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Shoe Tours

Step Forward With Lewis is pleased to announce our popular Northampton Shoe Tours will be returning to Northampton in 2025.

The running and walking tours take in the historical sites of the town’s rich shoe heritage, including famous sites such as the Tricker’s factory.  Please note the tours are all outside, so please wear suitable shoes and clothing for comfort.

During the tours, which last between an hour-and-a-half to two hours for the running tour and around two-and-a-half hours to three hours for the walking tour, you will see where Northampton’s shoe manufacturers worked and lived, and learn what their lives were like as the industry boomed.

Shoe run

Our tours meet outside Northampton Museum in Guildhall Road in the town centre on the following dates:

Sunday 10am 23rd March, Walking tour

Sunday 10am 13th April, Walking tour

Sunday 10am 11th May, Walking tour (money going to The Lewis Foundation charity)

Sunday 10am 8th June, Walking tour (Last tour at £5 per person)

Note time change going forward:

Sunday 9am 6th July, Walking tour

Sunday 9am 27th July, Walking tour

Sunday 9am 10th August, Running tour (money going to Team Daisy charity)

Sunday 9am 17th August, Walking tour

Sunday 9am 21st September, Walking tour

  • They will cost £10 per person (from July 2025), and we will require a minimum of four people to take part to make the tours viable.
  • Private group and wheelchair accessible tours are available on request.
  • To book your place on the tour, or if you have any questions, please get in touch at stepforwardwithlewis@gmail.com
  • Payment will be in cash on the day, or via BACS in advance (please ask for details).

 

The history of SFWL’s Shoe Tours

             

When the then borough council decided to celebrate Northampton’s shoe heritage in 2020 by erecting a number of statues of shoes around the town centre, our immediate thought was ‘we’d better run round to see them all’.

Thus, the Step Forward with Lewis Northampton Shoe Run was born.

As things stand, the new unitary council has not returned the shoe statues to our streets after removing them prior to the coronavirus pandemic so they do not form part of our new tours – but don’t worry, we’ve got enough heritage, history and shoe sites for even the most avid footwear lover.

If interested in a tour then email stepforwardwithlewis@gmail.com

If you want to know more about Notre Dame School – one of the non-shoe sites we look at on the tours – click this link to read all about it: Northampton Notre Dame school: Historic cemetery renovation completed – BBC News
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