Former G T Hawkins Factory, Part Originally Hornby And West

This is a former boot and shoe factory, built in several phases between approximately 1875 and the early 20th century. It was initially constructed by two separate companies, Hornby and West and G.T. Hawkins, which later merged. The building is primarily red or polychrome brick with slate roofs and iron-framed windows.

The corner range, at the junction of Overstone Road and St. Michael’s Road, dates from around 1875 and was originally the Hornby and West factory. It is three storeys high with a basement, and has a seven-window frontage on each road, along with two canted bays on the corner. The facade features decorative brickwork, substantial piers between windows, and projecting heads to the top-floor windows forming a frieze below a dentil eaves cornice. Later extensions were added to the front of Overstone Road and along St. Michael’s Road, likely in the 1890s.

The range on Overstone Road and the corner of Dunster Street, built in the late 1880s, formed the original G.T. Hawkins factory. It has three higher storeys with largely intact iron-framed windows. There are two ornamental gables facing Overstone Road and a further ornamental gable end facing Dunster Street. An ornamental entrance is on Overstone Road, and the first floor was likely used for clicking while the second floor was for finishing; a taking-in door is located in the middle of the Overstone Road frontage.

Adjacent on Dunster Street is a range dating from the 1890s, built as an extension to the original factory. It stands three storeys high with a basement and has a nine-window frontage of iron-framed windows and taking-in doors. A 1899 Goad plan indicates that this range was used as a warehouse and factory.

Further along St. Michael's Road, to the east of the original Hornby and West factory, is another range, also dating from the 1890s and belonging to G.T. Hawkins. This four-storey block over a basement has a ten-window frontage of mainly tripartite wooden windows with glazing bars. Two facing gables are structurally supported on tall pilaster strips. The ground floor features entrance doorways and some round-arched windows.

Between 1912 and 1916, G.T. Hawkins acquired the former Hornby and West factory and undertook alterations to integrate the various sections of the site, including introducing a director's room with panelling and a new stair in the Hawkins Overstone Road range. It constitutes an important and relatively unaltered complex of buildings representative of a significant period in the local boot and shoe industry and is part of a notable group of related buildings, including the Globe works, the curriers in Dunster Street, and the Trickers factory.