Collection
Discover how the shoes we wear every day have changed since the Victorian times. Meet the people who put Street on the map by founding the Clarks Shoe business. Learn how shoemaking technology has evolved. Explore fashions in shoe retail and be inspired by design.
Over 100,000 museum objects reveal 200 years of shoemaking history
Explore the collection
In the exhibition – journey through 200 years of shoemaking history. Four permanent exhibition galleries tell the stories of shoemaking in Street, the buying and selling of footwear and the fossils found under the factories!
Behind the scenes – an extensive archive collection spanning four hundred years of family, business and local history.
Researchers – book time in the library for your own research or make a collections enquiry.
On permanent display
Visit the permanent exhibition
Behind the scenes – in the archive
Footwear
A history of men’s, women’s and children’s shoes and footwear from the 1860s to the current day. The history of Clarks’ footwear, along with its evolving styles, materials, production techniques and influences can be explored in our collections which includes designs from Clarks and its subsidiaries.
View Footwear
Making Shoes
Tools, machines and shoemaking equipment charting the evolution of shoe production from hand shoemaking to factory production. The collections include innovative technologies developed over the past two centuries, and representations from the foremost British tool and machinery manufacturers.
View Making Shoes
Street
Collections including photographs, maps and plans, document the growth of the village from its roots in agricultural production to its rise as a centre for British footwear manufacturing, and now as the headquarters of a global brand and shopping village. The collections provide an insight into the communities that made it all possible.
View Street
The Clark Family Records
A comprehensive view of the Clark family history, their social connections and experiences as active Quakers, campaigners and philanthropists spanning 400 years. Personal letters, diaries, photographs, artwork, travel accounts, autobiographies, and family objects document a four-hundred-year history of the Clark family and kinship connections across Somerset, the UK and internationally.
View The Clark Family Records
Business History
The Shoemakers Museum’s archive documents the 200-year history of the Clarks shoe company, its subsidiaries, and business acquisitions in the UK and globally. It offers an invaluable insight into international footwear manufacturing, marketing and retail.
View Business History
Fossils
An internationally important collection of Jurassic fossils collected by Alfred Gillett, a member of the Clark family, and members of the 19th century Somerset Archaeological Society.
View Fossils
Explore more
Visit the museum to see a selection of collection items that bring alive the stories of the Shoemakers of Street, in four permanent exhibition galleries.
When we are open you will be able to explore more of our fascinating archive collection by booking a behind the scenes tour. Available for groups of up to eight.
Researchers
Researchers are welcome to book time in the reading room library or make a collections enquiry to support your own research. The Trust also provides a reproduction and digitisation service, providing digital images of collection. Items can be photographed or scanned to archival standards in our in-house studio.
Make an enquiry
Donate an item
If you have an item you want to share you are welcome to contact us. The items for display in the museum have already been selected and the Trust can only accept new objects into the archive collection in very exceptional cases.
Make an enquiry