Best of British

Shoes fit for a prince

The headquarters of Tricker’s, an English shoemaking business that opened in 1829, is spread over three floors of a 100-year-old factory in Northamptonshire where the film Kinky Boots was shot. Inside it smells strongly of leather, and from 7.30am until 4.30pm, while the four shoemakers are at work, there is a reassuring bang of hammers and scrape of knives.

The newest shoemaker in the team is Adele Williamson, 26, who joined last summer after being appointed a royal apprentice by the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust, a scheme that supports British craftsmanship. Today she is responsible for Tr icker ’s bespoke shoes, including the popular Bourton, a heavy brogue that takes six months to create. There a re 260 st ages to t he process, each carried out by hand.

First, the leather (sustainably sourced from Anais, France) is cut into shapes using a specialist‘ clicking knife’ with a curved blade. The leather is then sk iv ed( thin ned with knives ), brogued (hole-punched), and moulded to the shape of the customer’ s foot using a last, a model of the foot carved from beechwood. ‘The lasts are pieces of art in themselves,’ says Williamson.

To create the insole, Williamson uses the last as a template and cuts around it, then pulls the leather upper over the top a nd nails it toget her. Four addit iona l components a re nailed to t he shoe, each made of leather – the lining, stiffeners, toe puffs and upper. The shoe and components are left on the last for a week or two to set. She then stitches the leather upper and the four components to t he insole. Finally, a leather strip known as a welt is stitched to the bottom of the shoe, then a sole, and the heel is nailed on.

Prince Charles wears Trick er’ s shoes, and the firm’s growing clientele includes Tom Hardy and Daniel Craig. Each year Williamson and her colleagues make 200 pairs of be spoke shoes. ‘It’s a service only a handful of people offer ,’ she says .‘ I can’ t see it dying out.’ trickers.com; qest.org.uk

Photographs by Julia Grassi Clockwise from top One of 260 stages in the shoemaking process; the finished products; Adele Williamson is a Tricker’s royal apprentice