THE LEATHER INDUSTRY

Economic and local historians have written a considerable amount about the making of woollen textiles in East Anglia, but until recently have tended to overlook other important sources of employment and wealth. In Suffolk one of those 'forgotten' industries is the processing of hides and skins, and their conversion into leather goods of many kinds.
No doubt the study of individual towns and villages will increase the number of known leather workers. For example, the parish registers of Halesworth from 1653 until the 1780s give occupations, including large numbers of men engaged in the leather industry. However, most of them were not wealthy enough to leave wills, nor did they enter into marriage bonds.
Leather workers can be divided into two groups : those who prepared the raw materials such as tanners and curriers, and a larger group such as glovers, harness-makers and shoemakers who manufactured goods from treated leather. Not surprisingly, the two groups show a very similar distribution as they were closely reliant on each other. For the period from 1500 to about 1750, the numbers of each type of craftsman found in the two sources are as follows (again it should be stressed that the true numbers must be considerably higher)

Crafts preparing leather	Crafts using prepared leather
Tanners 216	Cordwainers 318
Fellmongers 32	Glovers 173
Knackers 30	Shoemakers 144
Curriers 23	Collarmakers 59
Skinners 15	Saddlers 50
Leather dressers 6

The working of hides and skins was, on the whole, more urban-based than some other Suffolk industries. The principal reason for this may be that the skins of cattle, horses and other animals were most easily obtained in those places where large numbers of butchers and knackers congregated on market days. The dominance of butchers as holders of market stalls is noticeable in a number of towns such as Beccles and Halesworth. Three towns stand out as particularly major centres of the industry : in descending order of importance, they are Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich and Beccles. Tanners required water for their operations so it is not surprising that most of them lived in valleys. On the other hand, in spite of their concentration in towns, the preparation and working of leather were to be found in rural communities as well : they were widespread throughout the county, particularly in the clay lands of High Suffolk where cattle rearing and dairying were a major feature of local farming. Not surprisingly they were less in evidence in the sheep rearing districts of the Breckland and Sandlings.

Courtesy of Nesta Evans