Crocket & Jones

Crockett & Jones was established in 1879 by two brothers in law, James Crockett & Charles Jones. James was raised by his grandfather Henry Marshall, who was a boot and shoe manufacturer in Northampton. James left school at the age of 10 to work as an errand boy before becoming an apprentice clicker. He would go on to work as a shoe maker in Worcester, London and Birmingham. Charles, meanwhile, was from a long line (at least 3 generations) of respectable shoemakers in Northamptonshire, and was himself a clicker by trade. He married James’ younger sister, Annie Marshall – a shoe fitter, in 1873. Six years after this marriage, James and Charles decided to go into business together but they lacked the necessary funds to open a factory. To overcome this, they applied for, and were granted, a sum of £100 each from the Thomas White Trust which was established to ‘encourage young men of good character in the towns of Northampton and Coventry to set up business on their own’. The first Crockett & Jones factory was a small building on Exeter Road, Northampton which housed the initial 20 employees. Family was crucial from the start as the firm employed two of Charles’ brothers, his sister and his wife. Leathers were cut at the factory before being distributed to out-workers, who would take the parts home, complete their process and then return all components to the factory, where the shoes or boots could be completed. Business flourished and production needed to expand, so in the early 1880s Crockett & Jones moved into premises on Carey Street allowing more and more work to be done inside the factory.