Description

The equipment includes shoe shapers of different sizes.

This equipment belonged to a Deaf Cobbler in the Black Country. He was born in 1916 and trained to be a Cobbler when he left school. The donor recalled his father telling him that he was forced to work in the window of the cobbler’s shop, where he would make shoes and essentially act as a live mannequin in the shop window where customers would stop and watch him make shoes.
The donor explained that deaf people were very poorly paid, often paid less than those who could hear. It was very difficult to get any representation in the workplace as communication was very difficult. They often had little choice in what they did for a living. Deaf people were often offered work that needed very little explanation or skill but would just require practice and be dexterous.

- Claudia Davies, Curating for Change Fellow at Black Country Living Museum