In the early period Kingswood boot factories tended to be small, family-run units relying heavily on outwork. The various parts of the boots were collected by the outworkers from the factory and made up at home, the boots being returned to the factory to be 'finished'. This type of production which was later superseded by larger, more mechanised factories better geared to mass production,

It was a natural progression that an area which already produced tanned leather should also develop into leather goods manufacturing. However, even in the mid 1800s shoe making was still a cottage industry. Thus, William Green learned his trade helping his mother to handcraft boots at home until 1860 and then in his own house until 1866.

Even the factory employees were often put on short time when demand was slack. As more machinery was introduced and the need for direct quality control increased manufacturers employed outworkers less and less which caused great distress amongst the many garret masters in the city.

image above: Works Outing to the seaside from one of the many Boot factories in Kingswood 1920's

For hundreds of years, leather production and manufacturing has been a high profile feature of Kingswood. Way back in 1327, tanners prosperous enough to be taxed were to be found in Bath, Glastonbury, Taunton, Brompton Regis, Seavington and Yeovil.

For more than a century after 1800, village outworkers supplied manufacturers in most towns between Taunton, Street and Milborne Port. This long and honorable tradition as a centre of excellence in the UK leather industry is carried on today by new generations of craftsmen and women. As producers of high quality, high fashion clothing, bags, luggage and accessories plus specialised workwear and industry support services, the newly formed Somerset Leather in Partnership has set about promoting Somerset's leather industry with a new vigour.

image above: A early view of Kingswood 1890's

HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY ORIGINS

Kingswood has had a long and varied industrial history. Coal mining and agriculture were widespread, and spanned centuries; coal, for example, was being extracted by the thirteenth century. As the industries of coal-mining and agriculture developed, and perhaps as a response to their increased demand for heavy footwear, a third major industry began to emerge in Kingswood, that of boot and shoe manufacture.

The boot and shoe trade was a later development than either coal-mining or agriculture, but by the late seventeenth century had become a cottage industry carried out by colliers. The Reverend H.T. Ellacombe says in the History of Bitton, published in the nineteenth century, that colliers finished their work at one p.m. and they 'washed in hot water. . . and then worked as gardeners, tailors, shoemakers.'

In the earlier half of the nineteenth century, Poor Houses were the main employers in the Kingswood area of people involved in the boot making trade, just as they had been important to the pin manufacturing industry in the late eighteenth century. The poor house was also known as a 'house of industry'.

After the advent of the factory system in Kingswood in the nineteenth century, outworking played a prominent role in boot manufacture. The processes involved meant that some stages were so well suited to a bench in the home, that they continued to be carried out there rather than in the factory.

image above: Outworkers for the Kingswood Boot & Shoe trade 1920's

KINGSWOOD'S HEYDAY

During the second half of the nineteenth century, the Kingswood boot and shoe industry flourished. Fussell and Flock are among the first names that appear as major employers locally, around the 1840's and 1850's. It was they who introduced into Kingswood the riveting system for sole attachments. This made possible, in the following decades, the rapid growth of factory production in the area. Up until this time the nature of the work had been restricted to making hobnailed boots.

By 1891 atleast ten notable firms were established in the area, and the trade was at its height around the turn of the century. In its heyday the Kingswood industry competed for work with the industries of Northampton, Leicester and Leeds. So effective was this competition that the Royal Commission on Labour (1892) was told that thirty six firms in the Leeds area had been forced to close down in little over a year. Kingswood goods were cheaper because of the greater dependence upon outworkers who were paid less than factory workers.

DECLINE

By 1922 there were eighty major manufacturers of heavy duty footwear in Kingswood, but the industry was already in decline. The decline happened for a variety of reasons. Demand was reduced by the contraction of mining and farming. Ireland had been an important export market, and trade was severely affected in the mid-1920's when the newly created Irish Free State imposed a levy on goods from the mainland. The industry also suffered from a lack of capital investment which, together with the preponderance of small firms, meant that it was ill prepared to adapt to a market which was beginning to demand lighter footwear.

Although production and demand declined, the numbers of factories remained high. The most significant change came in the 1950's when production was increasingly taken over by the firm of G. B. Britton, which had grown large enough to sustain the expensive plant necessary for survival.

WORK AND THE WORKERS

OUTWORKING

Outworking was carried out in tiny premises, often just a small room attached to the house or a small shed in the garden. Soundwell Road in Kingswood has many of the outhouse type of buildings, now used as garden sheds, that were once used as boot making rooms. The smell of burning leather from outhouses is well remembered.

Outworking had a seasonal nature. The busiest period was from June to December, when whole families worked all night in an effort to return their work to their employers on time. If they were not able to meet their deadlines the work would be given to someone else, or reduced so far that they could not earn a living wage doing it.

In 1960 the Evening Post (Bristol) reported that 'Kingswood's snobbing shops were being converted into bathrooms by householders under the Standard Grant Scheme.' 'Snob' was a local name given to bootmakers, but developed out of an original use of the word, meaning a shoemaker or shoemaker's apprentice (Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary).

'What did your grandfather do?'

'A shoemaker for Pratt, Kingswood. They used to have the workshop out in the garden ... I used to build up the fire for them with all the shreds of leather from the boots.'

'Your brothers who made shoes, some of them did it at home?'

'Yes, they would make'em at home, go over there and get bits and pieces and all that and put it together. A lot of men did do that, it was a shoe factory area.'

image above: View of the Douglas motor-cycle factory Kingswood 1920


FACTORY WORK

The conditions of work varied as to whether you were employed as an outworker or in a factory. When the factories began to spring up, towards the close of the nineteenth century, there was little improvement in conditions for employees. Men usually started work around the age of fourteen and continued until forced to stop by age or infirmity. It was very much the survival of the fittest. The hours were long, 6.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Wages were low.

During the First World War hours were longer. Employees started at 6.00 a.m., worked for an hour and a half, and then had a half hour breakfast break. One hour for lunch was given during which time the worker went home, meals not being provided on the premises, and an afternoon break of thirty minutes was allowed. Work continued until seven or eight at night. In contrast, in the 1930's men were on shortime working, often not able to get more than three days work in a week.

Much of the machinery was dangerous to work and many of the people who worked it sustained injury.

'And there you lost two fingers?'

'There should have been a guard on the machine. 1 didn't get compensation. It was damages, 350. They reckon a man wasn't a boot operator unless he had a finger off...'

Industries flourished in the district in association with the boot and shoe trade. The firm of Douglas, renowned for motor-cycles, once manufactured machinery for the footwear industry. They set up a foundry in Kingswood in the 1880's and made lasts for the trade. Jacksons also made lasts, while Dinkie Heels, at one time situated in Downend Road,

Kingswood, and still a thriving local concern, manufactured sole attachments. Lennards, a major distributor of shoes, was established in 1887, their building being in North View,Staple Hill. Their first shop was in High Street, 1 Bristol and by 1961 they had 200 shops nationwide, thirteen being in Bristol.

TRADE UNIONS

Conditions of work in the Kingswood boot and shoe trade were not always good, but were improved to some degree by the presence of a union for footwear workers, although unionisation was never extensive. The official history of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives (N.U.B.S.O.) records that, in 1850, the Association of Cordwainers (another term for shoemakers or workers with leather) had a 'small but turbulent branch at Kingswood.' N.U.B.S.O.,,the forerunner for the current footwear union, was formed in 1874, and struggled to exist and gain recognition by employers. In 1895 Kingswood was involved in a national lock out and union organisation declined.

The union, now known as the National Union of Footwear, Leather and Allied Trades (N.U.F.I.A.T.), has offices in Kingswood today. Above the offices is the Union's meeting room, The Crispin Rooms, named after St Crispin, the Patron Saint of cobblers.

image above:  1920's The Frame-Building Shop - Douglas Motorcycles of Kingswood

EDUCATION

Soundwell Technical College, which still has a thriving department connected with the footvvear trade, grew out of the demand for technical education from the local boot and shoe industry. In 1901, the Technical lnstruction committee of Gloucestershire County Council began a series of evening classes at Kingswood in bootmaking and pattern cutting.

These classes flourished, and before the Second World War were transferred to the Merchant Venturers' College in Bristol. After the War, it was felt that the classes needed to be nearer to the Kingswood factories. In 1944, as the result of a joint initiative by local councillors, representatives of boot and shoe manufacturers and trade unionists, classes were started at the Kingswood Y.M.C.A .

These classes were the basis of what was to become the Kingswood Boot and Shoe College. The College soon achieved a national reputation and finally became an integral part of Soundwell Technical College in 1959.