I had read some time ago that Bramley had a reputation for being good at making boots, writes MARK STEVENSON.
I was looking something up (which had nothing to do with this article) when the name Brow Dickinson caught my eye – I just liked the name as much as anything else.
I clicked the link and it took me to a website full of info on Brow and his brothers George and John, and it turns out they were from Bramley.
Brow was born in 1857 and in 1880 went into business with his brothers. At the time they were living in Swede Cottage on Back Lane, Bramley, where they cleared a room out and used that as their workshop.
Soon work had pick up enough that they needed a bigger place to make their boots so they moved into a workshop at Foster Buildings on Back Lane, Bramley.
By the end of their first year in business Brow and his brothers had about 20 employees and it was decided to move the factory to Elswick Place (roughly were Bramley Band Club is).
The orders kept coming and the business grew so once again they moved this time to Waterloo Mills.
With cheap leather coming in from America and new machines been invented. The Dickinson brothers, who made the “Benefit Boot”, felt confident enough to open an up-to-date factory at what is now Morrisons on Swinnow Road in 1890.
Their company was to merge with several similar companies to form The Public Benefit Boot Company.
Brow Dickinson remained in Bramley living at The Billingbauk and was elected to various boards, including the Bramley Board of Guardians.
I love these stories about Bramley. Great photo of how Town Street was when my family moved here in 1969. I’m sure I remember the Benefit shop being there then?
All those little independent speciality traders.
I’ve a recollection also of an old fashioned ‘cobblers’ which later moved nearer to The Globe pub. Anyone remember that?
That was probably Eddy Hough you are remembering. He had a shop and workshop at 77 Westover Road and a workshop in Haley’s Yard. He then had a shop on Town Street near the Globe. When the new Bramley Centre was built he moved into a shop there but sold up shortly after and retired to North Yorkshire.
The Billingbaulk house is still there.
I am researching 176 Stanningley Road where I lived from 1962-1967 and have just found a photo of the house in Bramley history Society archive which has a sign over the front door which reads ‘Dickinson Bros Boot Manufacturers’. I remember as a child in the 1960’s going up some stone access steps at the side of the houses to a workshop where a man operated a machine which produced sparks and I always thought that he was a carpenter cutting wood to size but now I know that he was probably a bootmaker, either making or repairing boots. The house was demolished in 1967 and we moved away.
Thanks for this. I’m just filling out my family tree for my Mum and had come across a whole group of ancestors from Bramley who were shoe makers in the 19th century. I noticed a lot of people listed next to them on the census records were also shoemakers, so I Googled shoe making in Bramley and found your article.