A SHOE trail is being created to celebrate the valley’s links with the footwear industry.

People will be directed from Rawtenstall town centre to the nearby Panopticon artwork, at Top o’Slate by giant footwear markers.

Students at All Saints and Haslingden high schools helped to design the markers and artist Julie Miles carved brick relief plaques to mark the beginning and end of the trail.

The walk will also remember the valley’s associations with the brick-making industry, as Top o’Slate was once a clay pit for factories like Heys and Duckworth, Haslingden Brick and Tile Co. and R.

Holding Pike Law Patent Brickworks.

Other local mainstays such as felt-making, block printing and carpet printing will also take centre stage.