All About The Hunter Wellington Rubber Boot Company
Men’s clothing was undergoing major changes when the Wellington boot first made its appearance. This was as an alternative to the till then fashion of knee high Hessian boots with turn down flaps on top and heavy braids. Such boots were all right for buccaneers or, when men were wearing knee length breeches. When the fashion changed to ankle length trousers, these boots were found to be cumbersome. Thus it was that in 1817, the Wellington made its appearance and quickly became popular.
Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, who had little time for fashion or matters of clothing, asked his cobbler, Hoby of St. James Street, London, to create a new style of boots which would be practical and comfortable to wear. The boot that Hoby created was of soft calfskin, without any trimming and fashioned close to the leg. Such a design allowed for easy wearing of trousers over them. The final product was perfect for the battlefield as well as comfortable to wear in the rarified atmospheres that the Duke found himself in the evenings. The boots were immediately named the Wellington and the name has stuck till today.
Patriotic British youth, ever ready to follow a fashion, particularly if created by their hero of Waterloo, took to the boots in a big way, and as it is said, the rest is history. The Wellingtons remained much the same till the 40s of the twentieth century. By the 1950s, a calf length version became popular though the knee high ones was also in use. By the 1960s however, both were replaced by the ankle length version, except when people rode horses. It was the near veneration that the Duke of Wellington commanded that the youth of the times became devoted to the Wellingtons and its comfort and practicality made it even more popular.
Traditionally, all footwear was made entirely of leather, the tops, soles and heels. In the new world however new methods were being developed and footwear manufacturers were beginning to use rubber and vulcanized rubber products. An American businessman, Henry Lee Norris came to Scotland with a view to set up a footwear making facility there. Thus was born the design and manufacture of the Hunter Wellington boots – waterproof boots manufactured in a Scottish hamlet called Edinburgh.
Hunter’s success was in patenting the process of vulcanization in Scotland. It was already patented in England but not in Scotland. Hunter purchased an entire block of buildings of the Castle Silk Mills in Edinburgh and set up shop there by registering the North British Rubber Company in 1856. He then hired four men from New York, purchased some manufacturing equipment also from there, loaded them all on to a Scotland bound steamer. On arrival and after setting up the manufacturing facility, these four men taught other local hands, who in turn passed on the knowledge to others and so on for many generations.
