James Baker - Boot manufacturers

I came across this old factory building when I took a wrong turn on my way into town. I'm glad I did cause I established that my main camera had a flat battery before I ventured further afield. This is the second old building I have taken in Wolverhampton and when you start to look into the history of the buildings you begin to realise just how large some of these factories were and the scale of industralisation in the area.

James Baker & Sons Ltd was founded in 1850 to make boots and shoes. By 1897 the company was making 341,000 pairs of boots and shoes a year. Branch outlets were found in Wolverhampton town (Lichfield Street and Dudley Street), Walsall, West Bromwich, Brierley Hill, Darlaston and Smethwick; with six branches in Birmingham alone, and other outposts as far afield as Worcester, Wrexham, Bath, Oxford, Liverpool and London.

The factory closed in the 1970's.