Columnist

Doing the walk of life for 90 years…

Putting your best foot forward can take you a long way – from baby’s first step to the first walk on the Moon.

And as Stockton-based footwear firm Charles Clinkard celebrates 90 years in business, it has been looking back on some of the most famous walks in history.

Managing director Charles Clinkard said: “We like to say to customers that we’re with them on all their walks of life.

“We’re there from their first baby toddle to the first day at school, the first romantic stroll to the walk down the aisle - and on and on for the rest of their lives.

“So because we’re celebrating a big anniversary, we thought we’d take a moment to reflect on all the historic walks of life that have happened while we’ve been around during the last 90 years.”

Back in 1924 when Charles and Eveline Clinkard opened their first shop, Ramsey MacDonald had just strolled proudly into 10 Downing Street as the first ever Labour prime minister (he had to walk out again at the next election just 11 months later).

In the summer of that year, Chariots of Fire runners Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams were managing rather better than a walk to win gold at the Paris Olympics.

Fast feet were also the order of the day in 1933 when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers danced together for the first time in Going Down to Rio.

But things were about to get very hard indeed just a few years later.

In 1936, the 207 Jarrow Marchers wore down their shoe leather on their courageous and desperate crusade to Westminster to protest about poverty and unemployment.

The terrible war years followed, with many hard and tragic walks – although for the lucky ones, dreams came true when they were able to step back through their own front doors.

A bright moment came when Morecambe and Wise trod the boards together for the first time in 1941, with a 43-year journey in comedy ahead of them.

Another famous duo were heading for the top in 1953 – quite literally.

On 29 May that year, Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tensing Norgay stepped onto the summit of Everest.

Back in Stockton, the retailer had made a big step forward - in 1950 Charles Clinkard opened the company’s second quality footwear store in what has now grown into a national chain of 33, employing more than 550 staff.

Footwear made it to the Moon for the first time in 1969, when Neil Armstrong made his “one small step for man, one large leap for Mankind”.

He and Buzz Aldrin tested out their moonboots for more than two hours on the rocky surface.

Back on Earth, Charles Clinkard was continuing to grow.

Eveline retired in 1976, the Summer of the Sandal, when the nation’s greatest heatwave just went on and on.

Charles said: “We were around when Dire Straits did the Walk of Life in 1985 – which we loved, of course – and when the first Brits walked to the North Pole in 2000.

“And we celebrated every step when the Olympic flame toured the country in 2012.

“Now we’re looking ahead to our centenary and all the walks of life we intend going on with our customers in the next decade – in their own way, we’re sure each and every one of them will be just as epic!”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lottie King .