A Load Of Old Cobblers!

Today will be my last day teaching at a school in nearby Hinckley. My journey every Wednesday is much faster than it would have been a few years ago. When we moved to Leicester, the A47 meandered through the village of Earl Shilton, and it really slowed down the traffic. Now there is a new by-pass which is a great time-saver. It is called “Clickers Way”

Clickers Way – where did the name come from? Well, it was suggested by a local resident who had worked in the shoe industry for 40 years. The name celebrates the area’s historic links to the boot and shoe industry. The role of a clicker – a shoe worker who cuts
leather shapes that are later sewn together to make a shoe upper, was one of the most skilled and better paid jobs in the shoe industry. The term comes from the sound made when carrying out the job. Earl Shilton and nearby Barwell played an important role in the boot and shoe industry. At their peak in the 1950s, they supplied
over 10 million pairs of the world’s shoes every year. Many local people will have worked in the boot and shoe trade or maybe even have a relative who was a clicker. Here’s a clicker at Lobbs

Lobbs are the company who make hand-made shoes for Prince Charles and his father. Their informative website says

Because of his experience of the various colours, weights, grains and flexibility's of the leathers, only the clicker can help to ensure the smartness and durability of a shoe in which material is perfectly matched to function.

[btw if you order two pairs of shoes from Lobbs, you get a £500 discount on the second pair, and also a £150 discount on the second pair of shoe trees! That’s £650 off your total bill of £6260. What a bargain!!! However I won’t be buying Bob any Lobbs shoes this year]