In the Victorian era, tanning and leatherwork in Britain underwent great changes, becoming hugely industrialised. Small, local artisan run tanneries and leatherworking were replaced by centralised factories that came to dominate whole areas of cities around the country. The coming of the railways allowed the leather trade – and many others of course – to grow exponentially. Raw materials and finished goods could be shipped around the country, and the world, as the result of the growth of the integrated transport system.
In big cities such as London, whole swathes of the city by the Victorian era had become grim, stinking industrial hovels. By the mid nineteenth century, Bermondsey, down by the Thames, had become a slum area filled with the stink of local factories. Shipbuilding, engineering, food processing and rope making took place here, but the worst of these industries in terms of pollution were the tanneries. Bermondsey had developed originally due to the establishment of tanneries in the fifteenth century and had become London’s main area for leatherworking. By the 1790s, Bermondsey was responsible for a third of the country’s leather production and became known as ‘The Land of Leather’. Even the local church, St Crispin’s, was dedicated to the patron saint of leather and shoes. By the Victorian era there was an explosion in production in the leatherworking industry, with the need for leather parts for machines in factories. Bermondsey now housed Europe’s largest leather industry.
It was a perfect place for tanning and leatherworking, as it was on the river, so there was an endless supply of the water which was needed for the tanning process. In the beginning, rural Bermondsey had herds of cattle and many oak trees for bark. There was more space than in the city and this meant there was room for the industry to expand.
By the Victorian era, cheap labour could be found nearby, as the area was very poor and people lived in filthy slum housing. Coal porters, labourers, sailors and costermongers lived in Bermondsey as well as the factory workers.
People slept four and five to a room, and sometimes more, in cramped, insanitary conditions. There could be as few as one water standpipe for twenty-five houses, which were completely without sanitation. Combine those conditions with the stench of the tanneries and factories, and it must have been like living in hell itself. In 1832 a Reform Bill had made Bermondsey a part of the borough of Southwark. The population of the borough swelled from 27,465 in 1851 to 136,660 by 1891. Tenement blocks were raised to house the workers, but these were dark, unsanitary places where disease and poverty were rife. Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist immortalised Jacob’s Island, a slum area of Bermondsey. Conditions in the factories themselves were often poor; they were badly ventilated, stinking, crowded and dirty. Dickens described Bermondsey Leather Market itself in his Dictionary of London, 1879:
‘This great leather, or rather hide market, lies in Weston-street, ten minutes’ walk from the Surrey side of London-bridge. The neighbourhood in which it stands is devoted entirely to thinners and tanners, and the air reeks with evil smells. The population is peculiar, and it is a sight at twelve o’clock to see the men pouring out from all the works. Their clothes are marked with many stains; their trousers are discoloured by tan; some have apron and gaiters of raw hide; and about them all seems to hang a scent of blood. The market itself stands in the centre of a quiet block of buildings on the left-hand side of Weston-street, the entry being through a gateway. Through this a hundred yards down, a square is reached. Most of it is roofed, but there is an open space lathe centre. Under the roofing are huge piles of fresh hides and sheep-skins. There is no noise or bustle, and but few people about. There are no retail purchasers, the sales being almost entirely made to the great tanners in the neighbourhood. The warehouses round are all full of tanned hides; the yards behind the high walls are all tanneries, with their tens of thousands of hides soaking in the pits. Any visitor going down to look at the Bermondsey hide-market should, if possible, procure beforehand an order to visit one of the great tanning establishments. Unless this be done the visit to the market itself will hardly repay the trouble of the journey, or make up for the unpleasantness of the compound of horrible smells which pervade the whole neighbourhood.’
Dickens’s Dictionary of London, 1879
Animals were slaughtered, flayed and their skins processed in the area around Weston Street, at the Leather Market, close to London Bridge. The smell of blood, faeces, ash, lime and urine filled the air. Henry Mayhew, the great chronicler of the lives of those living in poverty in London walked the streets of Bermondsey in the 1850s. He was struck by the foul atmosphere around the tanneries:
‘On every side are seen announcements of the carrying on of the leather trade; the peculiar smell of raw hides and skins, and of tan pits, pervades the atmosphere, and the monotonous click of the steam engines used in grinding bark assails the ear.’
There were many tanneries in Bermondsey in the Victorian leather manufacturing boom-era. Tens of thousands of skins were soaked in great pits as part of the tanning that took place there. John and Thomas Hepburn had a tannery, established in the eighteenth century, on Long Lane, where it stood along with an astonishing ten other tanneries. From 1865 James Garnar ran a tannery at The Grange. In 1806 the Bevington Brothers began a tanning operation at Neckinger Mills which was a former paper mill. The water from the Neckinger tidal stream had powered the papermill and was now used to create leather. The Bevingtons drove innovation at their factory, patenting a machine of their own to split hides, furs and leather during production. The operation moved only out of Bermondsey to Leicester in the 1970s.
Trades related to the leather from the tanneries also flourished in Bermondsey. Fellmongers, parchment makers, curriers, hat makers (using the by-products of hair and wool) were all established in the area. By-products such as horns were used to make combs, spoons, handles and musical instruments. Hooves were used to make glue – so little of the animal remains was wasted. There was even work for ‘pure collectors’ – a euphemistic name for the poorest in society who collected dog faeces to sell to tanners for use in the leather making process. Pigeon droppings were also bought by tanneries for processing skins. An advertisement in The Scotsman newspaper in 1872 was offering £4 per ton!
The waste was used for bating and puering the skins. After the hides were scraped clean of flesh and fat, and soaked in lime pits to relax and open the pores ready to de-hair them, they were soaked in solutions containing droppings. This also de-limed the skins. The largest skins, such as cow hides, were bated by soaking them in cold water and pigeon dung for around ten days. Smaller skins were soaked in a solution of warm water and dog faeces in a process called puering – no doubt, where the strange name of ‘pure’ collectors came from, in a job that would be anything but!
The bater or puerer was a skilled worker who had to judge the concentration of the solutions carefully – too concentrated and the skins would be damaged; too weak, and the process would not be effective. It is incredible to think that this process only died out as a common practice in factories when pancreol bates were introduced in the 1920s. Thinking about the ingredients used in the tanning process might make that Victorian leather case seem a little less elegant, perhaps.
After this process was completed, the hides would be scudded. This means they were worked over a beam with a semi-circular knife, or later, worked by a scudding machine. The descriptively and somewhat repulsively named ‘scud’ which was removed was made up of fats, salts, lime, gelatine and hair follicles.
After scudding the hides were beaten to soften them and then they would go into the tanning pits. The skins would be lifted into pits filled with a solution of oak bark and water and would be moved from time to time by men with tongs. It was back-breaking work, as the saturated hides were very heavy. The movement helped to make sure that the hides were soaked evenly. The hides were steeped in a weak solution first, for between four and six months and then they were removed and put into a stronger solution. Then the hides would be layered with oak bark and stacked in deep pits filled with a strong tanning solution. These remained in place for around four months for a light hide, with longer for heavier skins. Ox-hides were thick and heavy and could take a year and the heaviest hides could take up to two years. Tanneries generally had their own bark mills where the bark was processed by grinding it into a powder. This dust was dangerous and unpleasant if it was inhaled and it was highly flammable.
The tanning pits were around 6ft deep. Before machinery was introduced, pumpers and water bearers would empty and fill the pits. Steam power made these workers redundant, as the tanks were fitted with waste pipes and hose supplies to fill and empty the liquid.
An article in The Scotsman newspaper, written in the 1860s, describes innovations in tanning being developed at the time in Gorgie Mills, near Edinburgh. The proprietors, J. and G. Cox were experimenting with machinery to mechanise the arduous and costly tanning process. They developed a system for attaching hides to a drum and suspending them thus in a tanning solution. The skins were also pressed on the drum. The article credits the same gentlemen with the innovation of creating tanning bags – however, this was a re-introduction of an old lost technique rather than an invention, strictly speaking, as this was an ancient practice. After the puering process had taken place, small skins were sewn into bag-like shapes and any holes sewn shut. The skins were then filled with tanning liquor via a leg hole and were sealed. The idea was that the pressure would force the tanning solution into the pores of the skin. The skin ‘bottles’ were dropped into a weak tanning solution for a day and stirred with wooden poles. They were lifted out at night and left to drain. The bags were released and filled daily for three to four days to aid the tanning process. At the end of the period they were cut open and drained, leaving behind leather that had been tanned using a quick, if labour-intense process. Another innovator, listed in the article as Mr Boak, was credited as the inventor of a wheel that kept hides moving in a tanning trough to soak it more efficiently in the tanning liquor.
After tanning, the skins were shaved to obtain a uniform thickness in the hides. The shaving was carried out over a flat beam with a special ‘T’-shaped knife, and the shavers measured the thickness by its feel. Larger tanneries introduced splitting machines that cut thick hide into layers in the 1860s, and shaving machines in the 1890s. The machines were not as accurate as hand shaving and still needed skilled operatives to finish the work.
After the skins were tanned and shaved, they would be curried to finish the surface. Until the 1820s, the currying had to be carried out in separate premises, due to the separation by law of tanning and currying. Currying was still done by hand. When the hides arrived, they would be weighed, graded and examined, and selected for a purpose such as making harness leather, shoe leather etc. According to its purpose, the hide would be trimmed or rounded. Hides being dressed for harness, for example, would have the softer, stretchier belly parts trimmed away as they would not be strong enough, even after processing, for harness leather, which needed to be robust and durable.
After the skins had been shaved and soaked, they were scoured. This smoothed and flattened the skins. Warm water, smooth stones, glass pebbles, wooden slickers and brushes were used to stretch out the skins to make a flat smooth surface. Both the grain and flesh sides were smoothed in this way. By the 1860s, scouring machines were beginning to be introduced in tanneries. Again, these early machines could not achieve the same fine results as hand scoured leather.
After scouring, the hides were soaked again, but this time for a couple of days, in a weak tanning solution to brighten the grain and replace tans lost by scouring. Then the skins would be rubbed with dubbin, a mixture of tannin and fish oil. This was brushed onto the hides which were then hung in sheds to dry. As the water evaporated, the oils would sink further into the grain of the hide. Once dried, it would be rubbed again with a slicker to remove excess fats. Currying was heavy, labour intensive work, but it was skilled and well paid.
Leather was also dyed using vegetable dyes. Logwood from the Caribbean dyed leather a spectrum of yellow through to red depending on the strength of the solution used. Brazilwood gave a reddish-brown hue; indigo offered shades of blue and cochineal beetles gave a carmine red. Shades could be played with by adding mordants to the process, such as metal salts – iron, aluminium, tin and copper. Leather was dyed in great trays. In the 1850s, leather dyeing was revolutionised by the introduction of synthetic dyes, such as mauveine, processed using coal tar.
Fine leather was also sometimes decorated by being taken to a ‘japanning’ shop, where it was put through a process called ‘japanning’. It was stretched out and nailed onto a board and enamelling was applied. Sometimes as many as eight coats would be added, with each coat needing to be dried before the next was applied. The piece would then be dried in great ovens. ‘Japanning’ created a shiny black patent leather surface.
The Victorian leather market buildings can still be seen in Bermondsey today. Hepburn and Gale’s tannery finally closed its doors in 2007, and aptly named Leathermarket Street is still home to the Leather, Hide and Wool Exchange, built in 1879. This has now converted into accommodation and work space.
Leather was needed for a great many products in the Victorian era. Henry Mayhew, writing in 1850, identified boot and shoe makers as the largest class of artisans, or as he called them ‘handicraftsmen’, working in Britain at the time. There were 214,780, with 28,574 working in London alone.
Victorian shoemakers used many tools that would be recognised – and used by – leatherworkers today. They used marking wheels, stretching pliers, awls, burnishers and knives to create shoes and boots. Interestingly, as late as 1850, there were no special measures taken to create right and left shoes. All shoes were made on a straight last, which would make the ‘breaking in’ of new shoes incredibly uncomfortable! The foot itself would have to mould the leather into shape, no doubt warping the foot in the process. Shoes were, however made in two widths. Shoe makers made ‘slim’ shoes straight onto the last; wider shoes were made by adding a pad to the last before the shoe was made.
Strictly speaking, shoe makers in the Victorian era were still known as cordwainers, a term that had existed since the 1100s. A cordwainer, historically, was a person that made new shoes, as distinct from a cobbler, who repaired shoes and used second hand leather. Under the historic guild system, the two professions were separate, and cobblers were forbidden to use new leather and hides. In turn, cordwainers were forbidden to repair shoes.
Artisan shoemakers who made whole shoes from start to finish would often collect materials from the ‘manufacturer’ and create the shoes in a home workshop. Wives and children would assist in the production of the shoes which, when complete, would be taken back to the manufacturer for payment. These shoe makers could decide their own hours, and work largely autonomously. They were literate, and kept their own records for business purposes, many of which still exist as documents today. Many were granted freemen status and were esteemed members of society.
From the 1850s onwards, mechanisation transformed the craft of shoe making. This threatened the livelihood of artisanal shoe makers. Steam-powered machines could do the stitching previously done by hand, making mass production possible. These independent businessmen protested widely at the idea of working in factories and being controlled by centralised rules and regulations.
In Northampton, a shoe making centre, the protests were vociferous. In 1857, the first shoemaking machines were installed in a large factory by Mr M.P. Mansfield. The local newspaper, the Northampton Mercury, carried a report of a meeting held by angry shoemakers. They voiced their fears about mechanisation and how it would affect their livelihoods, but the factory owner was unmoved. In spring 1858, The Northampton Boot and Shoe Makers Mutual Protection Society was formed, to protect the rights of the artisans and to oppose widespread mechanisation. The group made links with shoemakers in other areas, such as Stafford, where a similar battle was taking place. The society instituted a strike fund, preparing for the fight to come.
In early spring 1859, manufacturers announced plans to introduce more machines – this time, machines that would close shoe uppers – formerly, a skilled task. They claimed that without mechanisation, the Northampton shoe industry would fall behind other areas in the country which had already begun to rely on machinery. The society responded by calling strike action, but was unsuccessful. Shoemakers did not answer the call, feeling that their jobs were not threatened. They were wrong.
In 1859, Isaac, Campbell and Company opened a factory in the town. It required all shoemakers that were employed by them to work inside the factory instead of in their own homes. This would enable them to work more efficiently, the factory owners argued, as well as make use of the machines. The company tried to entice workers by reassuring them that women would have separate workshops, with female supervisors, and that married women would still be able to work from home to fulfil their domestic obligations. They insisted that they did not want to enforce a ‘factory system’, but just wanted to streamline production. There were to be fixed hours and wages, however, thus destroying the autonomy the shoe makers previously enjoyed. Whilst the company closed, another owner, Turner Brothers, stepped in, in 1861. By 1864 there would be an incredible 1,500 closing machines in Northampton, decimating the work previously carried out by artisan cordwainers. By 1865 the Turner Brothers’ factory was producing a staggering 100,000 pairs of shoes every week. Although there were still home workers making shoes by hand, mechanisation had won and the factories now ruled the industry.
In the mid-1850s Thomas Crick introduced machines in the shoe making industry in Leicester that would revolutionise production. He used steam-powered rolling machines for hardening leather and cutting machines. In 1853 he introduced a riveting machine, that joined the sole to the upper without sewing. This made shoe production even cheaper, but at first retailers were sceptical about the quality of such shoes.
In 1858, the Blake sole sewing machine was invented. This machine attached the inner sole to the outer sole. It was introduced in Leicester by Stead and Simpson, a manufacturer still in business today. This company had begun as curriers and dealers of leather in 1834 and then developed into the shoemaking industry.
In the period 1851 to 1861 the number of people employed in the shoe making industry fell, from 274,000 to 250,000. Whilst this was not the catastrophic fall predicted by those against mechanisation, it was still significant. Many shoes were still being made by workers based at home, despite efforts to gather them together in factories. A class of workers called ‘sewers to the trade’ were employed from home to sew the uppers of shoes to the soles with waxed thread.
In 1872 Goodyear sewing machines were introduced to England. These were said to be an astonishing fifty-two times faster than hand stitching, using an awl and thread. Goodyear also introduced a chain stitching machine and claimed that these machines could be used to produce boots equal to hand made quality. Production times were falling, but quality was maintained. This was a revolution in terms of profitability and fortunes were made.
In the 1880s, the introduction of factory made shoes brought about more standardization in sizes and widths, so technically shoes became more comfortable. Shoes finally began to be made specifically for the right and left foot. Different types of shoes for different purposes were developed. Sports and sporting activities, such as walking and hiking, became popular and shoes were created specifically for the activity. Boots became a necessity in the active Victorian’s wardrobe.
Whilst the wealthy continued to buy handmade shoes, the poorer masses could now buy cheaper shoes made in factories and sold in retail shops where the shoes were not made by the shop keeper. This was a massive change, and whilst it may have made shoes more affordable, it also reduced the piecework labour market for the poor.
Working class families joined ‘shoe and boot clubs’ where they paid pennies a week and bought shoes regularly, spreading the cost. Shoes would also be handed down as children grew out of them. Shoes often needed repair and there were cobblers to carry out this work. The very poorest people wore second and third hand shoes and clothes, and roughly made items known as ‘slops’.
Bridles, saddles and harness were made in huge quantities in the Victorian era, as horses were the primary form of transport. The modern English saddle had begun to be developed in the eighteenth century – first as a response to the rise of fox hunting which required a new type of riding, with hunters needing to be able to jump hedges, ditches, fences and more. Walsall has been the centre of bridle hide and saddlery production for centuries. In Victorian times, horses were the mainstay of transport and the bridle makers of Walsall, mainly based in small workshops and yards did a roaring trade. By 1851, there were seventy-five firms making bridles, saddles and harness, and these goods could be transported around the country – and the world – via the newly built South Staffordshire Railway. By the end of the century, more than 6,000 people were part of the industry, producing equestrian items for the populace as well as in the tens of thousands for the soldiers involved in the Boer Wars.
The leather created was special as the cowhide was treated with a variety of natural greases, tallow (rendered beef or mutton fat) and waxes. It was hard wearing, flexible and water resistant. That made it perfect for saddlery that had to stand up to hard use in all weather conditions. The hides were given to a currier who treated them with a mixture made from oils and fats into the leather over a period of time. This made the leather durable and flexible and able to stand up to the punishment it got once made up into a working saddle.
In the twentieth century, as horses were replaced by cars and vehicles, the bridle industry went into decline. Some producers adapted and turned to making upholstery leather for the automobile industry, but many went out of business. Today, there is also competition from overseas with the importation of large quantities of cheaply produced saddlery from Asia and the Far East, but high end bespoke goods are still made and highly prized around the world.