Visit to the newly opened Shoemakers Museum in Street

For Friday date day last week, Mr S and I took ourselves off to the Newly opened Clarks Shoe Museum in nearby Street, having booked our tickets on line before we set off.  The tickets for the Shoemakers Museum last a year and we shall certainly be returning.

As my school shoes even in the tropics were Clarks, I was really hoping that they may have a pair of those.

I felt that the finish on this sandal was rather flat, and when I used to go to the shop to get fitted up with a new pair, I always used to favour what I have just come to understand as flat grain. The leather was quite variable but always matched.  This flat grain leather is visible in the pair of red Joydance sandals further down.

My father had what I now realise as high standards and loved his shoes and clothes.  Although when I was living in Mauritius we had staff, he very early on taught me to clean shoes and that was my job first thing each morning to clean the shoes, and always outside if it was not raining.  In the tropics with the humidity at certain times of the year you could get mould grow on the outside as a slight bloom.  I am still the 'chief shoe cleaner' and love cleaning our shoes.  However I do insist Mr S removes the mud from the bottom of his trainers or boots himself!

When I posted the picture of the brown pair of Joydance shoes on my Facebook page, several of my friends from my youth posted memories of our school shoes.  It was interesting to hear that at some stage 

The description of these explained that The Joydance sandal was first introduced in the UK in 1933 for women and children. Later in the 1960s it was also being manufactured in Ghana and went under the name of Achimota sandals, named for the Achimota College in Accra, that led the trend in adopting this sandal as part of their school uniform with many other education establishments following suit.

A couple of my English friends posted that they had red pairs, and then uploaded this pair which I also photographed.

Clarks Red Joydance Sandals

Another local friend posted: 'My father went to Ghana to help set up the Happy Shoe Company as part of the training team back in the 60s . We also had two of the Ghanaian workers stay with us. While they visited Clarks quarters. We have photos somewhere.'

These are just a few of the shoes on display. The displays are well lit and nicely set out, and there were some delightful shoes where the design and quality are really lovely, and if for sale now, I would certainly buy.

For those who are interesting in advertising there were fine examples and this shop interior will no doubt spark memories.

You get a free 4 hrs parking ticket which needs to be collected from the Museum reception entitling one car to be parked in the Shopping outlet car park.

There is a very pleasant cafe in refurbished Old Grange Building. 

The Museum is very well set out, and for our first visit, we went quickly through the introduction taking you through the Clark's original business to the present day, when sadly shoe production is no longer in the UK and the Company is now majority owned by a Chinese company.

We shall certainly be returning, and I hope to go on one their guided tours too.