Audio fragment: From handwork to steam power

Grandad: It was around 1800 when the peasant poverty was really over. The entire household helped make shoes in those days, so they could produce and earn more.

Sanne: The entire household? The children as well?

Grandad: Yes, everyone. The children as well, but it was a different time. There were people earned some real money of course. Not the homeworkers, but the ‘patrons’ or bosses who took the orders for lots of shoes and sent them out to the various homeworkers. You can still see some of the riches of that time in the cornice and bell gables of houses.

Sanne: So, it was real handwork from home and with the whole family? You can hardly imagine that nowadays. When did the factories start up?

Grandad: Much later, but when my father worked in the factory, we still weren’t well off... they were uncertain times. Wages were low, and it was a case of making do with what you had. The first shoe factory was established in Waalwijk in around 1896. That was the first step towards steam machines. And you know, a railway was even constructed to transport the large quantities of leather, shoes and the workers. The steam train ran from Van Geertruidenberg up to ‘s-Hertogenbosch: the Halvezolenlijntje.

Sanne: A train here? Where?

Grandad: Well… right here, where we are standing now. All the way from that side between the two whole shoe soles onto Waalwijk and over the bridge there. Railway guards operated every level crossing by hand. You can still see their houses along the track.