• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Who remembers their dad mending their shoes

S

Stitcher

Guest
My dad used to occasionally come home from work with a piece of leather he had bought from the cobbler. He used it to repair our shoes and boots. He would put my shoe on a metal foot on a wooded stump which he would use to hammer the tacks in.
 
My Dad used to get his peice of leather from the house that Jack built.
He used to cut and trim it with a hook bladed knife which he kept sharpening on our back door step. Oh yeah, he always held the nails in his mouth, I think he called them "SPRIGGS"
 
My dad used to have a cobbler's last in the shed, so I suppose he used to repair them. I do remember adverts for 'Phillips Stick-a-Soles' which didn't need tacks, but probably peeled off in the wet!
 
Same as that Postie, yes they were called spriggs. You mentioned The House That Jack Built. My dad used to take us to there on a Saturday. He and mom did a bit of mooching around and shopping, then we stood by the door while mom and dad went into the Bartons. Mom came out after one drink and dad came out after two. Then we all went into the Aston Hippodrome.
 
Sounds good to me Stitcher.

Yes my dad repaired our shoes on lasts in his shed, he had a few lasts all of different sizes. He would send me to the shoe repairer in Witton Road, for the leather. He used to hand stitch his own shoes, he might only buy a pair of shoes every ten years but they were good 'uns.
 
I had already posted my memories of my grandfather repairing my shoes as a child, but it seems that we cannot access our earlier posts beyond a given date. I have no doubt that "The Team" have a more than good enough reason for this.

I will repost it here, and if this is against the rules they have my full permission to remove it.

The following memory is one I have recorded elsewhere. It is the first one that comes to mind when I think of my grandfather. How he would have loved this technological age. Sadly he died in the seventies and he never even saw a PC. I have rewritten parts of this reminiscence and edited it for inclusion here. I have no doubt that many of you will have similar memories.

When I was a young child I watched my grandfather many evening sat at a cobblers last in the kitchen repairing the family shoes. He would select a piece of leather roughly cut it size then cover one side with a glue and then place it on the shoe. Once placed on the last he would then tack it in place with little brass tacks. He sometimes would arrange them in little patterns and swirls when he knew I was watching. Any tack that managed to pierce through the leather would be flattened on the last. A technological marvel of the age.

He would then take a sharp knife and then with the shoe in one hand and the knife in the other he would trim off all the excess leather around the shoe. Then he would use a large rasp to smooth round the rough edges and finally a file would finish of the job. Then he would take large brown or black crayon type of thing dependant on the colour of the shoe and heat it over the gas ring and rub it around the rim of the sole so it took on the same colour as the shoe and ensured the sole was sealed. He would follow the same process with the heels, only he would build them up to the required height in layers. The final part of the operation was to affix steel tips to the areas liable to most wear.

If they were my shoes he would then throw them to me saying there you are Tojo (his name for me) they should last you at least another six months.

Do you know just reading this thread brought all that back to me as if it was yesterday and it was over 55 years ago.

When we are children, we think our parents and grandparents are gods, when we get a little older into our teens we begin to see them in a different light and maybe not so kindly, but I am glad to say that as we begin to age ourselves we once again remember them again as if we were children.

Phil
 
My Dad repaired our shoes when we lived in Newtown Row I think I have his Last somewhere.

He also covered our Three piece with material from the Pram Factory he worked as Forman in Anns Road I think
 
Last edited:
As I read your memory of your grandfather Phil, I could see my dad doing exactly as you described, holding a shoe against his leather apron trimming the leather.
 
you were all lucky we used to have a piece of cardboard put inside our boots to cover the hole, and hope and pray it did'nt rain!
 
ASTONITE said:
you were all lucky we used to have a piece of cardboard put inside our boots to cover the hole, and hope and pray it did'nt rain!
Click to expand...
I was just going to say the same Astonite. folded newspaper was the next best. Them where the day.
 
Frothblower and Astonite

You were the lucky ones you had boots, All we could manage was the cardboard and paper tied to our feet.

Phil
 
pmc1947 said:
Frothblower and Astonite

You were the lucky ones you had boots, All we could manage was the cardboard and paper tied to our feet.

Phil
Click to expand...

Yes but had to walk 50 miles to the mines work 25 hours and walk back again for our teas.
 
I have my fathers last and still use it for replacing hob nails in the boots I wear during Sealed Knot re-enactment battles
 
My Dad would buy an already shaped piece of leather for the sole or a big piece of leather and would soak iin a bucket of water to make it easier to work, nail it on with spriggs and then melt a black stick of wax like stuff along the edge, and don`t forget the steel studs, great for sliding!!. Len.
 
pmc14 and Frothblower, one of my mates reckons that his family were so poor, him and his brother only had one pair of boots between them, so they had to hop all the way to school!
 
Yes I remember it well

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A77ABcfMCQg&feature=related"]YouTube - Four Yorkshiremen - Two versions - From Python and 1948 Show[/ame]
 
Lloyd said:
My dad used to have a cobbler's last in the shed, so I suppose he used to repair them. I do remember adverts for 'Phillips Stick-a-Soles' which didn't need tacks, but probably peeled off in the wet!
Click to expand...


It wasn't the wet that killed those Phillips 'Stick-on-Soles’; it was the new 'Twist' rage! Stan Bray, maths teacher from Vicarage Road, lost his soles because of the heat generated while he was twistin' the night away. When he left the dance floor his soles didn’t go with him!
 
pmc/Phil
This is the thread where you posted about your Granddad before:
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9850&highlight=Cobblers

Note to all:
History threads are not removed from the forum (they may sometimes however get merged into another like thread though).
What you need to do, is put a 'Key Word' in the search box at the top of the page, in this case I put 'Cobblers'
A number of threads came up, so I then looked to see which ones I'd posted on and 'Bingo'.

Pom
 
I am now 76yrs of age but i remember when i used to mend my kids shoes.
i got old innertubes or old tyres and cut them into shape and tack
them onto the soals.MYy often remind me of them days.
regards. Richard
 
I remember my Grandfather having a 3 legged cobblers last and buying sheets of leather and repairing our shoes, after he died I don't think my Dad bothered even though he had the last. I think the stick on soles were on the market by then Eric
 
my old man was always sending us across the rd from mrs cox,s shop to her neibour mr harold lloyed next to the gully
whom ran the little cobblers oppersite diggers and robison fruit and veg and old frenchies shop ;
he eventualy packed up and moved imto my mothers aunt shop on tyburn rd erdington so the old man had to start to do his own ;
we phil was like you and that song ; theres a hole in my shoe dear eliza until the school board man came and told us get down the digbeth
police station mrs you are on the evening mail out for boots and shoes and socks so off we went an old army of eight kids
on that cold and snowie morning ; back at school dinner time only to notice we was not the only ones ;and the posh kids [ middle class tryed ribbing the poor ones but they got there answer ; good old evening mail saved the day again ; nice boots best wishes astonian
 
My grandad had a 3 legged last and he would repair the boots and shoes of family and friends. He trimmed the excess leather from round the soles and heels with his "ear hole" knife, the curved blade the same shape as your ear hole. Finished the job with his stick of wax and hob nails and toe tips, boy, did those sparks fly when you slid along the pavement. Our "Daily Mail" boots lasted yonks.
jimbo
 
Michael's dad used to repair our shoes in the 70's we still have his last. There were several of the Partridge family in Ashted row I wonder if he learned his craft from Howard??
 
The steel studs that Lencops referred to in post #15 were called SEGS and Dad or even sometimes Mom would bash them into the heels to stop them being worn away.

Maurice
 
I never owned a pair of those boots, but can remember being envious of the boys who could slide great distances across the playground
 
My dad always mended our shoes...he had a last and every so often it would be brought out for when our shoes had to be resoled....don't know where he got the leather from l remember he always made a paper pattern of what ever shoes he would work on...he always did a good job his father my g/father was a boot maker in Lovers Walk so l guess where dad got his experience from...my brother and l would always make him put extra studs on our shoes so when we walked down the entry at night they would make sparks...we must have sounded like an army marching down the entry....l still have my g/fathers leathers tools that he used when he made boots...if l knew how to do it l'd send a picture of it....Brenda
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top