Thursday 18 April 2013

the last British bootmakers


This place is a real find and just down the road from me at Stoney Middleton. Folk know about them in the USA, Japan and London, I have driven past the door thousands of times but only just heard they were there, so join me on a tour of William Lennon bootmakers. They have been making boots in this old mill building since 1904, we were guided through by Libs the great grand daughter of William Lennon, it will be her who answers your email when you send your order for boots in as I am sure you will want to when you have seen this.

First the leather coming in, some from USA, some from India for the more price sensitive heavy work boots and some from the amazing Clayton's tannery at Chesterfield.

Then to the clicking and closing room, here the leather is cut out using the best parts of the hide for the areas of high stress in the boot. These are actually bits for traditional leather cycling shoes for retro cyclists.

 Pat does the closing, that is stitching the various bits of the upper together, and she has been doing it here for over 50 years!
 It's a lovely old sewing machine, quietly and accurately stitching through two layers of really tough boot leather.
 lots of lasts
 downstairs now and these are tough workboots having the sole and upper united.
 workboot uppers
 These work boots are now ready to have rubber soles cast on to them. The rubber has a shelf life of 2 weeks and a big minimum order quantity so they have to build up a large stock then spend a week just doing rubber soles.
 This machine casts the sole.

 lasts
 Now on to leather soled boots, I ordered a pair of these. This amazing sewing machine is stitching through nearly 1/2 an inch of leather.


 This machine is fed with brass rood cut with a screw thread, it basically screws the leather sole and upper together more securely even than the famous good year welted sole. These are tough boots and will hold together even if they get worn down past the stitching.
 a bott with vibram sole, if you click to expand this image you may be able to see that as well as the heavy stitching there is that row just inside of brass screwws holding it all together.
 Hobnails! This pair of boots are in for repair, not what I would call a repair, basically all that is original is the uppers they have had complete new soles, lots of hand fitted hobnails and metal horseshoes front and back, they are not as good as new they are better than new because the uppers are already worn in to fit the user. I ordered horseshoes on mine but not the hobnails, they really are very noisy and pretty skiddy on a hard surface.
 Another pair of boots in for the re-soling treatment. I love that they do this, I give footwear a hard life and wear boots out, my new boots will be paying intermittent visits to the place they were made for many years to come.
 Here is my mate Andy choosing the leather for his boots, they don't normally offer this degree of customisation and having seen Andy dithering over all the potential options I can understand why.
 Here are a bunch of boots ready to go, I think these are maybe the "Tan waxy leather sole boot" I love that the Lennon's website quotes prices including vat and delivery and a pair of these tough stylish made in England boots costs just £150 delivered. They are apparently all the rage in Japan and with tweedy city folk, I am definitely a new fan.

 I should show you the outside fo the mill, a typical Derbyshire limestone mill building, Can you imagine what it feels like to be working making boots in the same building four generations of your family have worked in? I love to see small scale manufacturing going on within local communities like this it just feels healthy and right somehow. Andy bought the mens traditional Derby boot 

6 comments:

  1. You have won a blog award. Please go to:
    http://woodsrunnersdiary.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/a-blog-award-and-on-my-birthday-too.html
    Regards, Keith.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wanted to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely loved every little bit of it.Cheers for the info!!!! & This is the perfect blog for anyone who wants to know about this topic. You know so much its almost hard to argue with you .........
    thanks Leather Repairs Manchester

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much for this. I can't tell you how much guilt it alleviates. Car Leather Upholstery Repair

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your Affiliate Profit Machine is ready -

    And getting it set up is as simple as 1, 2, 3!

    Here's how it works...

    STEP 1. Tell the system what affiliate products the system will advertise
    STEP 2. Add push button traffic (this ONLY takes 2 minutes)
    STEP 3. See how the affiliate system grow your list and sell your affiliate products all on it's own!

    Are you ready to make money automatically??

    Get the full details here

    ReplyDelete
  5. In this fashion my friend Wesley Virgin's story starts in this SHOCKING AND CONTROVERSIAL VIDEO.

    You see, Wesley was in the military-and shortly after leaving-he discovered hidden, "MIND CONTROL" secrets that the CIA and others used to get everything they want.

    THESE are the EXACT same tactics many celebrities (notably those who "come out of nowhere") and top business people used to become wealthy and successful.

    You probably know that you use only 10% of your brain.

    That's mostly because most of your brain's power is UNCONSCIOUS.

    Maybe that thought has even taken place INSIDE your own head... as it did in my good friend Wesley Virgin's head around seven years back, while riding an unregistered, beat-up bucket of a car with a suspended license and $3.20 on his banking card.

    "I'm absolutely fed up with living paycheck to paycheck! When will I become successful?"

    You've taken part in those thoughts, isn't it so?

    Your success story is waiting to start. Go and take a leap of faith in YOURSELF.

    Watch Wesley Virgin's Video Now!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Did you hear there's a 12 word phrase you can communicate to your partner... that will trigger intense feelings of love and impulsive attraction to you deep within his heart?

    That's because hidden in these 12 words is a "secret signal" that triggers a man's instinct to love, admire and guard you with all his heart...

    12 Words That Trigger A Man's Love Response

    This instinct is so hardwired into a man's mind that it will drive him to work better than before to take care of you.

    Matter of fact, fueling this all-powerful instinct is so essential to achieving the best ever relationship with your man that once you send your man one of these "Secret Signals"...

    ...You'll instantly notice him open his mind and heart for you in such a way he's never experienced before and he'll see you as the one and only woman in the world who has ever truly appealed to him.

    ReplyDelete