Shoes-eum at new Rawtenstall mill store

10:11am Friday 11th April 2008

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A NEW discount store has opened in Rawtenstall and is the first in the country to feature a footwear museum.

The Big Label, which sells fashion clothing and homeware, opened at the Greenbridge Mill in Fall Barn Road - the former Old Lambert Howarth outlet, with a £100,000 refit.

The footwear museum was originally set up and opened at Gaghills Mill, Waterfoot, in May 1991 to celebrate Rossendale's shoe-making history.

It moved to the current site seven years later but when Lambert Howarth went into liquidation, Brian Warburton, who originally had the idea to set the museum up, wanted it it be safeguarded.

The museum celebrates life in the Rossendale shoe works over the past 100 years and includes exhibits of shoes, slippers, photographs and machinery.

It has a collection of designs and displays from the industry's past, from cardboard shoes to 1970s platforms, outlandish Victorian slippers to the fashions of the present day. Now Big Label has announced will retain the museum. It is currently being refurbished and incorporated in the new store.

Brian said: "We felt it was an important history for the town and we wanted people to look at the museum as well as the factory shop.

"There are lots of shoes to look at - we've got old football boots, shoes of the Bay City Rollers and even a pair of tiny clogs and tiny tools.

"There is a really elegant pair of shoes that would have cost around £1,000 in their day - probably the equivalent of today's Jimmy Choo!"

The new 17,000 sq ft store, which features a 100-seat restaurant, is offering Rossendale primary school children the chance to create something for the museum.

They are asked to design a pair of shoes to be made and then worn once by the mayor, Coun Joyce Pawson, at a civic reception in May.

Entry forms are being handed out to primary schools but can also be picked up from the new Big Label store.

All entrants before Friday May 4 will be invited to donate up to 50p to the The Mayor's Charity Fund, which supports Rossendale Hospice and other local charities.