Looking to the Future

Our 20/20 vision

Winter 2013Issue 26

Our News

NewsThe

Students at the three main British universities offering footwear degree courses will soon be able to compete to be crowned Cordwainers’ Footwear Student of the Year.Following agreement with the London College of Fashion (part of the University of the Arts London), De Montfort University and the University of Northampton, each student entering the competition will be invited to produce a design for a new shoe. This will include a design rationale together with mood boards, customer profile, and a materials board.

Each university will shortlist their five top entrants, who will then compete in a final to be judged by an independent panel of industry experts.

Commenting on the new competition, Kevin Guildford, Course Leader in Footwear at De Montfort University, said ‘It will be a great advert for what we do in the UK and also for the industry to clearly see how the Cordwainers are positively supporting the future of the business’.

Sue Saunders, Senior Lecturer in Footwear at the London College of Fashion added, ‘This is a really exciting

development. Designers of the future are being challenged and supported by the original home of the British footwear business – the Cordwainers’ company’.

The competition marks a breakthrough for the Cordwainers’ Company, as it is the first time we have spearheaded a national award. John Miller, the Clerk explained, ‘Our strategy is to increase our profile generally, particularly in the footwear industry, and this competition will help us to achieve this. In addition, it will enable us to consolidate our position as the leading provider of bursaries and scholarships to footwear and accessories students in the UK.’

The winners of the competition will be announced at the Ladies’ Dinner on 16th May 2014, when the top three students will also receive their prizes.

Sue Saunders

Cordwainers drive sheep across London BridgeIt is probably the most famous aspect of being a freeman of the City of London – freemen have a historic right to drive their sheep across London Bridge without having to pay a toll, a privilege that was highly valued 500 years ago, and is rather less useful today. The Worshipful Company of Woolmen resurrect this ancient privilege every few years with a sheep drive in aid of charity and on 21 September, Junior Warden Eleanor Stillwell and her sister Liveryman Judith Millidge joined 600 other freemen to exert their ancient rights. Judith reports:

‘As Cordwainers, the first question was how to be shod and the second, was what does the well-dressed shepherd wear? We erred on the side of practicality, attempting to avoid any hint of mutton being dressed as lamb, and stepped out wearing identical clothes for the first time since we were at school, way back in the last century.

Participants were given a time slot and groups of ten freemen drove sheep for about 100 metres across the bridge, at which point, another group took over. We walked across London bridge behind our sheep on a glorious Sunday afternoon and only had to explain a couple of times to those around us that Cordwainers had nothing to do with cord and everything to do with leather’.

New Footwear Student of the Year competition launched

Sheep drive on London Bridge

Prize-winning laced boot, 1890. (London College of Fashion Collection)

2 The Cordwainer

In the four months since Oath Day when I had the privilege of being elected your Master, life has been far from dull. There has been a round of dinners and functions, all of them interesting and convivial, but what you, may ask, is their relevance? As a Company, we are focusing very much on the future, with the launch of the 2020 Vision that will guide our progress for the next few years. How do the activities of the Master’s year fit with our vision?

Well, I hope that as a representative of the Company I serve to raise the profile of the Cordwainers, both with our charitable partners and in the wider world of the footwear trade.

I have attended some wonderful events with the Fusiliers and at the London College of Fashion, which really brought home to me that money donated by this Company has a very tangible effect on the lives and careers of young people, be they Fusilier cadets or footwear students. As Master, it is a true privilege to witness the good that we, as a Company, can do.

As part of our 2020 Vision, we aim to double the amount that we donate to external charities and my charity for the year is Cordwainers 125, which provides financial assistance to footwear students at LCF. I hope all of you will support this either financially, or – and here we embrace another aim of the 2020 Vision – get involved in the fundraising day at Blenheim Palace on 8 June 2014.

I am very aware that I am serving as Master at a time of change. This year, for the first time in our 741-year history, we have two female wardens, Eleanor Stillwell and Sue Lindsay. In November, our Cordwainer Lord Mayor Roger Gifford was succeeded by Alderman Fiona Woolf, who will become only the second female Lord Mayor in history and will be a guest of the Company at the Past Wardens’ Dinner in March.

One further development is that we are able to contemplate a new home for the company. This is a vision that, with hard work, astute management and good luck, may become reality in a few years time.

So I urge you all to embrace the 2020 Vision and look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible to the forthcoming events of the year. While the Company’s financial resources are undoubtedly strong, our most important asset is our members, without whom none of our charitable work would be possible.

Master’s Column

Glenn Shaw was born in Surrey in 1953, the youngest son of Colonel Freddie Shaw, and spent his early childhood in Iraq and Malaya. He was educated at Bedford School and the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester, before embarking on a career in farm management.

Glenn joined the Territorial Army in the 1970s and served for four years as a platoon commander and ‘weekend warrior’ with the Royal Anglian regiment.

In 2005, he returned to college and completed a degree in environmental planning at Anglia Ruskin University. He now has a successful career in mineral and waste planning at Essex County Council.

Father of James and Matthew, Glenn plays tennis regularly, is a keen long-distance cyclist, Scottish dancer, and historical re-enactor. He is also looking forward to reviving his babysitting skills, as he has recently become a proud grandfather to Harry, the son of his elder son James.

The Master, Glenn Shaw

“ As Master, it is a true privilege to witness the good that we, as a Company, can do.”

Proud Grandfather with baby Harry

The Cordwainer 3

Taking the

Our 2020 Vision and how we shall make it happen

The Company has undoubtedly enjoyed a wonderful year and inspired by those events, the Court has taken a long view of the Cordwainers’ future. It has agreed a new vision and strategy for the Company: the Cordwainers’ 2020 Vision. This sets out how the Company should look within seven years, and what it will focus on, so that it is well positioned for its 750th Anniversary in 2022, and can move on strongly beyond that.

Our 2020 Vision encompasses four broad aims, which are explained in more detail below.

Long View

‘I feel it is important to have our own home that will give the Cordwainers’ Company a greater identity for the future.’Liveryman, David Walker.

PARTICIPATIONAim 1: Increase further the participation and involvement of all Liverymen and Freemen in the Company’s social, charitable and governance activities.

We will focus on increasing the numbers and participation levels of active Liverymen by recruiting keen new members, and actively encouraging the participation of existing Liverymen, with a significant focus on younger members.

PROFILEAim 2: Increase the profile of the Company both internally amongst members, and externally in the footwear trade, in the City, and amongst our charitable and business partners.

Effective communication to our members is critical. The heritage and roots of the Company’s history is the basis of our moral compass, which will be directed towards ‘doing good and having fun’. This will be achieved through the use of The Cordwainer magazine, the website, social media and specific events.

In footwear education/trade, we are already well known within the university and college education community, and we shall seek to increase our brand position, as well as develop our links with the footwear trade. There are genuine opportunities to collaborate directly with specific organisations, and we shall develop these.

In the City, we shall promote who and what Cordwainers are and participate more in City life, hosting events with a wider group of Livery companies. We shall also work with the Ward of Cordwainer Club to promote ourselves. As the only Livery company with the same name as a City Ward, we have a unique advantage here.

Livery dinner 2013

4 The Cordwainer

‘ The 2020 Vision paper recognises how far we have come in recent years and the potential for the Company to go forward into the next decade.’

Liveryman, Caroline Squire.

CHARITYAim 3: Double the amount given by Cordwainers’ charities to targeted external charity beneficiaries from 2012 levels. This will be achieved in three ways:

• Increases in the amounts paid to its charity from the Cordwainers’ Company

• Organic growth resulting from expansion of individual charities run by the Company, such as the Cordwainers Educational and Training Charitable Trust (CET) and the Royal Free Hospital Nurses Trust

• Continued expansion of donations from Cordwainer members and their friends and families, combined with new donations resulting from corporate membership opportunities.

Our external charitable giving will remain focused on footwear and leather education and industry, together with continued support of our ‘heritage’ charities.

GROWTHAim 4: Progressively increase the financial strength of the Company so that we are able to consider acquiring our own home (not hall).

We shall continue to run all the businesses as efficiently as possible. There appears to be growing support for the idea of the Cordwainers acquiring its own home, preferably in Cordwainer Ward. A home may encompass offices, but will probably not aspire to be as large as a hall.

If we can achieve these aims, we will ensure that the Cordwainers is not simply a livery company that rests on past glories as a member of the City establishment. Instead, the Company will be a serious charitable patron that uses its roots and heritage as a basis to do good in the world of footwear education and our associated charities. Furthermore, with good management and dedication, we may be able to provide a company home for the first time since the Second World War.

‘ It is a wonderful reflection of the careful thought and desire of the Company to engage the Cordwainer family in a common strategy. Four simple aims will take us and our associated charities to a better place, and makes our Company stronger.’

Liveryman, Nick Ferrier.

The complete 2020 Vision strategy is available for download from the Cordwainer website www.cordwainers.org/2020-vision.aspx

Our 20/20 vision

The Cordwainer 5

Our news

AbroadCordwainers

I count myself extremely fortunate to be part of the broader Cordwainer family and value the friendships that I have established. I hope I am able to maintain my involvement in the Company and to actively engage my children to join the Livery too (should they want to). It takes a considerable amount of travel, resources and juggling, but the stimulation and reward one gets in return are, in my view, priceless.

Daniel, Géraldine, Aliénor, Séraphina, Colm Emerson.

The EmersonsBased in Ireland, Past Warden Daniel Emerson juggles the demands of a young family and artisan cider-making with his commitment to the Cordwainers. Here he explains how – and why – he does it.

As a young boy I watched my father bedecked in tails leaving the house to attend a Company function, and realised that there was something special about the Cordwainers. This view was reinforced when I came to attend the Apprentices’ Supper as a young adolescent. I was not only fed magnificently, but I was also treated like an adult and made most welcome, despite the fact I was a ‘Johnny-come-lately’, being the first freeborn son of our family.

Shortly after being clothed with the Livery, I was asked to resurrect a Company newsletter, possibly as a result of my vociferous nature. This was an excellent opportunity for me to get a glimpse of the inside workings of the Livery and also to familiarise myself with many of the great characters of the Company. A while later I was co-opted onto the newly created Events Committee under the patronage of Past Master Sam Salt, with its broad range of social and fund-raising activities.

While all of this was going on I had the extreme good fortune to meet my wife, Géraldine, who hails from a line of vignerons in the Loire Valley. We now have three charming but occasionally temperamental children, Aliénor (10), Séraphina (8) and Colm (3). Commercial life has also been highly enriching, encompassing printing, software development, new media and my latest chapter, craft cider-making, via my company Stonewell, which I founded in 2010.

In 2007, Géraldine, the children and I upped sticks and moved to Ireland, a country where I had spent much of my youth, where my parents spend a great deal of time, and where my sister, Freeman Harriet Emerson, lives with her husband Anthony and three children, Brigid (10), Muirean (8) & Conor (6).

Despite the geographical distance, I try to remain involved with the Company. I now chair the Events Committee and am delighted by the strength and depth of its members, who have been responsible for organising great social and fund-raising events. Our regular meetings provide a forum for lively debate, strategising and convivial conversation, contributing in many charitable and sociable ways to the Company’s ethos. Among our newest members we count Liveryman Tom Salt, who continues a virtuous circle from the time of the committee’s inception.

6 The Cordwainer

our news

fund-raising Cordwainers’

efforts reach new heightsDuring the course of the past year, Cordwainers and their families and friends have shown huge generosity by individually making voluntary donations totalling more than £81,000. When Gift Aid is added, the total amounts to more than £90,000, which is a new record.

Of this total, the year’s main fundraising campaign involved students and staff of the Guildhall School of Music in a musical outreach programme. Performing as The Cords, they played to patients of the Royal Free Hospital, and involved pupils at The Urswick School in Hackney, raising more than £45,000, also a record for a single campaign.

At The Urswick School, Year 9 pupils composed an original piece of music and then performed it at the annual Prize Day attended by governors, parents and past and present pupils of the school. Head Teacher Richard Brown said,

‘This year’s service was a huge success. The Cords certainly added to the occasion and I hope we can keep this project going in the future’.

At the Royal Free Hospital, the staff and students of the Guildhall School of Music engaged with patients undergoing treatments. Laura Leadsford, Director of Therapy Services was ecstatic with praise. She wrote, ‘This project has been so uplifting. We often want to take from patients – blood, history, scans, etc. – but this is something that comes to them with nothing asked for in return! For long-term condition patients, quality of life is everything. Often motivation to keep going is one of the hardest things to harness, music presented in this way makes it effortless…or nearly’!

Only a small proportion of the funds raised have been used and so the Music Outreach project will continue into 2014 and beyond.

Cordwainers 125In 2014, the main Cordwainers fund-raising campaign will switch to support students at Cordwainers at the London College of Fashion, which has been celebrating 125 years since the founding of Cordwainers College.

Cordwainers at London College of Fashion is a global leader in footwear and accessories education which, throughout its 125-year history, has supported, shaped and influenced its related industry. The alumni roll call of Cordwainers at LCF reads like the ‘Who’s Who’ of the footwear and accessories industry, including Cordwainer Liverymen Jimmy Choo and Linda (L K) Bennett.

Our aim is to raise funds for scholarships and bursaries in order to maintain

Cordwainers at LCF as the world’s premier destination for emerging designers.

With the removal of government provision across university funding, support is needed to provide life-changing scholarships for those who might otherwise not be able to study.

MA Fashion Artefact alumna, Christina Hamilton, received vital scholarships from the Worshipful Company of Cordwainers throughout her course. Christina said:

‘Receiving the funding was a huge weight off my mind – without their help I could not have done what I’ve done and bought the leathers that I used in my collections. Staff support and guidance were also invaluable.’

Over 20 Cordwainers attended a successful dinner at the Mansion House on 6th

September, at which HRH The Countess of Wessex, and new Patron of London College of Fashion was present.

A series of fundraising events are now being planned by the Events Committee for 2014, including a triathlon competition at Blenheim Palace on Sunday 8th June.

The Urswick School

Royal Free Hospital

Christina Hamilton

The Cordwainer 7

BirthsArabella Helena Bridgman Shaw daughter of David and Lucy on 28 June 2013.

Daniel Stuart Goff son of Ian and Shelley on 1 August 2013.

Harry Shaw son of James and Charlotte (and grandson of the Master) on 18 September 2013.

CongratulationsTo Past Master Mike Uren on the occasion of his 90th birthday on 1 September. Mike has sent us this photograph, which was taken in Nepal, where the Michael Uren Foundation is building up a series of Residential Homes in order to provide housing for former Gurkha soldiers.

To Past Master Richard Stillwell and his wife Jenny on the occasion of their Golden Wedding on 12 October 2013.

The Clerk is delighted to hear from all Cordwainers. Please remember to tell the office about changes of address and your family news.

© 2013 The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers. The Cordwainer is published twice a year. Copies are retained at the Cordwainers’ office. Contact the editor via the Cordwainers’ office: office@cordwainers.org or telephone +44 (0) 20 7929 1121. The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers, Clothworkers’ Hall, Dunster Court, Mincing Lane, London EC3R 7AH.

Notice Board

The Lord Mayor’s energy to transform livesAlderman Fiona Woolf CBE has succeeded Alderman Roger Gifford as the Lord Mayor of London and is only the second woman to hold the office since 1189. She has written to all the livery companies with details of the charitable focus of her year in office. (The full article is available on the Cordwainers.org website.)

I shall be continuing with the theme of ‘The City in Society’ but my focus will be on ‘The Energy to Transform Lives’, which reflects my long association with the City as an energy lawyer at CMS Cameron McKenna. All of my mayoral programmes are based on three themes that I feel are critical to our resource-constrained society: sustainability, diversity and charity.

• BeatingBowelCancerimprovesawarenessandearlydiagnosisofthesecondbiggest,yethighlytreatablecancer

• PrincessAliceHospiceisdevelopinganewmodelofhospicecaretoenablemorepeopletobereachedandsupportedintheirownhomes

• WorkingChanceisacharitywhichplaceswomenex-offendersintojobs,enablingthemandtheirchildrentocrossthesocialdividefromexclusiontocontribution

• RaleighInternationalprovidesyoungpeoplefromunderprivilegedbackgroundswithlifechangingexperiencesthatcontributetotheirownpersonalgrowthandthedevelopmentofcommunitiesinneedaroundtheworld.

Events planned for the year include the Lord Mayor’s Christmas Party on the evening of 10 December 2013, when the medieval Guildhall crypts will be transformed into a magical Christmas Wonderland; an inter-livery football match on 13 June 2014 and the Lord Mayor’s Ball in the Guildhall on 21st October 2014.

I hope you will join me on what are guaranteed to be memorable occasions!AldermanFionaWoolfCBETheRt.Hon.TheLordMayorofLondon

Tweets and blogsOne of the sure-fire ways to raise the Cordwainer profile is by the use of social media – that’s Twitter and Facebook. There is a flourishing ‘unofficial’ Cordwainer group on Facebook, open to all members of the Company, which is used intermittently, but is not an official mouthpiece. We also have a Twitter feed, @Cordwainers, which connects us with our charitable partners, City institutions and livery companies, students, and footwear designers and manufacturers.

It’s a wonderful way of being alerted to footwear news, the activities of footwear students, events in the City or the charitable worlds. It is also a useful means of promoting the Cordwainers and educating the world about what we do. Many members follow us already and we are keen to find someone able to define a Cordwainer in 140 characters or less!

For those who need more than 140 characters to express themselves, we also have a company blog, and contributions are always welcome from anyone. We are in the process of improving the accessibility and efficiency of the website www.cordwainers.org and will keep you posted about developments in this area.

Alderman Fiona Woolf CBE

The Company is looking forward to welcoming the Lord Mayor to the Past Wardens Dinner in March 2014.

Past Master Mike Uren

8 The Cordwainer