Jeopardy for the Walsall leather ecosystem

Mike Redwood

Columnist

International Leather Maker

Most readers of this will have never heard of Walsall. It is an ancient British market town which evolved into a centre of small industries and became known as “the town of a hundred trades”, rather eclipsed by nearby Birmingham – “the city of a thousand trades.”

Walsall’s secret lies in the nickname of its football team – the Saddlers – as those hundred trades were built around the workshops of their historic saddlery sector – saddlers, tanners and curriers, makers of bridles and harnesses, and the loriners who make the metal gear for the endless horse “tack” like stirrups, bits and bridles.

Walsall is currently classed as a deprived town, not dissimilar to the left-behind places on the U.S. industrial belt. If you were to write a SWOT, it is hard to think of strengths beyond good access to the national road system and its saddlery heritage.

These days, governments are pushing heritage narratives as foundational for regeneration and around the world, towns are trying to retain any evidence that can support their heritage stories. But at the start of 2025, Walsall decided to change its very clear 2019 plan and repurpose its famous Leather Museum, putting the collection into storage awaiting a new unidentified location – a game plan used previously over the last fifteen years with half a dozen other local museums, not one of which have ever been re-housed. And of course, its current building is a 19^th century leathergoods factory, part of the experience.

A hard-fought campaign over many months appeared to have stopped the move but in December, it was quietly resurrected by a group of senior councillors attempting to push the closure through in semi-secrecy.

There are still more than 50 saddlery businesses in Walsall

The weirdness of this is hard to overstate. Saddlery is not a dead business in Walsall. It is certainly battling in the modern economic environment, but there are still more than 50 businesses involved, meaning Walsall remains self-sufficient in saddle production with a local tannery and a recently opened skill centre (backed by the Saddlers Livery Company) to support a flow of new entrants.

Industrial heritage

The Museum itself is not a static place. In addition to its collection, it offers fine interpretation and many workshops. The British Government has a strong place-based industrial policy to support local uniqueness and industry clusters. The Leather Museum is a powerful way to advertise the location branding of Walsall and the town should be using it to champion the town via it most famous products at all manner of occasions, from the Olympics to the local heavy-horse events. It should serve as a reminder that the great industries of the English Midlands have all married a strong element of craft and design, be it the 2012 Olympic torches or motorcar manufacturers such as Morgan. For all the existing saddlery crafts, the Museum is the key location for holding the tacit knowledge built up over hundreds of years of production.

In fact, the museum is a vital part of the memory and interpretive brain of the whole area, as it brings together tanning, lorinery, saddlery and many newer types of leather goods workshops into a much bigger tale of place, technique and industrial change. With the way so many industries have relocated overseas and are now coming unstuck as buyers look for more secure local suppliers, there must be an opportunity for Walsall to redefine new premium and value for money sectors and start to expand once more.

The Council should remember that it is the young that are being disadvantaged here, so we owe a huge thank you to Lauren Broxton, a Walsall-based leather fashion designer, educator and now campaigner, for getting involved. Her role as lead campaigner is rooted in both professional expertise and her deeply personal connection to Walsall’s leather heritage, having first got excited about working with leather when visiting the Museum as a young child. What she is fighting over is a key element of what has been described as a rare coherent work‑ecosystem that could sit squarely inside the “future of work” debates and some of the frustrations of younger people.

Time for reconsideration

It is here that the council truly need to step back and reconsider what they are doing. Everywhere, we see modern politicians acting as though they are trapped into some modern tribe that is defined by the immediacy of social media and short election cycles: they need to break away and recognise that a town built over centuries needs long-term vision and patient capital. Creating new jobs is incredibly costly for communities such as Walsall, and once created, they are hard to keep. Nothing is better than supporting and growing existing industries, keeping young people in the community after they complete any post-school training by offering them decent career pathways. Around the world, we are seeing our young people demonstrate more anger about the world in which they are starting working life. Already anxious about climate, inequality and housing, AI has become another symbol of a future in which gains are privatised while it appears risks and transitions are socialised onto new entrants.

Everywhere, we are seeing similar distress with a lack of career prospects and a feeling the world is corrupted. In Africa, there is a lot about stolen elections, in China there is a destroyed property sector and huge graduate unemployment; and in the West, student debt and unaffordable housing are rising just as entry-level jobs are being shut down by companies using AI as part truth and as an excuse to avoid new graduate intake. The truth is that a world of slower aggregate growth but rising educational attainment leaves too many young people queuing for a small number of high‑status slots. Moreover, for many who do find employment, they end working long hours on short contracts for faceless corporations who offer little more than burnout.

A thoughtful and caring community built around an ancient yet modern industry such as saddlery offers something unique. But it needs its entry points made visible through the stories told and the infrastructure it maintains. This should include museums, skill centres, workshops and apprenticeships that lead to the career pathways. As more and more of the regular graduate roles are squeezed by automation, young people are beginning to consider skilled, hands‑on trades that combine craft, tech and export markets. Marking time in hospitality work is no longer an option, logistic work is fast being replaced by robots and, even if it can be afforded, taking a year out is losing its excitement.

Heritage crafts and jobs

What the saddlers offer to Walsall in terms of design, heritage craft and a place-based cluster is the very meat of a modern growth strategy and a kernel for satellite jobs. While Walsall is the major centre for traditional bench saddlers still relying mainly on eye, template and experience, saddle and saddle-tree work is fast becoming hybrid. CAD‑controlled milling and CNC routers are increasingly being used in the making of saddle trees and to produce metal parts such as stirrup bars etc., to improve repeatability in standard production. Hi-tech materials are going into many saddle-trees and for some bespoke saddles, horses are being laser measured for a perfect fit.

The modern leather industry needs more people like Lauren Broxton. She has used her business networks and her own social media accounts to fight the unbending institutional decisions of Walsall. She brings credibility and passion to the situation and clearly understands Walsall’s future employment needs and how they fit with youthful aspirations. She has a clutch of influential voices around her which now includes Councillor Sarah-Jane Cooper, who worked in the Museum for many years.

Lauren can claim the Museum as her childhood contact point out of which she has built her leather career. She demonstrates that the sector offers something more than a job but a route into a tribe and a craft identity at a time when the white‑collar social contract is visibly failing, which makes the Museum the polar opposite of a “nice‑to‑have” amenity. The museum creates the story and becomes the convening hub for this system – connecting schools, FE/HE, training providers, SMEs, tourists and policymakers in a way that no single factory or training centre can manage on its own. Indeed, it helps make Walsall a live test bed for “good work in a post‑AI Britain”: skilled, place‑rooted and export‑oriented, blending hand and digital tools, and aligned with national creative‑industries and skills strategies.

I have always believed that our leather industries required more resident poets and artists to tell their stories, that leather should widen its markets the way Bill Amberg is doing with interior design and everyday objects – and many of his works are made from saddlery leather like his amazing staircase for Leathersellers Hall. The trade does offer support for aspiring startups working in leather industries in all manner of areas suited to fit well in the Walsall cluster.

Many see the battle for the Museum as “probably useless”, but it is actually very contemporary: it sits exactly at the intersection of heritage, future‑of‑work policy and the search by younger people for meaningful, durable livelihoods in a jittery, AI‑saturated economy. The Walsall Councillors need to open their minds, look up at the wider context beyond short-term cost saving and bring vision and belief back to the future of this historic town. They will be applauded for it.

mike@internationalleathermaker.com

You can find Dr Mike Redwood across social media at @michaelredwood.

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