Shoe trade's long running history

By Marcus Roberts
Anglo-Jewish historian

G.L. Michel and Sons was set up in Northampton in 1858

G.L. Michel & Sons is an historic part of Northampton's shoe trade and was founded by George Leopold Michel.

After moving from London, he set up the business in 1858 at No.37, Newlands, living "over the shop".

Michel supplied upper and lining leathers to the boot and shoe trade. The company also specialised in box and willow calf and glace kid leather.

He took over a small separate boot manufacturer in 1886 and made his own boots and shoes.

However, this business was not ultimately successful and was wound up.

It was a small family business and never had more than eight employees. G.L. Michel's sons, Montague, Henry and Leon, joined the business in the 1890s and began to supply new and rebuilt machinery.

The company also supplied other equipment such as shoe lasts, clicking-boards and shoe-racks.

Later members of the Michel family ran the firm until it was sold in 1998

The company started to supply specialist leather for orthopaedics in the 1920s, in the wake of World War I, when there was a great demand for artificial limbs and orthopaedic appliances.

After 1950, this part of the business became central to the company due to a combination of factors, and it became a major supplier to firms contracted to supply the NHS.

They also supplied leather to bespoke shoe makers in the West End of London and other cities.

David Michel, after leaving school, having first taken courses in leather and foot-ware manufacture, joined the business in the late 1930s (but was interrupted by six years service until 1946) and inherited his grandfather's business in 1951, when his father died.

The family name continues

By 1951, George's grandson David Michel inherited the business and in 1970 it moved to Purser Road to make way for the building of the Grosvenor Centre and Greyfriars Bus Station.

In 1983 it became a limited company for the first time and then on David Michel's retirement in 1987 it was sold to United Leather.

Some years later it was acquired by the Whitmore-Bacon Group and one of its subsidiaries traded under the name until the end of 1998. This was the formal end of GL Michel & Sons, after some 140 years of business.

However, David's son, Ian Michel (FSLTC), is a qualified and experience leather technologist who continues to supply top quality leathers to customers all over the world, through his firm Amandian Ltd based in Stanwick Northamptonshire.

Thus he is carrying on the family tradition into the fourth generation in England.