WE all have our favourite shoes – they may be red carpet-worthy, six-inch high Jimmy Choos or comfortable if unglamorous Allbirds, but shoes follow the footprints of human history. Fashionable or functional, delicate or dependable, shoes are an essential part of our lives. And while other brands may come and go, one name remains proudly to the fore of this long story – Clarks of Street.

So who better – and where more appropriate – for a shoemakers museum? Based at the lGrade II listed Grange, which houses the C&J Clark Ltd archives, the museum opens on Thursday 18th September, inviting the public to discover 200 years of shoemaking history, through the eyes of the shoemakers, telling the stories behind Clarks shoes in the place where it all began in Street.

The project has been supported by a crowdfunding competition, which is now finished, but donations are still invited to complete final touches including the landscaping of the museum.

Visitors will discover a remarkable collection of more than 100,000 objects, highlights of which will be on display in the museum’s four galleries: Welcome to Street, Making shoes, Selling and buying, and Fossils.

Somerset was once the largest producer of footwear in Britain and the Quaker family business Clarks was at the forefront. The first Brown Petersberg slippers were created in Street in 1825. Over the decades C&J Clark factories grew in number and the footwear they produced became a feature of British culture from our first fitted shoes and daily work-wear to the Northern Soul dancefloors of the 1960s and Britpop scene of the 90’s. Production moved outside of the UK as this country’s industry declined, but the headquarters remain in Street. Today the collections of the Alfred Gillett Trust tell a unique 200 year history of the Street-based business and its global impact.

The Alfred Gillett Trust is a registered charity that cares for the Clark’s family collections and Quaker archives. In 2021 the Trust purchased the Clarks Shoes corporate collections, creating a unique archive of British business history. After many years of preparation, in 2023 planning permission was granted for a museum.

The Grange, set in beautiful grounds, but surprisingly close to the Clarks Village Shopping Outlets, the venue has a very long history, with the site first recorded in the Domesday book in 1086. The manor house was once part of the Glastonbury Abbey estate.

The Shoemakers Museum Café will open a few days ahead of the museum, from Monday 15th September, serving lunch, coffee, cakes and more, with tasty treats sourced from local suppliers.