Historic store hasn’t put a foot wrong for 155 years
A FAMILY-RUN shoe shop has really stood the test of time – and staff at Shaw & Hallas in Market Walk, Huddersfield, are planning to celebrate their 155th anniversary.
The business, formed in 1864, is now in its fifth generation.
John Shaw started making and repairing shoes in the town centre at 8 Westgate. He prospered, and after Elliott Hallas opened a small foot- wear shop in Holmfirth in 1868, love among the laces blossomed.
A limited company was set up following the marriage in 1914 of Emily Shaw and George Hallas, son and daughter of the founders.
Since then the company has gone from strength to strength.
Managing director Vicky Devlin, who lives and breathes the business, said: “We are thriving because we are genuinely interested in our customers – we talk and listen to them.
“Customer service is paramount and without it we simply wouldn’t still be here.
“Many of our friends in the trade have hung up their boots long ago as they were unable to compete with the growing trend of people shopping online.
“But good old-fashioned service cannot fail, our customers come to us for just that and most wouldn’t dream of ordering their shoes online.
“I think of it as selling ‘ magic’ shoes. I have a childhood fantasy that all the shoes I buy for my shop are destined for a particular, special person and when a customer comes into my shop we help find them their magic shoes.
“A perfect fit, style, colour and something glamorous that makes them gasp a little and just like magic, exactly what they were looking for but didn’t know it.
“That is satisfaction at its very best.”
The shop has faced adversity and down the years each generation has had its own crises, of course – among them two world wars and, most painfully of all, the loss of company records in a fire at the firm’s office in St George’s Square.
Yet, somehow, all the setbacks have only served to strengthen the company and Vicky says good, oldfashioned values such as long hours and hard physical and mental work have all played their part.
And she is even able to boast that Shaw & Hallas has the largest men’s shoe department in West Yorkshire.
Perhaps, as Vicky says, there is something ‘magical’ going on in Market Walk after all!