After California, back to reality. I was buzzing from my trip to the States but was brought down to reality with a bump early one evening in December. My Dad said he wanted me to clear out Cobden Mill. I looked at him blankly, I had no idea where or what was in Cobden mill.
I convinced a couple of friends that they could earn a bit of cash to help me shift some bits out of a lock up. We rented a van for a Thursday morning. Dad drove down and we followed, back to Bright Street, where the old factory had been, then around the corner to Cobden Mill. We pulled up and walked down a dark alley to a sliding door. Dad unclicked the padlock and nothing, the door wouldn’t budge, it took three of us pushing and pulling to get the door open.
We starred at a room stacked floor to ceiling with sewing machine benches, cutting knives and old wooden lasts. Glass jars stuffed with drop forged spikes. All day we lifted and carried stacking the van and transporting it back to Bradley Fold, into another store room. By day two we had cleared a room 20 by 20 feet and came across yet another door. When we pulled it open it was yet another smaller 10ft square room. This was the contents of the old J.W. Fosters Olympic Works. We set too, out came a Blake Sewing Machine and right at the back what looked like two sets of drawers and a filing cabinet, when we got them out, we figured it was a mahogany roll top desk.
It was in a bad way, veneer cracked and pieces missing. We loaded it and reported back to Bradley Fold with our haul and took my dad through what we had found.
“And then there was this old desk”
“That’s Grandad’s desk.”
“My Grandad?”
“No, mine.” “ its rubbish, just throw it away!”
“You’re kidding dad, that’s gold dust!”
I have to admit it wasn’t gold dust, as it sat there with castors missing covered in 30 years of dust and grime. Massive crack down one of the drawer legs. The front edge was covered in saw marks, and a notch cut out of the bottom draw to accommodate the phone flex as my Grandad used to lock the phone in the draw to stop people using it.It was a mess but to his credit my dad had it repaired and today it is on loan to Reebok in Cheadle Hulme.
© David Foster 2020
Foster's Famous Shoe's 