The footwear trade started in Burton Latimer in a small way in the 1870s when men would do outdoor work in the barns behind their homes.  Leather would be brought by horse and cart from towns such as Kettering and cut into ‘uppers’ for shoes and other processes.  After completion, the work would be collected in much the same way.  Many of the women folk also did similar work, particularly ‘closing’ which was stitching the uppers.

The population increase between 1871 and 1911 resulted in the town expanding to the south and west.  What were formerly open fields and allotments were built on and became Finedon, Alexandra, Duke, Spencer, Rosebery and Newman Streets.  These were to become the homes of the shoe workers and many of the houses have date and name stones to commemorate the period.

The oldest business in Burton Latimer, Whitney & Westley Ltd, was established in 1896 by Joseph Westley and Harry Whitney who worked from a cottage in Finedon Street before building the large factory opposite.  Six cottages were later demolished to make way for an extension.  Business was keen in those early days when the two partners would walk to nearby towns to get orders!

Profit margins were small, perhaps only one shilling on a pair of shoes.  Mr Westley vowed that he would retire when he had made £50,000, which he accomplished.  He died in 1957 at the age of 91, some 17 years after his partner, Mr Whitney, who died in 1940, aged 75.

In 1969 a disastrous fire swept through the three-storey building.  In the rebuilding, the top floor was removed.  Sadly, the company closed in 1982 but shoe making continued at the factory until recently when we hear that the building is to be demolished and the site developed for housing.  The misters Westley & Whitney have, however, left two fine reminders of their involvement with Burton Latimer.  They built the two large Edwardian houses in Finedon Road, ‘Beechwood’ and Glenroy’ known as ‘The Villas’.

In 1903, Buckby Brothers were established in the large factory that they built off the Kettering Road, adjacent to Prescott Motors and approached by a lane known as ‘Buckby’s Drive’.  E K Coles Ltd later acquired the premises and continued shoemaking there until the early 1970s.

Coles Boot Co Ltd was formed in 1908 by John Wallace Coles.  Its factory was approached from Piggots Lane and extended to Spencer Street.  Under his son, the debonair Keith Coles, this became the largest footwear business in the town.  In their heyday, Coles Boot Co Ltd employed 1500 people.

Known as the Coles Group it consisted of seven companies with two factories in Alexandra Street and Kettering Road; a warehouse in Station Road; a further factory in Finedon and closing rooms in Kettering and Wellingborough.  They also had nine retail shops stretching from York through London to Bournemouth.

To everyone’s surprise, Coles sold out to Frank Wright Shoes of Kettering in 1974, who later disposed of the premises.  Mr Coles died in 1970.

Sudborough and Eady had a factory in Rosebery Street but a terrible fire in the 1920’s closed the business.  What is now the ‘China Palace’ restaurant had, earlier this century, a shoe manufacturing business operating from its upper floor.  The ground floor was formerly the Gas office.  Here you could pay your bills or, for the princely sum of 6d (2.5p) purchase a gas mantle. 

Fox Brothers made heels for shoes at their premises at the end of Spencer Street.  Throughout the town, outdoor closing was very popular.  Even until recent years, women would be provided with machines so they could work from home.

During both World Wars the factories were busy, many of them making boots for the armed forces but their decline started in the 1960s.  This was when cheap shoes, made abroad, started coming into the country making competition in the home market very fierce.

There were also two leather tanneries in Burton Latimer: William Batty & Son had premises, now demolished, in Church Street and Groome Brothers operated from the large mill that stood at the end of Finedon Road, by the bridge.  This was gutted by fire and demolished in 1936.

Years ago, women would go to the factories to buy leather ‘bits’ to light the fires under their coppers to do the weekly washing, but this made the chimneys very sooty and loosened the bricks.

Women factory workers would take their dinners to one or other of the bakehouses in the town to be cooked.  Quite often, children would collect the dinners on their way home from school at lunchtime.  Two notable bakehouses were Pownalls, in Kettering Road, where the Palmichael Restaurant now stands, and Capps, in Church Street, which stood next to the old Church School.

In the early days many of the factories had their own social clubs providing tennis, football and cricket teams.  Coles even sported a women’s football team!  The canteens provided cheap, cooked lunches and tea trolleys were pushed around to the various departments during the day.

Until the 1960’s very few cars were to be found on the streets and workers came in by bus or cycled or walked to their jobs in the numerous factories in Burton Latimer.  Today it is regrettable that what was once our staple trade and employed most of our townsfolk no longer exists.