By the 1960s Finn Shoes were producing some 10,000 pairs of these shoes a week from its factory in Nuneaton. According to accounts provided by the British Board of Trade, by the mid-60s space in Nuneaton was limited and labour was hard to find. Finn’s needed to expand and Geoffrey Finn, the managing director of the firm, undertook what was a described as a “tour” to find a suitable place to build a new factory for the company. The company moved out of Nuneaton in the 1970s to its new home in Penzance, Cornwall. This set of photos has been donated to Nuneaton Memories by Mark Hadley.
After reading the above, Kathleen Wilson adds:
Just reading your write up about Finn’s. I worked there as a Secretary in the ’70s and then went into Production Planning until it closed. Your write-up is not quite correct.
Finn Shoes started by two brothers in Bedworth. They fell out, one opened a factory in Hinckley the other opened one in Weddington Road Nuneaton (Jo or J.A. as he was known). Nuneaton made men’s and boy’s, he opened another factory in Penzance where they made little kiddy shoes and there was also a Closing Room in Leeds until about 1972.
The factory was on one side of the road and on the other the warehouse, engineers shop and the public shop (that side is all now Buildbase).
Nuneaton was taken over by the Ward White Group in about 1978 and changed its name to BLH Shoes. They closed the factory completely in 1981, moving about three or four of us to Mancetter in Atherstone to help finish up. I believe the site was then taken over by Lister’s Chemists.
The Weddington Road site was demolished and a DIY building erected. Having had various owners since, it is currently Wickes.
Comments
Cracking pictures. You got me looking for what happened to the company after it left Nuneaton, and it appears their factory fell to Tesco in the 90s!
In pictures one & two the chap in the dark shirt is John Bourne.
In picture four, the lady in the striped dress when the picture was taken is Ruth Morrow, the other lady is Lou ?.
In picture five, Wilf Sanders is in between Ruth & Lou.
Many thanks Fred for valuable information. Can anyone identify other people in the pictures?
When I had new shoes my mum would take them to a cobblers and have rubber stick on soles put on so I longed for shoes that would click clack down the road. So I was really pleased when the Finn Shoes factory opened as I thought their shoes might Click Clack.Imagine my disappointment when they made shoes with thick rubber soles which never wore out and were silent. Mums loved them but we called them beetle crushers.
My Aunty, (born 1931) lived at the house where Finns stood. They had to move out (about 1938) to make way for a new road and Finns stood on what was their back garden.
I worked at Finns as a back part moulder in the early 70s in Nuneaton
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