Wakefield Museums and Castles: fashion

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

What Wakefield Wore

In 2025, we'll be opening our New Library and Museum in the former BHS Wakefield building!

Digital Volunteer Rebecca has been looking back at BHS Wakefield's history, and explores how it influenced 'what Wakefield wore' in this guest blog:

BHS Wakefield - at the heart of Kirkgate

The department store British Home Stores (commonly referred to as BHS) was founded in 1928 and ran for a total of 88 years.

There were over 160 BHS stores, located at the heart of high streets across the country. They all closed in 2016.

BHS Wakefield opened in the 1930s on Kirkgate and quickly became popular with local residents. The store mainly sold home goods and clothing for men, women and children. It later also expanded to food.

BHS Wakefield followed the ethos of encouraging local people to ‘buy British’.

People walking along Kirkgate in the 1970s, with BHS and Marks and Spencer on the right hand side

Kirkgate in the 1970s - BHS is on the right

John G was a Manager at BHS Wakefield. He remembers that “BHS in the 1970s was very different to the store that entered the 21st century”.

Over the years, the Wakefield branch underwent many changes. These included increasing the size of its sales floor, beginning to sell a wider range of merchandise and displaying their stock differently.

Despite these changes, BHS was always renowned for looking after their staff members and creating a close-knit community.

Staff take to the stage

Throughout the 1960s and 70s BHS’s ‘ready-to-wear’ clothing made fashion trends accessible for everyone, including their own staff.

In the 1970s, the staff of BHS Wakefield staged their own fashion show to showcase the clothes available to buy in the store at the time.

A member of the ‘You know you have lived in Wakefield when…’ Facebook group fondly remembers that the fashion show was held at Unity Hall and that it even made the local newspaper!

The fashion show featured many sought-after characteristics of 1970s fashion, such as floral prints, embroidery, synthetic fabrics such as polyester, athletic wear, different styles of dresses and a large array of nightgowns.

A staff member wearing a belted shirt dress, red neck scarf and sandals

Photo courtesy of John G

In the photo above a staff member is wearing a neutral-coloured shirt dress paired with bold red accessories.

Dresses in boxy styles such as these became popular in the 1970s. They followed the more ‘masculine’ style of women’s clothing which was seen in shirt dresses of the 1950s.

Worn with heeled shoes and an on-trend neck scarf, they are showing how these dresses can be styled to look stylish, yet comfortable.

Another popular trend at the time was bright coloured athletic wear, as shown modelled here:

One staff member dressed in a white and blue hooded top and blue shorts, followed by another wearing a green zip up short-sleeved shirt and white high rise shorts

Photo courtesy of John G

High-rise shorts are seen paired with hoodies and zip-up tops which show how sportwear began to be seen as fashionable rather than purely practical.

A staff member wearing a bright pink shirt tucked into a maxi skirt with a bold purple, pink and brown swirly design

Photo courtesy of John G

Fashion of the 1970s is known for its bold colours and prints, as in the photo above.

Created in the 1960s, psychedelic prints, such as the one used to make this skirt, featured intense colours and flowing patterns. Here the swirls of different shades of purple come together to create the bold design of this long flowing skirt, also part of the stock at BHS Wakefield.

A staff member walking along a red carpet wearing a full-length white night dress and fluffy slippers

Photo courtesy of John G

One of the most prominent items of clothing showcased in the BHS Wakefield fashion show is their range of flowing nightgowns for both women and children.

From long gowns made from satin fabrics with embroidered flowers, to shorter sheer styles with lace details, the variety of these nightgowns shows their popularity within Wakefield in the 70s.

A pair of children wearing full-length nightgowns walking along a red carpet, one is also holding a candle

Photo courtesy of John G

Special thanks to John G for sharing his memories and the photos featured in the article and members of local Facebook groups who gave details of their time at BHS.

We want to know ‘What Wakefield Wore’ in the 1970s! Were you inspired by the fashion show?

What parts of 1970s fashion would you bring back today - or never want to see again?

Let us know in the comments!

Click here to find out more about our New Library and Museum project

Monday, October 3, 2022

#CleverClogs - New Display at Wakefield Museum

Sarah Verreault, a student at the University of Leicester’s School of Museum Studies, has completed an audit of the museum’s shoe collection over the past eight weeks. She has chosen the story of British clogs, locally worn and produced, to highlight in a new display at Wakefield Museum.

Learn more about these #cleverclogs in her blog below!

Sarah Verreault with her Clogs display at Wakefield Museum

What are British clogs?

A British clog has a leather upper, a wood sole, and irons nailed into the heel and sole.

They first appear in written accounts in the 1600s in Lancashire, Cheshire and Cumbria, then spread to the rest of the north of England. They reached peak popularity in the second half of the 19th century. They declined in the first half of the 20th century as other types of shoes became more affordable and fashions changed. Clogs then became a symbol of poverty and charity. Some industries, such as heavy engineering and farming, continued to use clogs. Today, they remain popular for certain kinds of dances such as Morris dancing and clog dancing. Other styles of wooden soled shoes still come in and out of fashion.

Clog making is now on the Heritage Craft Association’s Red List of Endangered Crafts with only five registered full-time makers.

A child's pair of red-brown leather clogs with a nailed wooden sole. They have an ankle bar with a small brownb button, and a small decorative steel buckle. There is brass on the toe tip. They have horseshoe irons on the sole and heel.

A child's pair of leather clogs, with horseshoe irons on the sole and heel, dating between the 1920-1950s

How are clogs made?

The leather uppers were made in the same way and styles as other types of shoes. New and old shoes could be clogged to make them more hard-wearing. A pair of uppers could be re-ironed and reclogged many times, so the leather was well cared for.

The clog-block maker would harvest the wood, preferably alder, and cut it into blocks to sell to the clogger. The clogger carved the blocks into a sole. Like other shoes, until the middle of the 19th century, they were made on straight lasts, meaning that the left and right were the same shape. If the clogger was skilled enough, the sole could be fit to the foot of the customer.

Earlier clogs were bound around the edges with hoop-iron. The familiar grooved horseshoe irons became more common in the early 19th century. The local blacksmith or the clogger would fit the irons. Extra protection like iron plates and leather pads could also be added.

A pair of child's clogs made from black-brown leather, with a square wooden toe

A pair of child's clogs, with leather upper and a square upturned toe, dating likely from 1850-1900

Where were they worn?

Clogs were particularly present in the north of England and the south of Scotland but do also feature elsewhere. They are well suited to the landscape and weather in this region. Clogs require a special rocking or rolling movement to walk because they are much heavier and stiffer than shoes.

They were worn by women and men, adults and children, in the country and cities. They were worn at work and in everyday life including to church. Crimp clogs, called ‘dandy’, ‘Sunday’ or ‘neat’ clogs, would have elaborate designs cut into the upper. Children used to play at making sparks fly by hitting their irons on stone. The wood sole wore through stockings quickly so many people wore clogs bare foot. With or without stockings, they were often lined with straw, hay or bracken.

They were worn in mines, quarries, pits and kilns, in building trades, docks and wharfs, agriculture, transport, brewing, mills and factories. Different styles of uppers were associated with different occupations such as the miner’s blutcher clog whose upper only has two pieces or brewer’s clogs with watertight tongues and very square toes. How long a pair would last depend on who wore them and where. Pit clogs would last a little over a year, but in a mill, they could last 20 years with care.

Local Connections: Wm. Lamb Clog Manufacturer

Based in Bottomboat, Stanley, West Yorkshire, the company began in 1887 when William Lamb began producing clogs for miners. It then expanded to supplying shoes for women working in cotton mills. They became one of the biggest British clog manufacturers.

Seven male workers stood outside the Wm Lamb Clog Manufactuers Shop. There is a horse and cart with an array of clogs on display, and one of the men is stood on the cart holding a pair for sale. The other workers hold an array of tools and clogs, and one has his hand petting a dog.

Workers stood outside Wm. Lamb Clog Manufacturers' shop, c.1900-1920

In the 1920s, the company started making work boots, and army boots during the First and Second World Wars. Later in the century, they manufactured football boots and trainers. Today, they have stopped manufacturing and are focused on importing footwear.