History
The history of shoe making in the Hope Valley
In her book "A tune on a penny whistle - tales of a Derbyshire childhood" Doris E Coates wrote at length about the shoe industry in her home village of Eyam in the heart of the Peak District National Park. Along with her family who were involved in the industry, those who lived in Eyam and the neighboring villages of Stoney Middleton lived through a period of great hardship as the country tried to com to terms with peace again in 1918. The plight of the workers eventually led to improvements in their working conditions as a Government Bill was proposed a 48 hour week and minimum wages, but the impact of the strike had already led to many of those workers from Eyam losing their livelihoods and many moved away from the area altogether.
My grandmother Rose McGuinness lived in Eyam for around 50 years and my father John Taylor grew up in the village until national service took him south to Aldershot where I was born. However my Derbyshire roots remained firm and I now live in nearby Bamford. When I moved back to the Hope Valley I became interested in the villages history and have combined with the village history society to research more about this period in the villages history, and to try and find both the factories and the people who were involved at the time.
Although every small town and village would have had a shoemaker or two for it's own needs, the villages along the Hope Valley had a very important place in the history of shoemaking in the country. The proximity to a leather tannery at the Tanyard Factory (now Goatsclifffe cottage) at Grindleford and a steady flow of fresh water from the River Derwent, provided the area with a ready supply of leather, with the locally killed cattle, skinned and cured ready for the tannery. Further tanneries were listed at Hope, Bradwell Tideswell, Calver and Peak Forest. All the tanneries produced the oak bark tanned leathers that were needed for the thriving local shoe industry.
By the mid 18th century the leather tanning industry was in full bloom. By this time some very basic shoe making machinery enabled shoe factories to increase their production even further and shoemaking factories were replacing what was very much a cottage industry in the region. Leather products of all kinds were required as the Industrial Revolution transformed the landscape. The power from the steam engines in the newly built mills was transferred to the shop floor machinery through leather belting with the factory workers required heavy boots. The booming railway industry also required leather products in all manner of ways including upholstery, overalls, boots, water hoses, even the window straps for the carriages.
It is likely Grindleford tannery processed leather in much the same way as in the rest of the country. After being salted down to stabilise the condition, the skin is thoroughly washed to remove the salt and dirt before being laid in lime pits to soften the skins enabling the hairs to be easily removed. The skins were then washed again to remove the lime, a process which relied heavily on access to the fresh water from the River Derwent. After being soaked in increasing levels of tannin, and then dried slowly, the skins would finally be oiled, waxed or glazed depending on the final use of the skin. In all the skins would have undergone a three month stay at the tannery 120 water : 4 skins : 1 finished leather. The hides were next passed through pits of tanning liquid of increasing strength, then left to soak for about six weeks in the strongest solution before being very slowly and carefully dried under cover. Lastly they were handed over to be dressed and if necessary dyed by the currier, a skilled craftsman often in business on his own account. The currying process involved impregnating the leather with grease to leave it soft and supple, chiefly using ‘dubbin’, a mix of equal parts of cod liver oil and beef tallow. Heavy leathers were usually dipped in a tank of molten grease, commonly paraffin wax.
The Census of 1891 and 1901 gives perhaps the clearest indication of how whole families worked either in one of the seven shoe factories known about at the time, or worked from home supplying the factories as outworkers. Among them listed were 12 members of the Ridgeway family, 7 Bramwell's, 12 Cocker's. 6 Daniel's, 5 Dawsons, 9 Furness's, 12 Slater's and 13 Whites besides around 30 other families with anything up to half a dozen members of each family employed. Among those listed was William Lennon who's factory outlasted all others and were still actively trading both making and importing ranges of mens industrial boots and leisure footwear.
Most of the factories in Eyam have now been converted to residential dwellings but they can still be identified, indeed some have plaques identifying their history for visitors. Lower Burch Row (my family lived at Upper Burch Row) was the site of a slipper factory, there was a shoe factory adjacent to Eyam Square and Harold West's factory at Leedums Mill set back just further up the village. There was another factory (formerly West's) on what is now Taf's Card, and the Ridgeways factory was at Townhead. Set back on Eyam Edge was another large factory while the remaining factory was on the corner of Tideswell Lane. Hopefully in the coming months further research will result in a permanent record of the whereabouts of all the factories with more information about who worked in each and where those families are now.
It is hoped that we will be able to display the results of this research along with the findings of a meeting with the Eyam Village Society (historical society) in the Eyam Museum during 2011.
With thanks to the following for the information contained in this article.
Julie Bunting. Freelance Journalist
John Clifford. Historian and dep. Chair of Eyam Village Society.
John Beck. Curator of Eyam Museum.
