PMP2000 > Places > Charnwood History

INDUSTRIES

BOOT AND SHOE MANUFACTURE:
Shoe making as an industry was a relative latecomer not only to CHARNWOOD but to the whole country. Making shoes had always been a highly skilled craft with footwear made on a "bespoke" system for a specific individual. There was no form of mass production until the 1850s, when a Leicester man - JOHN CRICK - developed a method of riveting soles to uppers which could be carried out by unskilled labour. And there was a lot of that available since the decline of the hosiery industry.

This was the start of "outworking", which has played an important part in the shoe industry ever since. Shoe parts would be sent out by the Leicester factory to home workers who would assemble them and send the completed work back to the factory. This way of working - also called "basket-work" - continued until the 1890s when further developments in mass production led to the domination of a complete factory system. Some outworking, however, still continues today.

The first place in CHARNWOOD to turn over entirely to mass production was ANSTEY, where WILLIAM MOORE led the way as early as 1863. By 1896, ANSTEY had become the largest shoe making centre outside Leicester with seventeen manufacturers. The next largest was SHEPSHED, which only had four.

The MOUNTSORREL shoe trade began with manufacturers CLARK AND SHELTON, swiftly followed by other small firms. The WHOLESALE SCHOOL BOOT AND SHOE COMPANY began life in 1905, founded by DURSTON AND GARNER. After diversifying and changing it's name to VINCENT SHOES, the firm finally closed down in 1981.

The 1850s and 1860s saw the growth of SHOE MANUFACTURE as one of the most important of SILEBY's industries. In common with most other early "shoe villages", SILEBY was first a "finishing" centre, making the final shoes from uppers already made in Leicester. In 1915, one of the village's main sources of employment began it's life with the founding of the NEWBOLD AND BURTON SHOE FACTORY.

Most of the early CHARNWOOD products were inexpensive men's footwear with ladies' and higher quality men's shoes being manufactured in Northamptonshire. This changed, however in the mid to late twentieth century with diversification into the ladies' and high quality markets. SILEBY especially became renowned for it's ladies' footwear through NEWBOLD AND BURTON.