Lastmakers

[crackpot]

Looking for info. regarding lastmakers.  My g and ggrandfathers were lastmakers in London. Is there anyone who has records for this occupation? I thought if there are records its another way to trace relatives.
Crackpot

[Copyright-Editor]

Do you know what a "last" is?

For those who don't know, it is the shoemaker's model of the foot on which boots and shoes are made or repaired.

[Hackstaple]

When I was young and single and prosperous I had my shoes hand made by Charles Clore [afterwards the Saxone Shoe Company]. A last maker took elaborate measurements of my feet and made a wooden "last" - a model, in effect of the foot. They kept this and although I moved abroad I ordered 3 pairs of shoes from them every year [brown brogues, brown oxfords, black oxfords]until one time there was no response. That is almost certainly the work your ancestor did. The 1881 census on Ancestry allows a search by occupation by the way.
There is another type of last which was a queer sort of 3-footed metal anvil on which shoes were repaired and perhaps still are.

[manmack]

my g/father had a three footed one,it was three different sizes of feet,possibly men,women and childrens,mack