BACK in the early 60s, Jack Singleton, was one of the youngest ‘cloggers’ in the county.

Aged 32 he had a shop in Whalley Road — you might recall it — but he was master of a dying trade.

For clogs were no longer the preferred footwear of families from East Lancashire and his customers had been reduced to people from Altham Coke Works, various brickyard workers and some farmers.

He said at the time: “I don’t think schoolchildren wear them any more, either.

“The last time I made a pair for a child going to school was more than a year ago.”

He did get orders from abroad, however, and he had just completed a stock of toddlers’ clogs which were on their way to Holland.

One man who was hoping clogs would still be available for some years to come, was 74-year-old Joshua Whittaker, who had worn them all his life.

He was still working in brickmaking even then, after joining the business on leaving school, when he was 13 — 61 years earlier.