How the humble slippers began life in Valley town

LANCASHIRE’S cotton industry led to urban growth on a level rarely seen before, particularly in towns such as Rawtenstall, Burnley, Blackburn and Accrington.

The county’s textile industry was at the forefront of innovation; adopting both steam power and the factory-based system of production, and left an enduring legacy still evident today through the many mills dominating the landscape.

But when the UK’s textile industry disappeared in the second half of the 20th century, due to cheaper labour abroad and a lack of investment in new technology, the mill towns of Lancashire were crying out for a saviour.

The towering vacant mills represented an opportunity to diversify and in Rossendale it was the felt industry, and subsequently the shoe manufacturing, which responded to Lancashire’s cry for help.

At its peak the shoe industry employed around 60,000 people in Rossendale and its beginnings come from the felt carpets made in Leeds which were sent to Myrtle Grove Mill in Rossendale for dyeing and printing. Soon afterwards Myrtle Grove Mill in Waterfoot was adapted to manufacture felt and the invention of slippers soon followed.

Felt block printers made rough wrappings out of used pieces of felt to cover their feet when they were walking over the felt pieces to avoid spoiling the work.

Those haphazard shoes were what we now know as slippers.

John William Rothwell was the first to start producing slippers in Rossendale in 1874 after collecting remnants of felt from his uncle Henry Rothwell’s Bridge End Mill. John later helped to set up a number of other footwear companies in the Rossendale area.

In 1879 John Rothwell went into partnership with James Gregory – their firm employed Henry Whittaker Trickett from 1881 to 1883 who went on to set up his own mill at Gaghills. By 1900 Trickett was employing over 1,000 people and producing 72,000 shoes a week.

In 1887 Lambert Howarth

and his wife Betsy set up Lambert Howarth & Sons in Whitewell Bottom and at its peak Lambert Howarth Group produced 10 million pairs of shoes a year and employed 2,500 people.

However, with cheap imports from the Far East flooding the UK, Rossendale’s shoe industry began to decline in the 1980s.

But not all Rossendale shoe manufacturers are consigned to the history books. R&M Heys Footwear Manufacturers was set up in 1979 and in 1997 moved to Haslingden’s Old Market where it is now run by the founder’s son Steven and his wife

Diane who live in Accrington.

The business has grown from a traditional slipper manufacturer to a leading provider of fabric-constructed and semi-orthopaedic footwear. Although R&M Heys is relatively small in terms of its workforce its 24 employees have, between them, a combined 400 years’ experience.

Although only a few shoe companies still exist in Rossendale, a short drive along Bacup Road in Waterfoot gives a clear indication of its legacy. The road is lined with footwear companies and although some of the former mills are now used for other industries the signs left in place illustrate that it was only a generation ago that Rossendale was the heart of the UK’s shoemaking industry.

One of those still based in Bacup Road is Kenyons Fashion Footwear which was set up more than half a century ago by husbandand-wife team Leonard and Joyce Kenyon.

Their sons Barry and Terry took over the company, launching a cash and carry business in Rossendale, and later moving to Myrtle Grove Mill – considered to be the birthplace of the region’s shoe manufacturing industry.