apex. The corner turret features sash windows with round-arched heads on the second floor and sashes set within a rendered surround on the third floor. Giant pilasters are spaced at intervals along the main facades. The windows are mostly original cast-iron framed, though the first floor has mid-20th century steel-framed replacements. All windows are set under brick segmental arches, except those on the third floor, which have a central brick mullion and flat stone lintels. The original corner office entrance has been blocked and replaced with a window, although an entrance remains to its right, and a further entrance is located on the far right end of the front facade, featuring sashes and decorative detailing above, similar to that of the corner turret. A blank gable is on the right end, while the left end gable has further cast-iron framed windows, along with a 20th century two-storey extension with a ground floor open arcade. Further extensions and north-light sheds are located to the rear.

William Green established his shoemaking business by 1877, and the Cromwell Works was built by 1896. The factory was significantly extended by 1923, and the business became William Green and Son, manufacturing ‘Grenson’ footwear. The firm is now known as Grensons and, alongside Crockett and Jones in Northampton and Joseph Cheaney and Sons in Desborough, remains a prominent manufacturer of footwear within a factory originally built over a century ago.

The factory is of significant group value as an exceptional example of the expansion of the boot and shoe industry in the late 19th century, representing a high point of the industry and being the most substantial and well-preserved of its kind in Rushden. Both the exterior, with its detailed features, and the interior, which retains the character of a functioning boot and shoe factory, contribute to its importance.