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The Shoe Museum

Grade II listed museum buildingsMuseums in SomersetShoe museumsStreet, SomersetUse British English from February 2023
Shoe Museum
Shoe Museum

The Shoe Museum in Street, Somerset, England exhibited shoes dating from the Roman era to the present day. The museum closed on 27 September 2019.It showed the history of the Clark family and their company C. & J. Clark and its connection with the development of shoemaking in the town. The Clarks started making slippers, shoes and boots in the town in the 1820s and the company grew, introducing mechanised processes in the 1860s. Production continued until after 2000 when it was moved off-shore, using third party factories, predominantly located in Asia. In the 19th century, in line with the family’s Quaker values, the capital was also extended beyond the factory to benefit social initiatives in Street: a school was founded so that young men and women could combine working in the factory with continuing their education, a theatre was opened, a library was built, along with an open-air swimming pool, known as Greenbank, and town hall. The company still has its headquarters in Street, behind a frontage which includes the clock tower and water tower, In 1993 the redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village.The museum started in 1951, but was expanded in 1974.It had examples of shoes from the 200 years of the companies history. The museum also included a display of machinery used in footwear production, and a selection of shop display showcards from the 1930s, 1950s and 1960s, and television advertisements.The museum closed to the public on 27 September 2019, and its artefacts will be transferred to the nearby Alfred Gillett Trust.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Shoe Museum (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Shoe Museum
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Latitude Longitude
N 51.129 ° E -2.7394 °
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Calvin Klein

Central Square
BA16 0EQ
England, United Kingdom
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Shoe Museum
Shoe Museum
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Street, Somerset
Street, Somerset

Street is a large village and civil parish in Somerset, England, with a population of 11,805 in 2011. On a dry spot in the Somerset Levels, at the end of the Polden Hills, it is two miles (three kilometres) southwest of Glastonbury. There is evidence of Roman occupation. Much of the history of the village is dominated by Glastonbury Abbey, and a 12th-century causeway from Glastonbury built to transport local Blue Lias stone to it. The Society of Friends was established there by the mid-17th century. One Quaker family, the Clarks, started a business in sheepskin rugs, woollen slippers and, later, boots and shoes. This became C&J Clark which still has its headquarters in Street. In 1993, redundant factory buildings were converted to form Clarks Village, the first purpose-built factory outlet in the United Kingdom. The Shoe Museum provides information about the history of Clarks and footwear manufacture in general. The Clark family's former mansion and its estate at the edge of the village are now owned by Millfield School, an independent co-educational boarding school. Street is also home to Crispin School and Strode College. To the north of Street is the River Brue, which marks the boundary with Glastonbury. South of Street are the Walton and Ivythorn Hills and East Polden Grasslands biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Strode Theatre provides a venue for films, exhibitions and live performances. The Anglican Parish Church of The Holy Trinity dates from the 14th century and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.