If you grew up in Street - or have even glanced at it on a map - you'll know all about the village's tradition of shoemaking.

The story of C&J Clark needs very little introduction. The two brothers who started with slippers and began a family dynasty that now boasts 22,000 different shoe designs - but how much do you know about their headquarters?

John Bull was a glover who moved to Street around 1804 and made coarse farm gloves in High Street. He was also the father-in-law of Cyrus Clark. After his death, Cyrus moved into the premises in 1825 where he sank skin dressing pits and in 1829 built a factory to make rugs.

From these humble beginnings, the factory expanded piecemeal from the original 1829 building both into adjoining houses in High Street and by extensions to the rear.

By 1845 there were several buildings of coursed blue lias with pantiled roofs. The three-bayed block of three storeys of 1829 lay at right angles to the High Street, with two- and three-storeyed blocks attached its west side, one of them linked by a chute or walkway to other buildings north-east of a cart way.

Flanking the factory buildings were, north-east, the two-storeyed house of Cyrus Clark, said to have been built for his father-in-law John Bull, and, south-west, the plain Netherleigh of James Clark built in 1835.

That house had gone by 1887 when the Franco-Flemish style clock tower designed by G. J. Skipper was built and the water tower, designed by William Reynolds, in 1897.

Reynolds gave the factory a cohesive frontage of informal domestic character in 1898 and by 1891 the main ranges were about 27 bays long and there was a tall brick chimney, which was replaced in 1920 by a steel one, later encased in brick.

The 'Big Room', 26,450 sq. ft. in area, was built in 1895 and the factory was enlarged in again 1912, in the 1920s, and the 1930s, notably the Morelight block to the north with large glass windows built in 1933.

In 1950 a new factory covering 22,500 sq. ft. was opened nearby for welted shoes.

The building has changed over the years, and it's doubtful the men and women who worked in the factory all those years ago would recognise the building it has become, although there are still nods to its past scattered throughout.

The floor in the main reception still slopes downwards - a legacy from the days when this room was used to wash leathers,while old machines - stitching machines, cutting presses and even the machine that used to power the factory before Street had electricty.