Shoe Repair

[Di.Poppitt]

This is a bit light weight after reading of jabs for swine flu. However I digress, I was in town today walking toward the shoe repairer with my winter boots under my arm. I have always walked one side of a heel down and suddenly I could see my dad in his shed with three or four lasts on his bench and a sheet of leather, a knife that was honed to a thin lethal point and my shoes. I spent hours watching him and he always said just as he was finishing the heel repair ' here you are, this will make them last a bit longer' He took some little bits of steel off a card and tapped one into each of the heels, Today I laughed to myself as I thought about those 'segs' and how I'd scrape the heels across the floor and see the sparks fly up.

 

[JohnO]

I still have our old 'cobbler's last' - I use it in the shed as a mini 'anvil' and as a 'hold' for odd-shaped objects when painting or gluing. I once saw a cement-ridged stone wall, in front of someone's house, which had twenty-odd of these 'lasts' cemented along the top; it looked really good too!

 

[OtherHalf]

there are still a few about it is cheaper now to throw the shoes away rather than get them repaired I think a lot of our Dads used them my dad used one to mend my boots a few times a last is a holding device shaped like a human foot that is used to fashion or repair shoes the first picture is the one most of us will remember and the second is an antique one

 

[Ray Barrett]

We used to repair our boots at work,with the leather used in belt driven machinery.It was always oil sodden,thus waterprooof..

 

[Astonian]

hi ray
when you think about it in days gone by these cobblers [shops]
was plenty full around and spoilt for choice as to where to go
but even in those days from just after the war to and through to the fifties and even the sixties it was even expensive to take them ro the cobblers
i think its a dying trade now and the old cobblers are disapearing fast thick and thin and todays youth cannot learn the trade even if they wanted too .i wonder whether timsons do training
for the younger generations but as you say it far easy and cheaper to throw them away and buy a new pair -
but you have to submitt the price of shoes are sky high today
so do you think it would pay us bring back the cobblers
my aunt ivy shacked up with a cobbler on the lichfield rd many years ago the cobbler was albert lloyed oppersite robisons and dents
i bet she saved afew bob over the years
the real last old cobbler i knew lived in selly park and his little shop now as been empty for years and still there was stan,s shop
the little cobbler in summerfield cresnt he retired 10 years ago
one of the lasy of the proffesionals
ray; what is the most you have ever paid for a pair of shoes
In fact i would be intrested to hear from any other members there prices they ever paid for there.s
have a nice day every-body best wishes astonion ;;;

 

[oldMohawk]

Just after the war I had a pair of roller skates which clipped onto the soles of my boots and straps at the back. Racing along the pavement one day, I hit an uneven paving slab and the clips half pulled the sole off my boot, a disaster in those austere times. The local cobbler just about managed a repair, but my boots were in a 'queue' of shoes waiting for repair, and I had to wear sandals for a couple of days. Thinking back we had a 'cobblers last', and a box of 'segs'.

 

[Wendy]

( Thinking back we had a 'cobblers last', and a box of 'segs'. ) We still have a last in the shed.......I often wonder what to do with it!

 

[Alf]

Dad always repaired our shoes/boots when we lived in Aston

Use to get him to put more hobnails in them to show the mates at school

 

[oldMohawk]

We still have a last in the shed.......I often wonder what to do with it!

Wendy - Keep it, if we have to go really 'green' and not throw things away when they are worn, you can repair your shoes, although I suppose shoes of today are not repairable.
Alf - the last time I wore 'hobnails' was in the RAF, great for 'square bashing'

 

[coopbill7]

My Mom repaired our shoes -----cut up cardboard and put over the holes,in our shoes,:redface: hence the Daily Mail boots!!

 

[Ray Barrett]

As a lad I had the "Summer lane crouch" my boots would be repaired with an old woodbine packet,when it was wet you had to walk on the sides of your feet.
The other extreme is, if you go to Churches of Northampton,you have your own personel last, and your shoes are tailor made for about £300 a pair, good value for money,but they last so long,you become fed up of them..

 

[anthea]

My Dad used to repair his working boots. He had a couple of 'lasts' and I used to love to watch while he cut the leather to shape with a very sharp knife. Then he would hammer 'sprigs' all around the edge of the sole, and the same procedure with the heel. Then, I suspect he put a few 'hobnails' in to make them more hardwaring. He used to walk miles each day in his job. Dad always put some 'segs' around the heels of my shoes and I loved the sound my shoes made as the 'segs' hit the pavement. Sometimes, Dad would ask me to take his boots to the 'menders' (cobblers). While I was waiting
to be served, I observed the cobbler putting several 'sprigs' (or nails) into his mouth where he would take them out one at a time and hammer it into the sole or heel of the boot or shoe he was repairing. This he did rapidly. Fascinating stuff!
Anthea

 

[mikejee]

Anthea
I can remember my cousin, who was a cobbler though chichester, not birmingham, with nails in his mouth. It was useful then having a relative who would mend your shoes. The trouble is , as old mohawk said, that the shoes of today (other than those costing £500), are not repairable. Therefore there is no reason for anyone to learn the trade. Then a good cobbler could have made shoes if he had been asked. I don't remember my cousin making any . but he was once asked to make pair of boots squeak for Sir Lawrence olivier in Uncle Vanya. It involved taking them apart, putting in extra bits of leather, and then putting them together again. that's as good as making them
mike

 

[motorman-mike]

I've still got me old last as well. When I used to buy leather soled and heeled shoes (can't afford 'em now) I used to go straight in to Woolworths and buy a pair of stick on rubber soles and a packet of metal Blakeys for them to make them last longer. With the Blakeys on you could hear me coming for miles especially late at night!

 

[evergreen]

Dad took my platforms to Austins got them repaired with steel off cuts, they lasted well but I sounded like a flipping horse coming down the road.:redface:

 

[Wendy]

Love it my platforms were the same! I got told off at Good Hope Maternity Unit in 1975 for waring them when pregnant!!

 

[mike-g]

The women in the offices where I did my apprenticship wore stilletoes with screw in tips to the heel. I was always making new inserts for them.

 

[lencops]

The postwar period was when cobblers were booming, there was a family firm named Harleys whose son i was at school with, and Payne`s Shoe Repairs who opened many shops in & around Brum. Len.

 

[Frothblower]

We had one of these. No one knew how to use it so we used it as a door stop for years. Mom used newspaper to fix our shoes. Not nice walking around with paper mache in your shoes.

(Replacement)

 

[OtherHalf]

Len.. Paynes was a chain of shoe repairers I remember most ..like all things time moves on there and they have gone ? therre are still some good quality cobblers about and Ladies if you want to be adventurous and do your own heels here is a quick lesson link dont work so posted a picture instead pull the old heel out put the new one in and whack it on a hard surface not your partners head

 

[RobertS]

With regard to Paynes. My grandfathers firm did some of the shopfitting of the first shop and others as the chain developed.

If I remember correctly the slogan of Paynes was 'A Better Sole' after the first World War saying and cartoon 'A better Hole'. There was some contention as to whether the slogan 'A Better Sole' had been nicked from another shoe firm.

 

[anthea]

There is a cobblers shop here in Paignton. I think its known as a 'shoe repairers' nowadays - sounds posher, I suppose. The shop cuts keys and sells things like - insoles, keyrings, and they will engrave your dog's name onto a disc. I have had my flat walking shoes soled and heeled there, but it is a stick-on job rather than in the old days using 'segs'. I also remember, the cobbler in my earlier post used to finish off around the edge of the sole on a kind of fly-wheel which made for a more professional finish. Anthea

 

[MiriamB]

I can remember my dad repairing my brothers and my shoes with pieces of old Tyres. At least it kept our feet shod in the cold and wet. Miriam.

 

[harley]

smethick market very cheap ladies shoes ,and they were strung together with two holes in the sides, there were hundreds of pairs all thrown on a table and everyone scramblin for them, all the latest fashions sling back ,crocodile, patent leather, etc all the shoes were touched up a little with shoe dye, but brand knew . often wondered were they tarted up by the shoemenders . this was in 1969.we would have a few pairs at a time.

 

[bramwell]

There was a cobbler in Farm St near Wheeler St. who had swallowed some shoe tacks (accidently) so we had a problem undrestanding him whem he spoke, There was another coblers on the corner of Wheeler St & Clifford Street & he would change your high heel shoes to wedge heels, also when you picked your shoes up he had cleaned them for you.he did a great job with white shoes, they looked like new.

 

[Rupert]

We had a 'last' if that is what they were called. I think we used to call it a 'shoe tree' not sure though. I seem to think it was a pyramid type object with a sole or heel at each point, of different shoe size. Heavy and made of cast iron. No carving of leather was done but lead 'Segs' of different shapes were hammered in at wear edges. You can still buy Segs, I believe, but have not thought of them for years...still pushed into a cardboard backing and have three or more prickly lead spikes that are hammered into the leather sole. I don't remember them working that great.
Not much business for coblers now I think...less everyday walking with personal transport being more prevalent. Kids wear sneekers that are discarded. I don't remember cardboard being used over a hole but don't doubt that it was in mean times but a cardboard or similar inside sole was used on occasion if the shoe prooved to be too large. Now I can't remember why some shoes were too large...you tried them on in the store....let me feel where your big toe is...I hated it. Some shops had x-ray devices that blasted your tootsies with radiation and you could see your bones in the screen on top...cripes! Anyway, my mom was a rag market enthusiast and maybe she snagged a few pair in there, down Jamaica row. I remember the dreaded words...'that would fit you'. Love to roam around 'flea markets' and estate auctions now but hated it then.

 

[Radiorails]

I have a few lasts, of differing shapes, here: they serve outside ornamental uses. A shoe tree, made usually of wood or cheaper aluminium, is used to preserve the shape and condition of shoes; usually leather ones. We still have and use them.

There are still cobblers shops in most Devon towns however from the two or three of yesteryear usually just one survives now.

 

[maypolebaz]

I remember in training, in the army, we had to bash new studs into our boots if they started to wear down, (13 studs in each boot !).
Drill used to be all that more difficult with new studs because they used to grip the gravel on the square.

 

[rosie]

My last is sometimes used now for a doorstop but I used to love banging in the metal segs and glueing bits of rubber on the soles. Segs made lovely sparks when we went on the swings in Lightwoods Park!!
Mum put some plasters over the holes in my sandals, my cousin noticed there was "something stuck on your shoe" while I was kneeling down and she pulled them off.........I was mortified!! Those metal heel rims made it easier to walk to school in the snow and ice but modern shoes won't take them.
rosie.

 

[rosie]

I've just remembered that someone gave Mum some shoes for me and as they were pale leather she dyed them for me to wear to school. They dye smelt awful and the teacher kept asking who was making the smell!! I was too ashamed to own up!! I still dye shoes but it doesn't smell so bad nowadays.
rosie.