Saddle workers face uncertain future

Walsall is undergoing a monumental facelift, with dynamic new buildings planned as well as a multi-million pound road system.

But as many of the town’s areas change beyond recognition, there is one part of the borough that has remained largely the same for 170 years. 

And the people behind the saddle-making trade are desperate to hold onto that heritage. The leather workers are nestled in the back streets, but with fewer apprentices it is feared some may be forced to fold over the next decade. Freedom Semiflex Saddles, owned and run by 64-year-old Barrie Swain, is one of about 40 workshops in Walsall. 

Barrie is the sole remaining saddler who served his apprenticeship under Jimmy Perry, a saddler who learnt his trade during the reign of Queen Victoria. He was just 14 when he started in the job in 1959. 

Alongside him in the heavy scent of leather and machinery, Dave Reeves, 60, Terry Burden, 60,  Alan Thicket, 57, and Graham Evans, 53, are the last remaining craftsmen in the workshop. They used to number 10 in total.

They cut, hammer, mould, sew, glue and machine the saddles into works of art that seat the bottoms of riders around the globe. But the unfortunate reality of the trade is that there is little new blood coming through.

Barrie said: “It has been in a steady decline for years now. I don’t know what the future holds.”