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Hugh Mitchells Shoe Shop

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Summary
Ena's story is about her time working in a shoe shop.

By Ena Bradburn

Other information

This story was inspired by a pair of shoes from the collections at the Regional Resource Centre at Beamish.


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Video transcript

My headmistress found me a job at Hugh Mitchell’s shoe shop in 1955. I worked at the shop for 5 years. They had five shoe shops in all, three in Sunderland and one of them was in Crowtree Road and the other two were in High Street East and West. The others were at Murton Colliery and Easington Colliery. I worked at the main shoe shop which was next to the arcade in High Street East. All of the shoes were delivered there to be examined before they were sent to the other shops. My hours at work were from 9am till 6pm with an hour and a half for lunch. I worked five and a half days a week. Once a year the poor children of Sunderland came to the shoe shop for a free pair of shoes which Sunderland Council paid for. The shoes had to be stamped inside with SC for Sunderland Council. I enjoyed working at Hugh Mitchell’s shoe shop and still have friends from there today.  


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