Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

52 BOOT AND SHOE MAKING. SAWYER LEATHER-MF2ASURING MACHINE. THERE are in Great Britain and Ire- land more than 2,000 shoe factories, some of which employ over a thousand hands; and it is estimated that there is a total of 110,000 workpeople engaged. Leicester- shire, Northamptonshire, and London have collectively in round figures 1,000 factories, em- ploying 27,000, 20,000, and 10,000 respectively. A great number of the 350 factories of London, situated principally in the East-End, are small, and employ a large number of out-door hands, many of whom are poor Jewish immigrants. There are a number in Leeds also out of a total of 4,000 em- ployed. Nearly as many hands are employed in Norwich as in London, and Glasgow and Bristol have each about 2,500 ; whilst Kettering and Stafford employ in round figures some 3,000 each, on men’s and women’s goods respectively. Other shoe centres employing over 1,000 workpeople are Maybole, N.B., Bramley (Yorks), Higham and Rushden (Northants), and Manchester and district—where there are some 1,500. I here are also something like 40,000 retailers. Until recently one could say that the different centres of the trade were charac- terised by men’s, women’s, children’s, “ turn ” shoes, and army boots ; but recent develop- ments have altered this, and while it is still true that Northampton is principally noted for best men’s work, Leicester for women’s of a medium class, Stafford for the best women’s, Leeds and Bristol for heavy men’s, Norwich for “ turn-shoes ” (referred to later), the vil- lages of Northamptonshire for army boots London for variety, and Manchester for slippers, these distinctions are now less marked. 1 he making of a factory shoe begins with the pattern-maker, and his starting point is the last. Curiously enough, there is no such thing among last-makers or cutters of upper patterns as a standard, and one of the conse- quences of this is that a good deal of mystery IN THE CUTTING-OUT ROOM : “ CLICKERS ” AT WORK.