Aberdare’s Surgeon to Old Shoes

Posted on March 10th, 2007 filed in Aberdare People, Aberdare Photos, Aberdare Town, Shopping

A chance encounter in Weatheral Street, Aberdare today : whilst taking a photograph the gentleman with white hair walks into view and smiles for the camera.

Russell Bowen is Aberdare’s Surgeon to Old Shoes. Perhaps we should call him the Surgeon General as he is the most senior cobbler in Aberdare and has been in the business of mending shoes for decades.

In times past, local craftspeople made and mended shoes, and therefore there were cobblers in every town and village.

Nowadays the majority of our shoes are made thousands of miles away, mostly in Chinese factories. Few of these shoes are built to last or be repaired.