Useful work slippers

“Long ago, in the days before universities had trained archivists, I was employed to attempt a survey of business records surviving in local manufacturing firms,” emails reader Enid Gauldie. “One of the people who was very helpful was Mr Fraser of the Arbroath firm.

“They were, historically, weavers of canvas sailcloth, but at that time one of their most successful products was candlewick bedspreads. This produced a quantity of waste candlewick ends and workers used those to make useful work slippers for themselves. These were not unlike Spanish espadrilles.

“An enterprising salesman included a few samples of these with a regular order for canvas to Argentina. These proved so successful that the Arbroath factory set up a department for the wholesale manufacture of what were locally known as ‘baffies’. Hence the baffie factory.”