For decades, the successful East Devon Boot and Shoe factory (also known as Thorn Brothers and Doble) occupied a 5,300 square foot site behind the Clarence Temperance Hotel in Honiton High Steet.
Curator of Honiton Museum Margaret Lewis writes for the Herald.
The proprietors were brothers Richard and Walter Thorn and William C. Doble. The property comprised of three floors, a finishing room, press machine, stores, packing and engine rooms, counting house with a good supply of water and entrances from Kings Street and the High Street
The company advertised for skilled workers and machinists for bespoke work and offered good wages and permanent employment. They entertained over three hundred of their employees and their families at annual teas held in the Dolphin. The music was supplied by the factory’s own band and the Congregational String Band.
The Factories and Workshops Act required that every child under 16 years of age had to be certified by a medical man as fit to be employed – in Honiton that was Dr Shortridge. The company fell foul of the factory inspector and were taken to court on several occasions for employing children without a certificate. Emma Harvey, a machinist handed in one months’ notice. Two weeks later the factory manager Tom Branson told Emma that her services were no longer required. Emma still had a fortnight to serve so an argument ensued and when Branson was evicting Emma from the premises, he pushed her and closed a door on her arm. A fine of £1 1shilling was imposed by the court.
In 1880 a fourteen year old employee Henry Moore stabbed shoemaker William Crispin in the thigh during a scuffle which got out of hand. Henry was sent for trial in Exeter, found guilty and sentenced to four months imprisonment with hard labour.
The factory was sold in 1894. Walter Thorn moved to Exmouth and worked as a waiter for a while for his brother James who ran the Temperance Hotel. Walter later owned two dairies in Exmouth. Richard Thorn and his wife emigrated to America, arriving in New York in 1903. They moved to Montgomery Avenue Philadelphia where Richard continued to make and repair shoes until he died there in 1925. William Doble retired from the business and lived with his daughter and son in law at Highfield. He continued to make boots for Robert Kenwood, a retail boot factor until ten days before he died in 1931, aged 83.
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