Northamptonshire: putting the boot in?

After the 2005 film Kinky Boots, did the shoe industry survive?

In the 1830s, a reputed one third of all men in Northamptonshire were shoemakers.  But by the 1990s this percentage had shrunk massively. Rapid changes in fashion, cheap imports and other factors led to the demise of numerous factories across the county.

Kinky Boots was very loosely based on the real life story of W J Brooks, an Earls Barton shoemaker.  Only a generation before, half a dozen factories had bustled away in this large Northants village. Yet in 2011 only  Barkers remains.  W J Brooks fell into Administration back in 2000.  Steve Pateman, who's family owned the true-life company, told Northampton Chronicle, "We were unfortunately let down by an American firm who dumped a big debt on us. We had to make the decision to stop production."  According to the newspaper, "this was compounded by the fact that the niche market that Steve had so cleverly and successfully exploited had been caught onto by others. Again the cheap imports were creeping into the market." 

So, what happened to the rest of the industry which prompted the Northampton football team to name itself the Cobblers?

It's flourishing. And appears to have adapted by marketing itself with greater flair. These businesses are among those remaining, household names in many cases and some even world famous:

• AirWair Dr Maartens (R Griggs & Co), since 1911 but making Dr Maartens from 1960
• Alfred Sargent & Sons, since 1899
• Barker Shoes, since 1880
• Church & Co, since 1873
• Crockett & Jones, since 1879
• Daisy Roots, since 1995
• George J Cox, since 1906
• Grenson, since 1866
• Haynes & Cann, since 1919
• Jeffrey-West, since 1987
• John Lobb, since 1866
• John White, since 1919
• Joseph Cheaney & Sons, since 1886
• Loake Brothers, since 1880
• Padders, T Groocock & Co, since 1914
• R E Tricker, since 1829
• Sanders & Sanders, since 1873
• Schneider Boots, incorporating W H Giddon in business since 1806.

Many manufacture luxury or specialist footwear.  But some cater for mass markets.  Aside shoemakers, Northants hosts leathermakers, saddlers, craft firms, schools, trade associations, museums, retailers and support businesses.

Given the huge number of redundancies resulting from the twenty shoe factory closures in the 1980s and 1990s, Northamptonshire has had to re-invent itself. Barclaycard, Siemens, Carlsberg, Weetabix, Avon Products and Golden Wonder all have operations in the county. There are freight rail terminae in the west of the county at Daventry and in the east at Wellingborough.  And there's the motor industry with Silverstone, Santa Pod and Rockingham, plus a long list of Formula One teams in the south around Brackley.

But the shoe industry never died. And new concerns have sprung up occasionally, like the kids footwear maker Daisy Roots, founded in Brixworth just outside Northampton some sixteen years ago.

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