Working in a Leicester Shoe Factory: Life on the Factory Floor in the 1950s

For thousands of people in Leicester and across the country, the working day in the 1950s began with the sound of machinery. In Leicester, that machinery was often found inside one of the city's many shoe and boot factories. Leicester was one of Britain's great footwear manufacturing centres, and its factories provided employment for generations of local families.

For many men and women, working in a shoe factory wasn't simply a job - it was part of everyday life in the city. This article looks at what life was like for a factory worker in 1950s Leicester, but much of the experience could have been similar in industrial towns and cities across Britain, where factories provided the wages that supported working families and shaped the communities around them.

By the 1950s, the shoe and boot manufacturing industry had already been established for decades. Many workers entering a Leicester shoe factory were following the same path as their parents, relatives or neighbours.

For some, it was simply a job.

For others, it was a way of life.

Behind the finished pair of shoes sitting in a shop window was a long chain of workers, machinery, noise and repetitive hand skills. A pair of shoes might pass through numerous stages before it was ready to leave the factory, with different workers responsible for different parts of the process.

For the customer, however, a pair of shoes was very different from the relatively disposable purchase that footwear can sometimes be today. A good pair of shoes could represent a considerable expense, particularly for a working-class family, and people generally expected them to be looked after.

Good-quality leather shoes were often a long-term purchase. Rather than simply throwing them away when they became worn, they could be taken to the local cobbler or shoe repairer. Soles could be replaced, heels repaired and other worn parts attended to, giving a well-made pair of shoes a considerably longer life.

This was particularly important when a family had several children to clothe and provide for. Shoes were something that had to withstand everyday use, and a pair that could be repaired rather than replaced was valuable.

It would be wrong to suggest that every pair of shoes made in the 1950s lasted longer than the shoes we buy today. Quality varied, just as it does now. But there was a different attitude towards footwear. A well-made pair of leather shoes was often regarded as something worth maintaining, and the local shoe repairer was an important part of everyday life in many communities.

In that sense, the story of a pair of shoes did not necessarily end when it left the factory. After passing through the hands of the workers who made it, it might spend years being worn, polished, repaired and eventually passed down or replaced only when it could no longer be economically repaired.

For the people who spent their working lives on those factory floors, the daily routine could become as familiar as the streets outside.

Leicester's Shoe-Making Tradition

Leicester, along with Northampton, had become an important centre for footwear manufacturing during the nineteenth century, as the town's expanding industrial economy provided the workforce, factories and transport links needed to support large-scale production.

By the early twentieth century, shoe and boot manufacturing was an important source of employment.

Factories could be found among the densely populated working-class neighbourhoods that surrounded the industrial parts of the city. For families living nearby, work was often within walking distance.

A young person leaving school might have found employment in a shoe factory simply because someone they knew already worked there.

The factory could be a family affair.

A father might work there. An older sister might have started a few years earlier. A brother might follow. Friends from the same street could end up working alongside one another.

In an age when changing jobs was not necessarily as straightforward as it is today, finding a position in a local factory could provide a valuable source of regular income.

Starting Work at the Factory

For someone starting work in a shoe factory, the first day could be daunting.

The building itself was likely to be busy and noisy, with machinery running, workers moving between different parts of the production process and supervisors keeping an eye on the work.

There was little of the quiet, individual working environment that many people associate with office jobs today.

Instead, the factory floor was a shared environment.

You learned by watching.

You learned from the person working beside you.

And you learned very quickly that there was a particular way things were expected to be done, you quickly learnt that you worked hard for your day's pay.

Some jobs required considerable skill. Others involved repetitive tasks carried out thousands of times over the course of a working week.

The fact that a particular operation might appear simple did not necessarily mean that it was easy. Speed, accuracy and consistency mattered.

A small mistake could affect the next stage of production.

The Sound of a Shoe Factory

One of the strongest memories of factory life was likely to have been the noise.

A busy shoe factory was not a quiet place.

Machinery operated throughout the working day, creating a constant background of mechanical sounds. Cutting, stitching, pressing and other processes each produced their own noises, while hundreds of workers talking over the machinery added to the atmosphere.

After several hours, the noise could become something workers barely noticed.

Someone arriving from outside, however, would immediately hear the difference.

The smell was another part of factory life.

Leather, adhesives, rubber, polish and other materials could combine to create a distinctive industrial smell that clung to the workplace and, quite possibly, to workers' clothes.

For somebody who spent years inside the same factory, these smells and sounds could become part of everyday life.

Decades later, they could be enough to bring the memories back.

Working Hours and the Factory Routine

The working week in the first half of the twentieth century was considerably longer than the working week most people are accustomed to today.

It is sometimes assumed that factory working hours were completely unregulated until the 1930s, but there had already been legislation governing working conditions and the hours of women and young people for many years. The Factories Act of 1937, however, represented an important step forward. For women and young people, it established a maximum of 48 hours of work a week and nine hours in a day, excluding meal and rest intervals. The legislation also placed restrictions on overtime and the hours during which they could be employed.

By the 1950s, a 48-hour working week was a familiar pattern across much of British industry. A typical arrangement could mean around nine hours a day from Monday to Friday, followed by a Saturday morning or half-day. The exact hours varied between factories and trades, but the idea of finishing work around lunchtime on Saturday was becoming an established part of working life.

For somebody accustomed to a modern working week, the routine sounds demanding. The factory clock dictated the day. Workers had to arrive on time, change or prepare for their work and be at their machines when production began.

Breaks were also very different from the informal arrangements many workers might expect today. Under the 1937 legislation, women and young people could not normally be employed continuously for more than four and a half hours without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal or rest. In practice, factories had their own arrangements for meal and rest periods, with workers often having a substantial break during the working day.

A typical day could therefore involve several hours at the machines, a break for food and rest, and then several more hours before the factory finally closed for the day.

And then there was Saturday.

The Saturday half-day was an important part of the working week. Finishing around lunchtime meant that the afternoon was free for shopping, household jobs, visiting relatives, watching sport or simply enjoying some time away from the factory. For working families, those few hours could make Saturday feel very different from the other days of the week.

What About Holidays?

Annual holidays were another area where life was very different from today. There was no modern statutory entitlement to several weeks of paid leave. The amount of holiday a worker received depended heavily on their occupation, employer, trade agreements and, increasingly, arrangements made through wages councils.

The 1937 legislation did provide certain whole holidays for women and young people, including Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays in England, but this was a long way from today's expectation of several weeks of paid annual leave.

By the 1950s, however, paid holidays were becoming a much more established part of industrial life. The length of the holiday could depend upon the particular industry and the worker's circumstances, with agreements gradually improving the amount of time people could take away from work.

The Leicester Daily Mercury reported on 11 December 1950 that Leicester's boot and shoe factories were closing for a five-day holiday over Christmas, giving workers a rare extended break from the factory floor.*The Leicester Daily Mercury - December 11th 1950

Perhaps your relatives were amongst those that enjoyed this extended break?

For a worker who spent most of the year working close to 48 hours a week, such periods away from the machinery were precious.

Holidays were not simply about travelling abroad or booking an expensive resort. A family might spend the week at the seaside if work and finances allowed, visit relatives, take a day trip by train or simply enjoy being at home without having to get up and go to work.

The working week was therefore beginning to change by the 1950s, but it was still a world of long hours, early starts and relatively limited time away from the factory. The idea that work should leave plenty of time for leisure was still a relatively new concept.

Being late mattered.

The factory did not wait.

Workers had to arrive, get to their workplace and be ready to begin.

The working day was broken up by scheduled breaks and a meal period, but for much of the time the machinery continued and production continued.

There was a rhythm to it.

The same journey to work.
The same factory entrance.
The same faces.
The same machines.
The same clock.
Day after day.

For somebody who stayed in the industry for many years, the routine could become deeply familiar. For many, the skills needed meant they would stay in the same industry throughout their working lives.

The Women of the Shoe Factories

Women played an important role in the British footwear industry.

Factory work could provide women with a regular wage and was particularly significant in industrial towns where manufacturing employment was widespread.

Certain jobs within the footwear industry became associated with female workers, although the exact division of work varied between factories.

For some women, factory employment began when they left school.

Others entered the industry later.

A woman might spend years working alongside the same group of colleagues, forming friendships that extended beyond the factory gates.

The workplace could therefore be more than simply somewhere to earn a wage.

It was also where people met friends, shared gossip, celebrated good news and discussed what was happening in their families and neighbourhoods.

Leaving School and Starting Work

For many young people growing up in Leicester in the 1950s, the transition from school to working life happened remarkably early by today's standards.

The 1944 Education Act had raised the school-leaving age to 15, and from 1947 children were generally required to remain at school until that age. For a fifteen-year-old in post-war Leicester, leaving school could therefore mean entering the world of work almost immediately.

For many working-class families, getting a job was an important milestone. The weekly wage was welcomed into the household, and there was often a strong expectation that young people would begin earning rather than remain in education.

A teenager might therefore find themselves walking through the doors of a Leicester shoe factory at fifteen, surrounded by adults who had already spent years working there.

The difference between school and factory life must have been considerable. One week you were sitting in a classroom; the next you were expected to arrive on time, follow instructions, learn a particular job and spend hours working alongside experienced adults.

If the job suited them, there was every possibility that the young worker would remain in the industry for decades. A fifteen-year-old starting in the 1950s could potentially spend the next forty or fifty years working in factories, perhaps eventually becoming one of the long-service employees who remembered the workplace from an entirely different era.

When Did People Retire?

Retirement was also very different from the world we know today. The state pension age was generally 65 for men and 60 for women, although reaching pension age did not necessarily mean that everybody stopped work immediately.

Some workers continued beyond pension age if they were fit enough and wanted or needed to keep earning. Others left work earlier because of ill health, redundancy or the physical demands of their occupation.

For somebody who had entered a shoe factory at fifteen, reaching sixty or sixty-five could therefore represent an extraordinary length of working life. They might have spent half a century hearing the same machinery, performing familiar jobs and working alongside several generations of colleagues.

Imagine the changes such a worker could have witnessed. They might have started when much of the work still relied heavily on traditional skills and machinery, lived through the Second World War and post-war austerity, seen new technology enter the factories and eventually watched the industry begin to decline.

By the time they finally walked through the factory gates for the last time, the Leicester they had entered as a teenager could have changed almost beyond recognition.

The Importance of the Pay Packet

For working-class families, the weekly wage was enormously important.

There were no modern credit cards, online shopping accounts or widespread consumer finance as we know them today.

A wage packet represented the money available to keep the household running.

It helped pay the rent, buy food, heat the home and provide clothing for the family.

For many households, more than one family member worked.

A husband and wife might both have wages coming into the home. Older childrenwere expected to start contributing once they left school.

This meant that a factory's fortunes could affect an entire neighbourhood.

When work was plentiful, families had a degree of security.

When orders fell and factories reduced hours or employment, the effects could quickly be felt beyond the factory gates.

What Happened If You Couldn't Work?

The weekly wage was important for another reason: for many working families, there was very little room for financial problems.

By the 1950s, the National Insurance system provided some protection for workers who became sick and were unable to work. An insured worker could receive sickness benefit, but it was intended as basic support rather than a replacement for a normal wage. Being off work could therefore still mean a significant reduction in the money coming into the household.

For a family already carefully budgeting the weekly wage, a prolonged illness could be extremely difficult. There were still rent, food, coal, electricity and other household expenses to pay, whether the wage packet was full or not.

And the rent was particularly important. There was no modern system of Housing Benefit to automatically help a low-income family meet its rent. If you rented your home privately and fell seriously behind with the payments, you could ultimately lose your tenancy.

This helps explain why having a regular job mattered so much. A job at the shoe factory wasn't simply a way of earning spending money. It helped keep the family housed and fed.

It also explains why redundancy or a prolonged period without work could be frightening. Leicester's footwear industry could provide employment on a huge scale, but employment was not always guaranteed. During difficult periods, factories could reduce working hours or workers could find themselves unemployed. In the early 1950s, for example, unemployment in Leicester's boot and shoe and hosiery industries rose sharply, with some factory workers being put onto reduced hours as available work was shared among employees.

For families living close to the edge of their weekly budget, even a reduction in working hours could be felt immediately.

The security of the weekly wage therefore had a significance that can be easy to overlook today. When you walked through the factory gates each morning, you weren't just going to work. You were earning the money that paid for the roof over your family's head.

Lunch Break on the Factory Floor

The lunch break was one of the opportunities to step away from the machinery.

Workers brought food from home or bought something nearby, depending on the factory and the circumstances.

There was no expectation of spending an hour scrolling through a phone because there was no phone to scroll through.

Instead, people talked.

They discussed the morning's work, family problems, football, television, holidays, neighbours, the dances they may go to and whatever news had travelled around the factory.

The people working beside you often knew what was happening in your life.

After years together, colleagues could become almost like an extended family.

Factory Life Wasn't Easy

It is easy to look back at the 1950s through a nostalgic lens.

The memories can be warm.

The friendships were strong.

People knew their neighbours.

Families often stayed in the same communities for generations.

But factory work could also be physically demanding.

Standing for long periods, repetitive movements, machinery, noise and industrial materials were all part of working life.

Some jobs required considerable concentration and manual dexterity.

Others were monotonous.

The working environment could be hot, noisy and tiring.

Health and safety standards were also very different from those expected today. Workers had considerably fewer protections than modern employees take for granted, and attitudes towards workplace risks changed considerably over the course of the twentieth century.

For many workers, the job was simply something that had to be done.

There were bills to pay and families to support.

When the Factory Became Part of the Community

Perhaps one of the most important things about industries such as footwear was how closely they were connected to the communities around them.

A factory wasn't necessarily an isolated building on an industrial estate.

It could be surrounded by streets of terraced houses where many of its workers lived.

The people you passed on the way to work might be your neighbours.

The person working beside you might live two doors away.

You could see colleagues in the shops, at the pub, at the football ground or walking home at the end of the day.

Work and community were closely intertwined.

When a factory employed hundreds of people, its presence could shape an entire neighbourhood.

From Apprentices to Long-Service Workers

Not everybody stayed in the industry for decades, but some did.

A worker might enter the factory as a teenager and still be there twenty, thirty or even forty years later.

They would see enormous changes during that time.

Machinery would change.

Production methods would change.

Fashion would change.

The buildings might change.

But some colleagues could remain the same.

Long-service workers became repositories of knowledge.

They knew how particular machines behaved, which jobs were difficult and which workers could be relied upon when something went wrong.

They had memories of earlier generations of workers and could remember how the factory had changed.

The 1950s: A Changing World

The 1950s were a period of transition.

The austerity of the post-war years was gradually giving way to rising living standards and a new consumer culture. For many working families, the 1950s brought the prospect of having things that had previously been difficult to afford - new furniture, household appliances, a television, better clothing and perhaps a family holiday.

Living conditions were changing too. As we have already seen in our article Life in Leicester's Slums, many of the Victorian houses and crowded courts in areas such as Wharf Street, Stanley Street and Liggins Street were being cleared as part of Leicester's slum-clearance programmes.

Families who had spent years living in cramped terraced houses could find themselves rehoused on newer estates, with more space, gardens, indoor bathrooms and access to open green spaces. For many, moving out of the old courts and into a modern council house represented a dramatic improvement in everyday life.

The change was about more than bricks and mortar. A generation that had grown up with shared yards, outdoor toilets and overcrowded housing was beginning to experience a very different standard of living. The same people who walked to the shoe factories each morning could now return home to a house with its own garden and considerably more space for the family.

Television was becoming increasingly common. Cars were becoming more accessible. People were beginning to think about holidays, new household appliances and the possibilities of a more prosperous future.

The change between the post-war years and the early 50s to the swinging 60s was huge.

But inside many factories however, working life still retained much of the character it had possessed for generations.

The production line remained.

The clock remained.

The weekly wage remained.

And for many people, the expectation remained that you went to work, did your job and came home.

What Happened to Leicester's Shoe Industry?

The British footwear industry would face increasing challenges in the decades that followed.

Competition from overseas manufacturers, changing consumer habits, rising costs and changes in manufacturing would gradually transform the industry.

Factories that had once provided employment for generations would eventually close or reduce their workforce.

The industrial landscape of Leicester changed with them.

The clearance of the old housing also changed the surroundings in which many of these factories had operated. As streets of Victorian terraces and crowded courts disappeared, so too did some of the small factories, workshops and industrial buildings that had stood alongside them. Other factories survived for longer, but their relationship with the surrounding neighbourhood was changing.

The old streets had once placed home and workplace almost side by side. A worker could live in a crowded court, walk a few streets and arrive at the factory where he or she worked. As the old neighbourhoods were cleared and families moved out to new estates on the edges of the city, that close connection between the home and the factory began to disappear.

Buildings disappeared.

Factories were demolished, converted or eventually closed.

The machinery fell silent.

And the last generation that had spent its working life making Britain's shoes grew older and retired or moved on.

And gradually, the Leicester that had been built around the shoe trade began to disappear too.

Remembering the People Behind the Shoes

When we think about industrial history, it is easy to concentrate on factories, companies, machinery and production figures.

But behind every pair of shoes was a person.

Someone cut the material.

Someone stitched it.

Someone operated the machinery.

Someone checked the finished product.

Someone packed the box.

And someone took home a wage at the end of the week.

A huge amount of work went into the production of a quality pair of shoes.

For thousands of people in Leicester and other industrial towns, shoe-making was simply part of everyday life.

It was where they spent their working days, where they made friendships and where they earned the money that supported their families.

The factory might eventually disappear, but the memories of the people who worked there are part of the history that remains.