{"id":3026,"date":"2021-11-30T15:06:30","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T15:06:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=3026"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:22:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:22:02","slug":"walsall-leather-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2021\/11\/30\/walsall-leather-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Walsall Leather Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

One topic that frequently recurs in the various sound recordings the Midlands team has worked with is that of industrial history. Manufacturing has played an important role in the economy of the Midlands, with different towns and counties having their own niches. In a previous post we explored the collections held by the Forge Mill Needle Museum<\/a> which detailed the needle and tackle making industry of Redditch. In a similar vein, the Walsall Leather Museum explores Walsall\u2019s history as a leatherworking town, as this post will explain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The origins of Walsall\u2019s leather industry date as far back as the\u00a0Middle\u00a0Ages, coinciding with the craft of lorinery. Over the centuries the industry continued to develop in Walsall, however it was not until the early 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century that leatherworking became a significant local trade.\u00a0As horse riding declined with the rise of the internal combustion engine, the range\u00a0of goods produced in Walsall\u00a0evolved to incorporate fashion items\u00a0such as bags and wallets. Today the\u00a0luxury goods market remains a key sector for Walsall\u2019s leather industry, and there has also been a revival in the traditional saddlery and bridle trade. Thus, unlike many other areas of manufacturing in Britain, Walsall\u2019s leather industry has managed to survive into the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0century.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a>
Walsall Leather Museum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Walsall Leather Museum opened in 1988 and holds collections relating to the history of the leather industry and the lives of its workers. Within its collections the Museum has a substantial set of oral history interviews, which the UOSH Midlands team digitised and catalogued as part of the UOSH project. The 95 interviews were recorded between 1989 and 2013 and document memories of working life within the leather trade as well as life outside work. This helps to give a holistic view of Walsall in the 20th<\/sup> century. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

If you are interested in finding out more about the Museum, visit its website<\/a>. You can also use the British Library SAMI catalogue<\/a> to explore the sound collections further. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Post by Elizabeth Gray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One topic that frequently recurs in the various sound recordings the Midlands team has worked with is that of industrial history. Manufacturing has played an important role in the economy of the Midlands, with different towns and counties having their own niches. In a previous post we explored the collections held by the Forge Mill Needle Museum which detailed the needle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unlocking-our-sound-heritage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3026"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3107,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3026\/revisions\/3107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}