A fitting time to pay tribute to shoe king

October 3, 2003

The Turnshoe room around 1930

HANLY CLOSE
(Clancy Road)

AT A time when production of the world famous Start-rite shoes has ended in Norwich, it is fitting to remember Bernard James Hanly.

Bernard Hanly

He was a shoe baron at the helm of one of the factories when it employed hundreds of men and women between the two world wars.

An energetic and strong-minded leader both on the factory floor and for the footwear manufacturers nationally, he also played an active role in public life across Norwich.

He was a member of a host of organisations, sat on various committees and was Lord Mayor during the early part of the Second World War in 1940/1.

Bernard was elected chairman at the Crome Road factory when it was called Southalls in 1927.

He came from a family of distinguished journalists and started his working life on the Colchester Chronicle.

Bernard then moved into the shoe trade, first in Northamptonshire and then in Norwich where he worked the factory of S A Morgan, now the Bridewell Museum.

He joined Southalls in 1891 working alongside both Charles and James Southall.

And he became a member of the family by marrying James’s youngest daughter Mabel in 1901.

When Charles died in 1909, aged 43, only two years after the move to Crome Road, Bernard was put in charge of factory management and under his wing the business flourished.

He became president of the Norwich Footwear Manufacturers Association at a time when thousands of people were working in the shoe factories. In 1932 he was appointed Sheriff of Norwich and later sat on the council for three years as a Liberal member for the Thorpe Ward.

And he went on to become Lord Mayor at the beginning of the Second World War, but his health was failing and he died in June of 1942.

His son James Hanly became chairman of Southalls and under his leadership the company went from strength to strength and it was in the 1960s that the name Start-rite took over from Southalls.

James also played a prominent role in public life in Norwich and was also a leading member of the Chamber of Commerce.

As President of the National Federation of British Footwear Manufacturers’ in the 1950s he masterminded big exhibitions and fashion shows.
Away from work he was a great sportsman.

He played football, golf and tennis, served as a director of Norwich City Football Club for more than 20 years and was chairman and then president of the club.

He ran the company from 1943 through the 1950s, 60s, and 70s.
He was chairman of Start-rite until 1978 and became one of the best-known faces in the city. He died in 1985.

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