2. Local Occupations & Occasions

[algy]

Many of these photograph’s may be available

from the Warrington Museum/Library and will

be of far superior quality to those viewed here.

Anyone having any issue with the displaying

of these photographs due to copyright or

ownership infringement please contact me either by PM.

or through the Moderators and I shall

remove them immediately.

 

1914. Warrington's first motorised fire engine in action at a fire in T M West's Arpley Corn Mill.

 

1913. Warrington's first motorised fire engine.

 

1911. Greening's Wireworks Steam Locomive.

 

1930. LNWR side tank loco shunting at Robinson's Mersey Glassworks sidings

 

Mr Douglas Gandy at the door of his clog making and repair shop on the corner of Rose & Crown Street and Mersey Street.

Gandy – an old established shoemaking family

Throughout the 19th century, census, church and other records for the Warrington area contain

a wealth of evidence for the Gandy’s involvement in the shoe-making trade and other trades

with links to footwear, such as hosiery. For example John Gandy was a hosier in The Market

Place and Golden Square in Warrington in the 1820`s while Mrs Mary Gandy served the

nobility, gentry and clergy in Church Street and Horsemarket Street. (Information provided by

Sue Kinsella from trade directories).

The connection between the Gandy family and shoes is even older. I have found Gandys who

were shoemakers in the 18th century, such as William Gandy of Prescot, who married Sarah

Lingham in 1767 and John Gandy, also shoemaker of Prescot, who married Jane Whittle in

1768. Thomas Gandy, cloger, married Mary Houghton in 1826. James Gandy shoemaker

married Ann Smethurst in 1761. Thos Gandy shoemaker married Ann Mason in 1768. Joseph

Gandy shoemaker married Betty Wright in 1769. James Gandy shoemaker and wife Ann –

christened son James in 1779 and daughter Lydia in 1782. Joseph Gandy, John Gandy,

Thomas, James shoemakers carried on 1785, 1787, 1788, 1790,1795, 1796, - 1808.

Warrington volunteers raised in 1798 to help meet the threat of invasion from Napoleonic

France. 539 men serving in 1807, including James Gandey, Warrington, shoemaker.

Another speciality of the Gandy cobblers was clogs:

“When you talk of clogs in Warrington, people immediately think of the Gandy’s. And when

you mention that name to-day you are referring to 70-year-old Mr. John Gandy, in

Buttermarket Street, and his cousin Mr. Douglas Gandy, of Mersey Street — only remaining

cloggers in Warrington, and the last of a line of cloggers who began a family business in

1818.” Mr. Douglas Gandy took over his business from his father Mr. William Gandy, who

founded it in 1871.

The main product of the Gandy cloggers were a hand-made wooden clogs, a Lancashire

version of the wooden sabot which came to England with Flemish weavers. The clog was

used in the tan-yards, factories laundries, breweries and works in the town.

“The tiny shop and workrooms at the corner of Mersey Street and Rose and Crown Street date

back to around 1850, and over the years tens of thousands of hand-made clogs of all shapes

and sizes have been assembled there. These were once sold all over the north to factory and

textile workers, and in recent times have been exported to America, Jamaica and other

countries.

Clog shop in Museum Street. Plans to preserve Warrington’s last remaining clogmaker’s shop - Douglas Gandy - revealed

in Warrington Guardian 23rd of January 1970).

---------------------------------------------

 

Joseph Crosfield's. Blacksmith's Striker's waiting for the Blacksmith's instructions.

 

Sankey Bridges, Houghton's (British Ropes Co. Ltd.) Wire Works, Wire Drawers.

 

Sankey Bridges, Houghton's Wire Works, Engineering Dept staff.

 

Sankey Bridges, a member of the Engineering Dept taking a well earned rest. (probably a posed photo).

 

Stranges bread van, this photo was taken before the 1914-18 war, the driver William Bridge was killed in the war.

[Cleopatra]

I remember times when I walked past Gandy's on Mersey Street and he would be sat carving out a wooden sole, or, attaching the leather uppe to one. And in the window was the tiniest pair of clogs you could ever see.

[Cleopatra]

Sankey Bridges 2nd picture - so that is what Stan Laurel (front row right) did for a living before he went into films!

[Tracey Bennett]

I wonder what happened to the plans to preserve the shop? Seems par for the course in Warrington though ....

[algy]

I wonder what happened to the plans to preserve the shop? Seems par for the course in Warrington though ....

Exactly why I highlighted in red to see if anyone had any knowledge of why it didn't happen, knowing the town planners of the day the shop was probably demolished and the rubble cleared before the museum team got anywhere near it. :grin:

[RingoDave]

Such a shame especially as clog-makers are national figures these days.

[asperity]

There was (and maybe still is) Gandy's Belt Works in Wallasey, making drive belts for machinery. Same family perhaps? :unsure:

[algy]

There was (and maybe still is) Gandy's Belt Works in Wallasey, making drive belts for machinery. Same family perhaps? :unsure:

Not sure about that Asp, what I can tell you is that Gandy's Belt manufactureres are more likely to have come across from Northern Ireland, the following is an extract from Kellys Directory of Leather Trades in Ireland 1915;

Gandy Belt Manufacturing Co Limited, 48 Upper Church Lane, Belfast, Antrim.

I suppose the connection could be in the leather trade.

[wirerob1]

I,ve been looking for the picture of Gandy's clog shop on Mersey Street as I am a relative of him, and my grandmother gave permission to the museum to remove the shops tools and contents prior to demolition. I also still have a pair of his clogs made for me as a toddler in the late 60's.

 

Cheers for sharing this picture

 

Rob Gandy

[algy]

I,ve been looking for the picture of Gandy's clog shop on Mersey Street as I am a relative of him, and my grandmother gave permission to the museum to remove the shops tools and contents prior to demolition. I also still have a pair of his clogs made for me as a toddler in the late 60's.

 

Cheers for sharing this picture

 

Rob Gandy

Rob, Mr Gandy made two pair of clogs for me in 1947, (I was seven years old) very similar to those in your picture, a red pair and a blue pair, one for best and the other for playing out in and for the life of me I can't remember which was which.