Wollaston, Northamptonshire

In common with the rest of Northamptonshire, Wollaston is noted for its shoe industry. The Solovair brand of British-made boots and footwear is produced by NPS Shoes Ltd. NPS has been in operation in the village since 1881 and now has a factory shop. Until 2003, Dr. Martens boots were made in Wollaston. In 2007, manufacture of the "Made in England" line of Dr. Martens footwear was resumed in the Cobbs Lane Factory in Wollaston.

Wollaston also has the head office of an international chemical company, founded by the Quaker Ernest Bader (1890–1982), which is now a common ownership factory, the Scott Bader Commonwealth, making advanced resins and composite materials.

Steeple of St Mary's parish church

Wollaston has both a primary and a secondary school (Wollaston School), local shops, post office, library and public houses. The village has four churches: Church of England, Baptist, Methodist and a Salvation Army Citadel.

Before the Dissolution of the Monasteries the benefice of St Mary's parish church was held by Delapré Abbey in Northampton. The oldest parts of the building are 13th-century. It is a Grade II* listed building.

At the north end of the High Street there is a village museum.

Wollaston was developed as a linear settlement starting at what is now Cobbs Lane moving past Bell End, Rotten Row, St Michaels' Lane and down towards Strixton.

19th Century

Wollaston Methodist Chapel

Wollaston's first school opened in 1842 and was located in a building next to what is now the Indian restaurant (formerly The Cuckoo pub), opposite Bell End. The school was private and was run by a curate, the Reverend JJ Scott, from his own funds. The school did not come under government control until 1873. The school has moved several times, finally being established on College Street in a building dating from May 1894.

In this period significant industry came to Wollaston in the form of shoe-making. In 1885 one of the shoe factories was established as a workers' co-operative of local cobblers, which survived until the 21st century as Northamptonshire Productive Society and remains a shoe factory as NPS (Shoes) Ltd, making shoes under the George Cox, Tredair, Solovair and NPS brands among others. The Wollaston Vulcanising Co-Operative was another local business.

20th Century

Dr Martens Offices

Shoe-making, and the mechanisation of this work, continued in the early 20th century with a number of nationally known shoe-making companies establishing themselves in Wollaston and surrounding area.

In 1940 Scott Bader moved manufacturing to Wollaston from London; the move became permanent and the company is now an integral part of the local community. The company founders, Ernest Bader and Dora Scott, established the Scott Bader Commonwealth in the 1950s, gifting the whole company to its employees for all time. The company now functions as a co-operative with profits divided between investment in the company, bonus for employees and charitable donations. From the early 1970s to the late 1990s LSM Engineering, a manufacturer of model steam engines, was based in Wollaston.

Scott Bader chemical works

• Ernest Bader and Dora Scott founded Scott Bader and gifted the company to its employees.
• Henry Keep was born in Wollaston and emigrated to Australia in the 1890s, later becoming a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly
• Cyril Perkins (1911 – 21 November 2013), was the oldest living first-class cricketer. He played for Northamptonshire and Suffolk.

1. ^ "Area: Wollaston (Parish): Key Figures for 2011 Census: Key Statistics". Neighbourhood Statistics. Office of National Statistics. Archived from the original on 16 July 2015. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
2. ^ Mills, AD (1991). "Wollaston". A Dictionary of British Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-869156-4.
3. ^ Dr Martens factories close BBC News, 23 March 2003 (accessed 12 January 2011).
4. ^ Doc Martens Boots Octane magazine, January 2011 (accessed 12 January 2011).
5. Robinson, Barry J. "A pictorial history of Wollaston".
6. ^ Scott Bader Company website (accessed 24 February 2008).
7. ^ A history of the company (accessed 21 August 2014).
8. ^ For a full history see: Hoe, Susanna (1978). The Man Who Gave His Company Away: A Biography of Ernest Bader, Founder of the Scott Bader Commonwealth. London: William Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-34023-5.
9. ^ Historic England. "Church of St Mary  (Grade II*) (1286637)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
10. ^ From http://www.wollastonvillage.org.uk/index.html
11. ^ Skelton, Stephen. The Wines of Britain and Ireland: A Guide to the Vineyards. ISBN 0-571-20045-1.
12. ^ Mitchell, Bruce; Robinson, Fred C (eds.). Beowulf: An Edition. ISBN 0-631-17226-2.
13. ^ From http://www.wollastonvillage.org.uk/page6.html
14. ^ From http://www.wollastonvillage.org.uk/page6.html
15. ^ Manning, James Alexander (1850). The Lives of the Speakers of the House of Commons from the Time of King Edward III to Queen Victoria. London: E Churton.
16. ^ Manning, James Alexander (1850). The Lives of the Speakers of the House of Commons from the Time of King Edward III to Queen Victoria. London: E Churton. and http://www.wollastonvillage.org.uk/page6.html
17. ^ Neeson, JM. Commoners: Common Right, Enclosure and Social Change in England, 1700–1820. ISBN 0-521-56774-2.
18. ^ From Wollaston Blog for information about the latest events in Wollaston http://www.thecommunityblog.co.uk/wollaston/

• Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1973) [1961]. Northamptonshire. The Buildings of England (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. pp. 464–465. ISBN 0-14-071022-1.
• RCHME, ed. (1979). "66 Wollaston". An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the County of Northamptonshire. 2 – Archaeological sites in Central Northamptonshire. London: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. pp. 176–182.
• Salzman, LF, ed. (1937). A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History. IV. London: Oxford University Press for the University of London Institute of Historical Research. pp. 57–62.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wollaston, Northamptonshire.

• Wollaston Parish Council
• St Mary's Church