Well-Heeled The Remarkable Story of the Public Benefit Boot Company Brian Seddon and David L. Bean Size: 210x274mm Binding: hardback Pages: 128 Number of Illustrations: 238 Published: 2004 ISBN: 978 1 86077 313 6 RRP: £17.99
	WILLIAM HENRY FRANKLIN opened the doors of his meagre Public Benefit Boot shop for the first time in 1875. Victorian England was enjoying prosperity, great technological progress, enormous optimism and expansion. Within thirty years his little shop in Hull had evolved into a nationwide network of 200 boot stores, several repair shops and four modern factories stretching from Newcastle to Cornwall and South Wales. Well-Heeled describes how, from the early years, William Franklin developed business partnerships with family members and other entrepreneurs in the boot trade. The book explains the associations and, in particular, the relationship with Lennards Ltd, a company that was set up in 1896 also to trade as The Public Benefit Boot Company. The business empire grew in a fiercely competitive environment and the authors detail attempted company mergers and the eventual change in trading name to Benefit Footwear. As the narrative moves through the decades from Victorian times to the present day, it explores the manufacturing standards, prices, changing footwear fashions and the ingenious forms of advertising employed to stand out among the Company’s many rivals. Adding great human interest to the story, the authors make skilful use of the recollections of ex-employees; whose valuable contribution provide first-hand knowledge of working conditions and of the impact on business of two world wars, economic slumps and prosperity and the consequent social changes. Richly illustrated, the book provides a unique collection of images of town and city streetscapes, changing footwear styles, trademarks, fascinating advertisements and innovative promotional items. There are also pictures of the Company’s many premises throughout England and Wales, ranging from their architecturally impressive headquarters and huge retail emporiums in city centres to small branches in local shopping precincts. Photographs also record many of the people who built and staffed the Company from Directors to apprentice shoe-makers. Far more than a tribute to the Founders and builders of this remarkable business, the book throws new light on the footwear trade as a whole, in the context of the rapidly changing commercial climate and ways of life since Victorian times. "this remarkable story is sure to intrigue and delight." Hull Daily Mail