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Shoes

Shoes.... a subject dear to my heart over the years. I hated going to buy new shoes as a child..all that wriggling of toes and measuring to make sure
the shoes fitted properly and my Mom pinching my toes to make sure there was wriggle room, etc. Followed by blisters at times when "wearing in" the new shoes especially school uniform type shoes which were guaranteed to rub holes in your socks.
Later on though, I loved shoes and spent as much of my wages as I could on them. My Father told me that when I left England the shoe shops would miss me
very much as well as Payne's shoe repairs since I was a very good customer of theirs also. I knew just about all of the shoe shops around in 1950's onwards
Timpsons, Englands, Dolcis, Saxone, Manfield, Rackham's, Freeman,Hardy and Willis, Lotus and Barratts. I still like shoes but different styles these days.
 
Viv they appear to be making a come back. Yes so elegant. I remember wearing something similar to these and won a jiving competition at Pontin's in the 70's. Wonder I didn't break my neck?.
th
 
Would never have thought it possible in shoes like those Jean! Walking - yes, just about - but jiving well, I have great admiration.

For ladies who 'appreciate dainty things' you might like a pair of these kid leather booties from this 1909 advert of the Public Benefit Boot Company Ltd. Been browsing around this afternoon to find early shoe shops. This was the earliest advert I could find, although I doubt it was a shoe shop as we know it. I expect they were usually boot and shoe makers like this one; Newmans, corner of Butlin Street and Long Acre, Nechells in 1914. Viv.

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Thanks Viv and we won it too. I kept threatening to kill Peter when we finished as it was his idea. Jean.
 
That's great Jean, so when are you performing on 'Strictly'?!!

Now can I interest any of you gents out there in this trendy footwear? This was a Bull Ring shop window display in the 1960s/70s. no idea which shop, but look at those shoes. 'Shoes for the younger man'. Think the boots might have been called Chelsea boots. Viv.

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Viv I had to decline their offer as I have a full schedule. Looking at the photo's of the wedges they were not quite that high but high enough. Had my flares on too.
 
With all that dancing Jean you'd probably have needed a shoe repairer. And there were plenty available in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Here's a selection.

Harry H Payne - did he repair stockings too?!!
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Star Shoe Service "ShoeRepairs While You Wait" Kings Heath 1958
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Paynes Sutton Road Erdington 1962
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Looks like Timpsons started life as a shoe shop and became a shoe repairer

Timpson Spiceal Street 1953
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Timpson Soho Road Handsworth 1971
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Been searching for a photo of the Paynes in Witton Jean, but can't find one. The nearest I could get was this on Birchfield Road (from the Digital Handsworth site). Again it says they repair stockings! Viv.

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Ooooh Jean. Now they're some attention grabbing shoes! I rather like the black winkle pickers. Men could be real peacocks in the 1950s couldn't they? Viv.
 
Anyone remember these? We had one but I never saw it put use. It lay rusting in the garden. Suppose it was easier to take the shoes to the repairers (or cobbler as we called it). Viv.

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Hi Viv, I remember we had one, I think we called it a 'Last' and I watched my Dad repairing my shoes with it.
Phil
 
Repairing shoes - well it's a thing of the past now I suppose. I remember you could replace the tips of stiletto shoes and the toes and heels of flat shoes. They came in rubber or metal. The metal ones made your shoes sound like tap shoes. You could get the replacement bits in Woolworth's. (What couldn't you get in Woolworths?)

Phil, the wedding photos on that link are excellent. But sandals to a wedding ......... erm ...... cool! Viv.
 
Too true Viv. I remember when my shoes were repaired the shoe repairer holding the segs in his mouth before tapping them into the heel.
 
Yes Vi, they are called a Last, my Dad used to do running repairs on our shoes and boots on one.Cant think what happened to it.There were six lads in our family and money was a bit tight to say the least.In my army days we had a cobbler from the RAOC attached to the battalion for boot repairs.
Take Care now Bernard
 
Hi Bernard they were pretty weighty things too. Must have been a very useful thing to have if you knew how to use one.

Now did any of you go here for your regulation school shoes? Co-op High Street had a very large shoe department. Photo is from 1929, but I remember it well in the 1950s and 60s. It was all part of the summer holiday school uniform shopping round. (I didn't mind this 'chore' as we'd stop and have a toasted teacake and a milkshake at the Oxford cafe further down High Street first). Don't remember the Co-op doing shoe repairs too. Maybe they stopped doing the repairs when I went in there in the 1950/60s. Viv.

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Remember the Timpsons on Soho Road well (thanks for the pic). Always remember the ladies in there being really helpful with measuring the feet when me mum got me in there for new shoes. Love the winkle picker boots. great pics.
 
Hi Stephen. it's good to know that something quite similar to winkle pickers are trendy again with young lads. They're wearing very long pointy shoes andI like 'em. I remember chisel toed shoes too and of course there were also brothel creepers. (Oops are we allowed to say that?) BCs are making a second appearance - but don't think they're called that now and girls wear them! Times change in many ways, but fashion generally repeats itself. Viv.
 
Hello Wendy--you beat me to it-re-'Basball boots'. Back in 1952/3, we lived in Cheshire Road Smethwick. I was about 11yrs old During the summer we played in Victoria Park virtually all day till the Park bell sounded for closing time. We were typically a family with limited funds, which normally meant that come the time when our 'boots' had to be replaced, ( no shoes aloud ) it was a big outlay. Miraculously, my constant nagging that me best friend was wearing amazing dual brown canvass/ rubber, ankle-high BASEBALL boots from America--my mom took pity and we went up Cape Hill to a smart shop, and I was kittted out. I had never felt so much pleasure before. I felt as though I was shoeless they were so light and comfortable--I virtually 'flew' round Victoria Park, a lasting good memory-obviously. Best wishes --golightly
 
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Golightly - baseball boots are still fashionable. Also do people still call pumps 'plimsoles'? I remember having hockey boots made of canvas too, smelt horribly of rubber, like the gas at the dentist.

Bernie - great sign. Viv
 
Hello--am I right in thinking that Baseball boots have only recently become fashonable again--because the Trainer era ended, due to the over-the-top way they developed? I see youngsters in recent years wearing much smarter flat soled canvas/ rubber plimsolls /pumps, and now--baseball boots again with matching or contasting laces--very nice, but once again, big fashion companies have over-priced what is a very simple design--from the past. When I was a kid in Brum, we called them pumps--when we moved to Bristol, they called them 'daps'--oh well. golightly.
 
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