LETTER: The history of shoemaking is longer than I realised

In Arthur Nicholls’ article on Kendal’s street names he mentions that Highgate was once called Soutergate, the street from the south.

A souter was a shoemaker, so this would indicate that shoemaking in Kendal went back much further than I had realised.

There may well have been several shoemakers in what is now Highgate; I believe different trades tended to work in distinct quarters as is still the case in many parts of the world.

John Mounsey

Kendal