THE INDUSTRIES OF LEICESTER 69 
The story of another of Leicester’s industries, the manufacture of 
boots and shoes, illustrates inventive genius. Leicester boot and shoe 
manufacturers have always encouraged machinery engineers and have 
been quick to place the very latest shoe-machinery in their factories. As 
some 400 different machines are used to-day in the manufacture of boots 
and shoes, the place of the engineer in this industry is paramount. 
Further, nearly the whole of the shoe factories of the British Empire are 
equipped with Leicester-built machines, while many machines are 
exported to foreign parts. In the section of this survey which reviews 
the boot and shoe industry reference has been made to types of machines 
used and to their evolution. 
Specialisation in branches of engineering not immediately connected 
with Leicester’s staple industries occupies the energies of many firms 
in Leicester and district. A number of firms, for example, specialise 
in machine tools, and mass production in the engineering workshop owes 
much to Leicester. Drilling machines, capable of drilling fifty-six holes 
at one operation, have recently been made in Leicester, and the products 
of the Leicester machine tool manufacturers are to be found in every 
large motor car works in the country. 
Leicester lies at the apex of a wedge of igneous rock which provides 
granite for road-making, and granite quarries stretch from Mountsorrel 
through Whitwick, Bardon Hill and Cliffe Hill, southwards to Enderby, 
Stoney Stanton and Croft. These quarries, from which granite has been 
extracted since the earliest times, provide one-quarter of all the granite 
used on English roads, and Leicester has thus become the home of the 
quarry and roadstone machinery maker. Leicester-made breakers, 
granulators, crushing rollers, washers, driers, concrete and tarmacadam 
mixers are exported to every part of the world, and the manufacture of 
these machines provides employment for many hundreds of men. Leicester 
has earned the reputation of being one of the cleanest cities in the kingdom. 
Her road-making engineers, by their careful study of road surfaces, have 
contributed to this result. It is of interest to note that the modern 
concrete mixer and tarmacadam mixing machine originated in Leicester. 
There is also a considerable industry in the production of auxiliary quarry 
equipment, in sand and gravel washing, and in the manufacture of screening 
plant for concrete-making and of excavating plant for quarrying. 
The engineers of Leicester have specialised for nearly thirty years in 
the making of woodworking machinery, including machines for sawing, 
mortising, tenoning, planing and moulding operations. Of special 
interest is the exceedingly ingenious machine known as the universal 
pattern miller, by means of which practically every pattern-making 
operation can be performed. The patterns both for the Rolls Royce 
Schneider Trophy engines and for the huge fans installed at the Ford 
works at Dagenham were produced in Leicester. 
Heating and ventilating is a highly important branch of engineering in 
which Leicester specialises. The new Parliament building of Northern 
Ireland and the Shell-Mex edifice in London are two of the more recently 
erected structures of repute to be heated and air-conditioned by Leicester 
engineers. In addition, many of the most modern cinema theatres have 
