Materials

In this section you will find the texts from a number of talks I have given over very many years which cover mor of a technical approach to the making and marketing of leather.  This goes right back to my University days when I won the Donald Burton Prize (does it still exist?) for an essay on the demands made on leather by the extremes of shoe making. I rather think I was the only entrant from Leeds and I remember Mr Crack pretty much telling I should not accept the prize as I was too young. I was in my first year but Stanley Briggs had told me to enter and so I did. The prize was a trip to Holland and Germany hosted by educational and research institues in Waalwijk, Darmstadt and Reutlingen with lots of visits to chemical companies and tanneries. Who was going to turn that down. We were in Reutlingen when England won the World Cup - yes it was back in 1966 - and got our picture in the paper as the only happy people in town.  There was a winner from London and one from Northampton as well - we made a good team.

So although some of these papers are quite old I think the content is still relevant.  Some things change, but many stay constant.