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Tea break: Workmen take a well deserved break outside W and J Richardson's works in Sinfin Lane around 1948. All the names are not known but the picture includes Alec Fryer, George "Bud" Taylor, Syd Upton, George Winfield, Harold Hinckley, George Simmonds, Bert Pipes, Ted White and Tom Brodie. Picture: J H Richardson

Horsley Woodhouse, seen here around 1900, had a tannery in the 1700s

Leather goods have been an intrinsic part of life for centuries and, in days gone by, most villages had a tannery. Maxwell Craven looks back at the history of a Derby business which turned hide into leather for decades.

Next time you put on your shoes, fasten a belt or pick up your Gucci handbag, give a thought to the lengthy process that takes place between the exit of a time-expired cow to the underpaid Chinese craftsman who fashions your bag for the Italian firm which pockets the lion’s share of the proceeds.

Men who understood the craft inside-out are pictured above. In the 1940s they worked for J and W Richardson’s Derby tannery.

Two separate processes are involved in producing leather – tanning and currying. The former was one of many rural crafts, such as farriery or blacksmithing.

When it came to making leather, our forefathers made use of practically every part of the animal. Their job involved turning a hairy, uneven and unmalleable hide into a smooth, hairless and coherent piece of material to be graded, stacked and sold.

Basically, the outer skin had to be removed along with the fatty layer underneath to ensure that you ended up with the middle part, which is strong, water-resistant and easily crafted. Tanning used several pits filled with various liquors of arcane content. Currying turned the tanned hide into various grades of leather, ready for the cobbler or saddler.

Most larger villages had a tannery in the 18th century and there were tanners and curriers in towns, too. In Chaddesden, Samuel Saddler, the tanner, took on a Stanley farmer’s son, called Henry Richardson as an apprentice. Henry succeeded to the tannery and stayed there, living in a nice three-bay, two-storey cottage, which survives as 473 Nottingham Road. Eventually a freeholder forced him to move and he settled at Horsley Woodhouse in 1773, at a tannery there which can be traced back to the later 17th century when the Radfords worked it.

By the time Henry settled there, another branch of the Radfords owned the freehold, though Henry’s grandson managed to buy it after 1828.

The building, a later 17th- century village house given a stylish Regency facelift, survives as a farm. Architecturally, it is about the most distinguished domestic residence in the village.

Four generations of Henry Richardsons worked it for 99 years until the last of them gave it up to become a boiler covering manufacturer in Burton of all things.

Meanwhile, the first Henry, who had six sons, encouraged two of them, William and John, to set up on their own as curriers using hides from the Horsley Woodhouse tannery.

William started in Derby in 1824. He acquired a shop and large shed at 47 St Peter’s Street where the two of them flourished as W and J Richardson until 1898. The shop, a Regency three-story building, renumbered 93, survives now and is occupied by Bon Marche.

In 1898 they bought an old foundry on Eagle Street and expanded there but then decided to diversify into tanning. They acquired part of Cotton’s Farm estate in 1918 and started to set up a modern tannery.

In 1929-30 they moved their currying to the site following a fire at the Eagle Street works. This was so severe it threatened neighbouring houses and was attended by a number of tie-clad councillors, led by the Mayor, who helped in the evacuation. They had been attending a dinner at the Guildhall for government ministers.

The Richardson works flourished at Sinfin for 60 years, only being driven to closure in 1984 by foreign competition.

• The Richardson family are keen to identify all those in the picture above for a company history project. If you can help, click on the photograph and add your information to the caption in the picture gallery.

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County:  Derbyshire

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