742 Making of Clogs, Clog-Soles and Clog-Blocks. [Nov., 



For example, a Shropshire employer is a timber merchant and 

 keeps a small inn, and an employer in Devonshire is a firewood 

 dealer who also has a small wood-turning industry, making brush- 

 stocks. The former sends gangs of cutters near and far; the 

 latter, as yet in a small way of business, had employed a single 

 cutter until others had learnt the art, and is only using wood 

 obtained near at hand. 



No evidence has been found in the three counties under inves- 

 tigation (Shropshire, Staffordshire and Cheshire) to show that the 

 separate trades of the clog-soler who cuts the block to the final 

 shape, and the clog-maker who makes and fixes on the uppers, 

 are rural industries. The doggers are often cobblers as well and 

 they are to be found in the towns. They buy the soles and attach 

 uppers which are frequently made from old boots. 



Two very interesting doggers were found in a country town 

 in Shropshire, and their business proves that clogging still sur- 

 vives as a complete self-contained craft. Of these two, one 

 has sons in the trade and the other has not. Material is obtained 

 in the neighbourhood, for present railway freights are prohibi- 

 tive to a small-scale business. Even on local wood haulage costs 

 have been high. One of the doggers, who would like to get 

 his supplies close at hand, estimates that £100 a year could be 

 made from four and a-half acres of waste land near by if it were 

 planted with alder. Some alder can be cleared by thinning every 

 five years in such a way that other shoots grow strong, but the 

 best material for clogs comes from wood of twenty-five to thirty 

 years' growth. The dogger held out his hand, palm upward, 

 with the thumb and fingers bent to show how five alder shoots 

 should be left to grow out from the stock and then shoot up 

 straight and strong. He does not care for older material as 

 there is more sawing and cutting to be done to it, and conse- 

 quently the costs are higher. 



The son, who cuts the blocks and does a sawing and clearing 

 business for fences and firewood, prefers to work in his own shed 

 at home and not out in the woods. Therefore the problem of 

 waste wood, on which haulage to the yard has been paid, is 

 seriously exercising his mind He is thinking of toys and other 

 small wooden articles. He does not use the usual block-cutter's 

 knife when working at home, but shapes the blocks with his saw, 

 which is worked by means of a small engine, after they have been 

 cross-sawn and cleft to the right size. He is also considering a 

 small portable saw which could be used out in the woods, and is 

 interested in engines whose furnaces can utilise chips and saw- 



