The Museum Collection: Cobblers and Cordwainers
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Bradford on Avon Museum, Wiltshire
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Cordwainers made boots, shoes and other articles from leather and are named after the Spanish city of Córdoba, which was famed for its leather workers. Generally they just referred to themselves as boot and shoe makers. Cobblers were people who repaired footwear.
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A pair of clogs that were used by a pupil of Christ Church School in the 1940s for working on the school’s allotment garden at Sladesbrook. They have leather uppers and wooden soles, with a band of wrought iron, like a horse shoe, around the edges.
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At a time before roads were surfaced, they would easily become muddy. Pattens -overshoes that were raised on a wooden or iron frame- were used to keep shoes clean. This is the wrought iron base of a patten found in Bearfield, Bradford; the three studs (one at the front, two at the back) were rivets that fastened the wooden sole. The wearer’s shoe would be held in place by a leather strap.
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An advertisement from a booklet celebrating the coronation of King George V in 1911. Mark Uncles (1851-1916) took over the business of George Gore on the corner of Market Street and Silver Street in about 1888. In 1934 his son Rowland moved to bigger premises at 33 Market Street. Uncles & Son later bought the shop of A.C. Dodge in Silver Street as well as others in Corsham and Bath. The business was sold in 1975, but continued to trade under the same name until it closed in 1987. A number of items from the shop came to the Museum.
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A bill from John Collett, for making and repairs to the shoes of the family of John Harding jr of Holt over the years 1860 to 1863. Accounts with traders were usually settled on a quarterly or annual basis.
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