British leather heritage: Northampton shoes, Walsall saddles and a Devon tannery

British leather heritage is not kept in a museum case. It lives on in towns that still make shoes by hand, in workshops that stitch saddles for riders all over the world and in a Devon tannery that works the way tanners did centuries ago. Britain no longer produces leather goods on the scale it once did, but its names, styles and techniques still shape what we wear.

Here is a short tour, from the Midlands to the West Country, with the stories behind two boots almost everyone has owned.

Northampton, the shoemaking town

Northampton's link with shoes goes back to the Middle Ages, a link usually put down to the cattle of the surrounding farmland and the oak woods that supplied bark for tanning. The town's big break came with war. In 1642, Parliament ordered 4,000 pairs of shoes and 600 pairs of boots from a group of Northampton shoemakers for the army being sent to Ireland, and further orders followed.

Over the following centuries, Northamptonshire became the heart of English shoemaking, known for the Goodyear-welted shoes and boots that can be resoled again and again. Several of the best-known names in classic British footwear still make shoes in the county, and the town's museum is known for its shoe collection.

The boot named after its birthday

One of Northamptonshire's most famous shoes was born in a village. In Wollaston, the Griggs family firm, founded there in 1901, bought the rights to make an air-cushioned sole designed in Germany by Dr Klaus Märtens. The first boot to use it came off the line on 1 April 1960, and it was named after the date: the 1460.

What began as a sturdy work boot was adopted by skinheads, punks and indie fans and became one of the most recognisable boots in the world. Most Dr. Martens are now made in Asia, but the factory in Wollaston still produces the brand's Made in England range.

Walsall, the saddlers' town

If Northampton is about shoes, Walsall, in the West Midlands, is about horses. Leatherworking there dates back to the Middle Ages, alongside the making of buckles, bits and other metal fittings for harness. By the turn of the 20th century, Walsall was home to nearly a third of Britain's saddlers and harness makers.

When cars replaced horses, many firms switched to smaller leather goods such as bags, purses and belts. Later, the growth of riding for pleasure brought the saddlery trade back. The town tells the whole story at the Walsall Leather Museum, opened in 1988 in a Victorian leather works, where craftspeople still demonstrate traditional skills.

Colyton: tanning with oak bark

Most of the world's leather is tanned with chromium salts, a process that takes days. In the small Devon town of Colyton, J & FJ Baker does it the slow way. The family firm is described as the last traditional oak bark tannery in Britain, and the family says hides have been tanned on the site since Roman times.

Hides are soaked in pits of oak bark liquor, moving to stronger solutions over many months. The result is a firm, hard-wearing leather prized for shoe soles, saddlery and fine leather goods. It is a reminder that "vegetable tanning" is not a trend but one of the oldest crafts there is. To check what you are buying today, see how to tell if leather is real.

The Chelsea boot: elastic and a royal story

The ankle boot with elastic sides is usually credited to J. Sparkes-Hall, a London bootmaker who patented his elastic-sided boot in 1851. It was made possible by vulcanised rubber, developed a few years earlier, which gave the side panels their stretch. Sparkes-Hall claimed that Queen Victoria walked in them daily.

The style became a staple of Victorian life and had a second heyday in 1960s London, when it was adopted by the city's fashionable crowd and the name Chelsea boot stuck for good. It is still one of the most versatile leather boots you can own, and like any leather it needs dry storage: our guide to removing mould from leather explains why.