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.

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 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 start at 10:00am outside Northampton Museum in Guildhall Road in the town centre on the following dates:

Sunday 23rd March, Walking tour

Sunday 13th April, Walking tour

Sunday 11th May, Walking tour

Sunday 8th June, Walking tour

  • They will cost £5 per person, 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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