After liberty bodices...

I remember segs too , you could hear us coming a mile away lol and the other kids chased us off the icy slides because they scored the surface

Remember segs-never had them but remember little cards of them in the shoe polish basket. I do remember having the soles of new shoes scratched with the point of a nailfile

I was born after the war but I remember having to put on new shoes (with segs) and go outside to shuffle around in gravel to rough up the soles.

I've learned something new today - I never knew they were called segs! I remember having them on my shoes and how noisy and slippery they were.

Any one remember the road being tarmacked and being told to go out to walk on the fresh tar to make the soles of your shoes last longer.

Crikey - that's brought back memories! I DO remember my mum scratching away at the leather soles of my newly-bought shoes with one of those metal pan-scrubbers. Also 'segs' - we used to ask the cobbler to put these into the heels of our 'kitten- heeled' shoes when they were in for mending (something else that's rarely done now). Thought we were the bees knees making the lovely clicking sound as we walked from class to class at senior school

I do remember having the bottom of my shoes scratched I suppose because of shiney leatheR also remember having the toes cut out of my summer sandals when my feet had grown. But don't remember Segs

I was never allowed Blakeys - I wanted them for their spark-raising abilities - and for why says you? Because they were "common"...
We came from a street (nay, an 'Avenue') where the boys wore shoes. The less well-favoured kids wore ankle-boots (as did many older office-workers, so I can't really see where the 'common-ness' came in.)

I've never forgotten my father's astonished face when addressed as 'Mate' by a boot-wearing 8-year-old from my Junior School class!

I remember segs too, although I don't think I ever had them on my shoes. I lived in a mill town where lots of people wore clogs and my mum was determined that I would never have to wear them. I think they put segs on on the clogs.

My dad never put the segs on our heels till they had worn down and he put them on the worn down bit to both level the heel and make them wear longer. He also put rubber soles on before the leather actually went into a hole. He had one of those last things with three feet to do it.

My Grandad was a shoemaker, and so our shoes were repaired at home, with segs and leather, heels and soles. He also had several " lasts" the three legged tool . Wonder where they went? They would have made lovely door stops.

Lona I was born in a Yorkshire mill village and one of my very early memories is hearing the groups of men walking down the road past our house for the early shift at the mill. They all wore clogs and the clatter they made with the clog irons (much bigger than segs) was the sound that woke me up. In the dark days of winter you could see sparks from them as they went by.

Woss all this abaht shoes? Dahn the East End we woz lucky to 'ave a couple of bits of wood to strap to our feet. And in a well 'ard faamly like the Mitchells in Eastenders the dads used to 'ammer the scrambleds (scrambled eggs: segs) into the kids' bare 'eels.

[That's the last time I try to type cockney on an iPad with predictive text.]

We called them 'studs'. They put them on one pair of my shoes and that was the last they did it. Nothing like a bit of rebellion for sorting things out.

Gagagran you experienced history! That is so Elizabeth Gaskell!

We called them blakeys. My dad also used to glue rubber soles onto the leather ones. I don't recall the scraping bit. These days I don't have shoes mended at all.

gagagran made me think of the song about the artist Lowry

....."Painted matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs"....Was that the one Galen? Yes it was very like that. I am talking about the 1940s (I was born in 1943).

It's all gone now of course and the remaining mills have been turned into apartments or light industry units. It's called progress.

Luxury grumpa we dreeeemed of 'aving feet.

I am sure that they were called studs in Fife-anybody remember?

And the kids on the corners of the streets with sparking clogs.
One of my favourites

Never had segs, but I was another who`s new shoes leather soles were scored with a sharp knife or scissors to stop them being slippy. All new shoes seemed to have leather soles, unlike nowadays.

Yes, scoring was the term used - you could do it with the milled edge of a half-crown... The idea was to break up the smooth surface of the leather to avoid it being "slippy", or in English "slippery"!

How weird - I was watching an episode of The Last Detective today and one of the clues left by the villain was a footprint with an imprint of a Blakey!