The Bite Magazine - Spring 2019 - Issue 24

bite shoes They were later joined by his second son Harold in 1903, after which the company name was changed to J. Cheaney & Sons. In 1920, it became a limited compa- ny. The difference between Joseph Cheaney and other people who were engaged in the making of shoes during that period in Northamptonshire - a place renowned as the home of quality English shoemaking - was that the former carried out the whole operation from start to finish. For others, the process would typically be done in outhouses, known as shops, at the bottom of their gardens. At each stage of the making process, the shoe would move to a different ‘shop’ until the end product went to a collection point for distribution. Amazedly, during the First World War, the factory was kept very busy and produced around 2,500 pairs per week of stitched and screwed boots and shoes. And even through the lean post-war years and global depression of the 1930s, the company continued to flourish. Perhaps, this success was partly thanks to the production being modernised, whilst retaining the same handcrafting methods and the distribution base being broadened to include the major conurbations of the United Kingdom, although very few shoes were exported. For the first 80 years of business, the Cheaney factory in Desborough, Northamptonshire made shoes exclu- sively for some of the finest retailers around the world, branded to their individual company requirements. Joseph Humphrey Cheaney, the founder’s grandson, joined the business in 1930 and worked there for 51 years. During this time, he realised that the company’s future lay in building up its own Cheaney brand for its home and export markets and thus sold the business to Church’s English Shoes. It was also his idea that the company’s distribution should expand into export markets, not only for the benefit of the Joseph Cheaney business but for the United Kingdom as a whole, which after the war des- perately needed to earn foreign currency. Joseph Hum- phrey was also committed to continuing his father’s and grandfather’s policy of maintaining high quality standards in terms of manufacture and materials which contributed to the company’s growing reputa- tion as a shoemaker. It was in 1966 that the brand won the Queen’s Award to Industry for export achievement and was also sold to Church’s English Shoes. A year later, Cheaney of England was launched, which was the first time the business had marketed shoes under its own name since its inception. They went on to win the coveted Queen’s Award to Industry for Export in 1971, while