Bill Bird Shoes, 49 Northwick Business Centre, Blockley, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire, GL56 9RF, UK
Tel: 01386 700855
billbird.shoes@btinternet.com www.madetomeasureshoes.co.uk

Monday June 7th. Emily has rejoined the team after two months maternity leave. Congratulations to her and her new daughter! Also this week, Rebecca is now able to work with us for three days a week. With our team up to strength again we are concentrating on reducing our waiting list whilst still keep up the high quality of work that we have become known for.

Thursday May 6th. Bill and Russell travel to De Montfort University to take part in the judging for the Pattenmakers' Orthopaedic Design Award. The winner was Kyle with her vegan bootee for a person with bunions. They have a detachable fake fur top and were very finely made. All the contestants had to present their own workmanship as well as the design. They also did an extraordinary amount of research work into foot and ankle function and the things that can go wrong with feet.

The other judges were Phillip Hammersley CBE, former factories director of the British Shoe Corporation and former managing director of Freeman Hardy Willis, and Anthea Rook, former shoe designer for Clarks and creator and maker of the iconic 1970s Thea Cadabra shoe phenomenon.

Kyle's entry was one of ten very stylish shoes from ten second year students.

Saturday March 27th 2010. A statistical study done on our records show a remarkably successful client relationship. On average, 69% of new customers go on to re-order at a later date and 52% go on to order 3 or more pairs. 55% of those who only ordered 1 pair were past their mid seventies and may well have only intended to order one pair anyway. We strive to offer the best service possible to all our clients to see if we can improve these statistics even more. We have slightly more women than men as clients and our overall average order numbers is half way between 3 and 4 pairs per customer.

Wednesday March 24th 2010. Bill visited Jimmy Choo by invitation, had lunch with him and toured his couture workshop near Marble Arch in London. Bill admired the very fine couture work of Jimmy's closing whilst Jimmy was very interested in the way that we hand carve wooden lasts. Jimmy accepted an invitation to visit our workshop in the late spring.

Tuesday March 2nd 2010. Bill Bird Shoes launch their new shoe colouring service with 622 different colours available. We can even dye black shoes lighter colours. This is a professional dye system not available for use by the public because of the complexity of its application. It is durable and very effective. All types of shoes can be coloured including textiles except suede shoes.

Monday March 1st 2010. Bill has been accepted into the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers, the ancient London livery associated with made to measure shoemakers. Bill attended the 10th Annual Footwear dinner put on by the Pattenmakers today in the Skinners Hall, near Canon Street.

Saturday February 27th 2010. Bill, Kate, Russell and Becky attend the 12th Annual Independent Shoemakers Conference in Amersham Buckinghamshire. The event was attended by 50 people from Ireland to Sweden with most coming from England. There were master classes and demonstrations as well as time meeting up with many long term friends in the industry.

Friday November 11th 2009. Bill and Russell travel to De Montfort University where Russell gave his first lecture day to the footwear design department. The lecture and demonstration was on designing elegant styles for difficult feet and was deemed by all to have been very successful and informative.

Monday November 9th - 11th. Bill went to Strathclyde University in Glasgow to take part in the development of an HNC - HND in orthopaedic shoemaking as part of a wider course on orthotics and prosthetics. While he was there he was given an extensive tour of the National Centre for Orthotics and Prosthetics.

Friday October 9th 2009. Bill went to Leicester to start the new term with the new set of second year students. This year he will also start teaching foot anatomy and studies of how people walk to the first year students so that they have a full three years to learn this complex subject.  

Friday August 28th 2009. As the new term approaches we had two GCSE students come and do work experience with us this week, Harriet and Jess came independently from different schools to learn how shoes are made. Also today Phil Stewart from the De Montfort University Footwear Design Course came to plan the coming years lecture program. This year, the staff of Bill Bird Shoes will be providing eight days of lectures spread from October until April 2010. The young people of today are so full of ideas and enthusiasm. 

Wednesday July 1st 2009. The launch of our special summer sandal offer. £440 if you have your own low heeled lasts. They can be made from any of the colours numbered below. These can be done much more quickly than our shoe orders. "I've been on two long trips to Africa and I didn't even know they were on my feet!" said one of our clients about these sandals recently.

Thursday June 25th 2009. Our new bespoke shoemaking brochure has arrived and is available on request. This edition has many more quality pictures of shoes we have made that we are proud of. You will find these pictures helpful in seeing the quality of work that we do. Please phone or email with your address and we will send you one.

Thursday May 28th. Bill took part in the judging of the Pattenmakers Orthopaedic Footwear Design Award at De Montfort University. The winner was Megan Phillip, both for her design for a smart casual trainer style and for her extensive research project on foot problems and how footwear can be used to help them. Part of the prize is a weeks training at Bill Bird Shoes

Saturday February 21st. Bill Bird Shoes hosted the 11th Annual Independent Shoemakers' Conference near Alcester, Warks. Over 60 shoemakers from all over the UK, Ireland and also from Sweden came to the two day event. There were several student shoe designers and makers as well. There were master classes by Bill Bird and David Xavier and a lecture on bespoke fashion design by Kevin Guilford of De Montfort University.

Wednesday February 11th.  The snow has finally gone after a loss of 2 1/2 days and yesterday with no electricty. Now we're back in full working order making shoes for you.

Saturday December 13th 2008. All the staff at Bill Bird Shoes and their partners had a wonderful Christmas party at Caminetto's restaurant in Chipping Campden.

Thursday December 4th 2008. 19 students plus three staff from the footwear design department of De Montfort University visited us for a tour of our workshops and a day of training in three different areas of our work.

Monday November 10th, 2008. Becky, our new apprentice shoemaker has started work with us today. She is a graduate from the De Montfort University, footwear design degree course, where she won an award for her design work.

Thursday November 6th 2008. Bill and Russell travelled to De Montfort University in Leicester to give a day of lectures on made-to-measure shoemaking to the 2nd Year students studying for the BA Footwear Design and Manufacture Degree. Bill Bird Shoes is providing a major part of the curriculum for the 2nd Year technical project.

Wednesday October 1st, 2008. Visit our new dedicated orthopaedic website at www.bespokeorthopaedicfootwear.co.uk launched this week.

Monday September 28th 2008. Bill back at work after recovering from surgery in August.

Saturday April 5th 2008. Drapers, the UK's premier trade magazine on fashion, footwear and textiles published a long letter written by Bill about some positive developments in made-to-measure footwear education at De Montfort University in Leicester.

Friday April 4th 2008. Sophie and Izzy, students from the De Montfort University footwear course have completed a weeks training with us during which they learned aspects of pattern-making, last fitting and measuring techniques. They said they thoroughly enjoyed their time and learned an enormous amount.

Thursday February 14 till Monday 18th 2008. The staff of Bill Bird Shoes travelled to Kildare, Ireland to attend the 10th annual Independent Shoemakers' Conference. This very successful event was attended by shoemakers from Cork in Ireland all the way across to Stockholm in Sweden.

Thursday January 28th 2008. 16 Students plus the staff of the Footwear Course at De Montfort University, visited the Bill Bird Shoes workshops for an afternoon of demonstrations and short tutorials on aspects of the shoemaking process.

Thursday January 17th 2008. Bill and Emily travelled to De Montfort University in Leicester to give a day of lectures on made-to-measure shoemaking to the 2nd Year students studying for the BA Footwear Design and Manufacture Degree. Bill Bird Shoes is providing a major part of the curriculum for the 2nd Year technical project.

Tuesday December 4th 2007. Bill and Kate attended the funeral of their uncle, Chas Malham. Chas was the last of a long dynasty of boot-makers and shoe-repairers that date at least from his great-great grandfather, Matthew Malham (1791). His great-grandfather, Benjamin, started Malham's Bootmakers in 1861 in Hartlepool. Chas has delighted many of our younger clients with the colourful, tiny shoes that he spent his last years making. Many of Malham's tools are still in use at Bill Bird Shoes and Kate Bird has continued the Malham family tradition of working in the making and repair industry. Chas was 85 when he died in Hartlepool, Sunday November 25th.

Monday November 12th 2007. Kevin Guildford the head of the footwear department at De Montfort University in Liecester, together with assistant Phil, visited the workshop to discuss the design of the new curriculum for the made to measure shoemaking option of the degree course in footwear design. The staff of Bill Bird Shoes will have a major part to play in the delivery of the curriculum in 2008.

Friday November 9th 2007. Bill attended the annual Textile Institute Parliamentary Lunch at the House of Lords. This was somewhat in contrast to our normal lunch around the workshop bench.

Saturday October 20th 2007. The beautifully restored Polish War Memorial, originally built in 1952 on the Northwick Business Centre, was unveiled by the Ambassador of Poland and the Chair of the Gloucestershire County Council at noon today. Bill attended the ceremony and subsequently our workshops were toured by some of the people who lived and grew up there in the 1950s. The memorial is really worth seeing when you come to visit our shop.

Tuesday October 9th. Bill attended a lunch in the Athenǽum, London, put on by the Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers for their patron, HRH Duke of Gloucester. Bill's role was to present to the patron, a variety of new  developments in orthopaedic shoemaking education. This included a new made-to-measure shoemaking course at De Montfort University which Bill is involved in.

Saturday September 1st 2007. Bill Bird Shoes exhibited at the Moreton Agricultural Show. We won the 'Best trade stand under cover trophy' for the second year running. 

Friday June 16th 2007. Bill and Russell attended the degree show at De Montfort University, viewing the work of the graduating students from the footwear design department. It was inspiring to see the work coming from the younger generation.

Tuesday June 13th 2007. All the staff of Bill Bird Shoes made a trip to the leather merchants of Northampton, bringing back a wide variety of unusual and fine leathers.  This is the best way for us to get the enhanced range of materials needed to offer you even better and more innovative footwear designs.

Friday February 16th - 18th 2007. Bill Bird Shoes, together with Xavier Footwear, hosted the  9th Annual Independent Shoemaker's Conference, near Alcester, Warwickshire. The event was very successful, attended by over 60 shoemakers from all across the UK and Ireland. Apart from being an enjoyable get-together for all the shoemakers with plenty of opportunity for shop-talk, there were many inspiring displays of work, master-classes and lectures. 

Thursday February 15th 2007. Bill was presented with an illuminated scroll by the Worshipful Guild of Pattenmakers, in the Armourer's Hall, London. This was in recognition for his "outstanding work in support of the Pattenmakers' Company Orthopaedic Shoe Fund" over the last ten years. This work involved the making of orthopaedic footwear for young people for whom the appearance of the footwear was crucial.

Tuesday November 28th 2006. Bill was invited to join the Qualifications and Curriculum Funding Forum advising the sector skills agency for footwear on the need for training in the orthopaedic and made to measure footwear.

Saturday November 11th 2006. Bill was awarded a Certificate in Further Education and Training at Warwick University. Bill specialized in developing education programmes in orthopaedic footwear.

Wednesday September 6th 2006. The new upgraded software for our computerised dynamic analysis service has now been installed. This gives us even more individual information so that we can increase the accuracy and comfort of each client's footwear.

Saturday Sept 2nd 2006. We had our first trade stand at the Moreton Agricultural Show, one of the largest events of its type in the UK.  We won first prize for the best trade stand under cover.

 Bill Bird Shoes at the Moreton Show 

Saturday August 26th 2006. Our new treadmill is installed. This enables our customers to walk in an easy and steady way on the spot. This means that we can watch how their feet behave in the shoes and thoroughly test the fit.

Friday July 14th 2006.  HRH the Duke of Gloucester came to see our workshop. On a special visit as Patron of the Ancient Guild of Pattenmakers, the Duke viewed our orthopaedic work for young people with severe fitting and walking problems. The Duke spent about 40 minutes touring the workshop and met several young recipients.

The Duke meets a member of our staff. 

Friday April 7th 2006. NEW SERVICE - We can now offer computerised dynamic analysis of our client's walking cycle to increase the accuracy and comfort of their footwear. This sophisticated piece of equipment gives us insights into the individual subtleties of the foot behaviour of each client.  Recommended for orthopaedic shoes.