Page 219 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Wheatsheaf Boot Factory.
increa.sing demand for lower-priced footwear. Nevertheless, the
works continued to show profits that quarter after quarter ran into
four figures. Occasionally they fell, or even descended to a loss,
as in one quarter of 1888, when production was maintained at
losing prices. Owing to the difficulty of getting work done regularly
in the borough during the summer months, from 1874 certain
manufactures were given out at Enderby, a village some four or
five miles distant from Leicester, a room being rented for this
purpose from the Enderby Co-operative Society. To bring this
work under direct C.W.S. control a small factory was built at
Enderby in 1888. The year 1890 saw 150 workers employed there,
compared with about 1,300 at Leicester. In the borough, however,
over four hundred of the C.W.S. operatives remained outworkers,
and 10,000 pairs of C.W.S. boots and shoes thus might be scattered
over the town. Meanwhile the demand grew as if nourished on
Mr. Wells's Food oj the Gods. So, with a trade within sight of a
million pairs a year, the Committee began to discuss new works.
"
Mr. Butcher, in one report, suggested the buying of 50 to 100
acres within a two miles radius of the town of Northampton,"
whereon to build both workshops and dwellings; and the possibilities
of London and Norwich also were investigated. Under the circum-
stances of the time, however, it seemed best to concentrate all the
bootmaking at Leicester. The Committee therefore decided upon
a forward step. This was. to buy six acres of open land, at £400 an
acre, in what were then the rural surroundings of Knighton Fields,
on the pleasant, residential south side of Leicester, and to build here
a big modern factory, principally of one storey, on a plan already
adopted successfully by the Scottish Wholesale Society.
Opposition to the proposal came only from the Leicester dele-
gates. The new site was something over a mile from the existing
works—a tremendous dislocation. The objection of outworkers
was natural, " but," said the Co-operative News, " of late home
work, sweating, and insanitary conditions have come to be
synonymous terms." So " the finest boot factory in the kingdom "
arose on Knighton Fields, its main room covering an acre and a half
in itself. Moreover, the manufactory was designed and the work
carried through by the C.W.S. building department under Mr.
Heyhurst, with Mr. I. Mort, now of the C.W.S. Committee, as clerk
of works. The actual cost of the building, exclusive of the land,
was £32,000. Roads were laid out round the factory, but the cottage
dwellings which quickly lined them were put up by private builders.
171