Body and Sole in the News

Today's Sunday Post carried the following article:

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/leather-craft-charity-score-with-footwear-project-providing-shoes-for-those-in-need/

Linlithgow Banner

The Embroiderers Guild in Linlithgow is working on some banners replicating those in the Linlithgow Museum Collection. One of them is a Cordiners banner:

Apprentice of the Year

This year's winner of the Scottish Modern Apprentice of the Year (SCQF level 5) at the Scottish Apprenticeship Awards is Cordiner Robert McLatchie, our own winner of the Incorporation of Cordiners' Apprentice of the Year Prize in 2017.

Having completed a 2 year Modern Apprenticeship with the Scottish Leather Group, Robert is now continuing his studies at the University of Strathclyde with a Graduate Apprenticeship in Engineering: Design and Manufacturing.

Body and Sole - Football Boots

Body and Sole, the Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow's own charity, has collaborated with the Western Recreation Trust to provide football boots for thirty of the Refugees and Asylum-Seekers who are learning English in the daily classes run at St Aloysius Church in the City Centre. The boots were obtained for us at a very good price by Ex-Deacon Jim Roulston of Bar One Clothing Ltd.

The Incorporation of Cordiners in Glasgow is more than 500 years old and in former times regulated the shoemaking and leatherwork trade in the City. It is now a modern charity and has its own special project called Body and Sole, the brainchild of late deacon Dr Iain Lennox and Deacon Professor Ewan MacDonald OBE, which aims to provide footwear for sports and outward-bound activities for people, mostly schoolchildren, who could not otherwise participate.

The Western Recreation Trust was founded in 1973 with funds from the Public House Trust (Glasgow District) which was formed in the 19th Century to combat alcohol abuse.  The funds within that Trust came from the sale of pubs and hotels that had made their money from the sale of alcohol.  The Trustees use the funds today for a number of different purposes, but one of the major functions is to help young people find other creative and healthy things to do with their time than consume alcohol.

The ESOL Classes for refugees and asylum-seekers were the brainchild of Father Tim Curtis SJ, Jesuit parish priest. More than 250 people, from countries such as South Sudan, Syria, Eritrea and Iraq, come to the classes five mornings a week and are taught by an enthusiastic team of volunteers led by Kevin Wyber and Margaret McGlennan.

The football training takes place in Super Soccer in Scotland Street, courtesy of Raza and Farouk.

Windows of Chartres Cathedral

Two of the greatest contributions of Cordiners to the corpus of Mediaeval art - the Good Samaritan Window and the Death of the Virgin Window in Chartres Cathedral.

The shoemakers' street (rue de la Petite-Cordonnerie) was very near the Cathedral so perhaps they were easy targets for 13th century fund-raisers. The windows have signature panels indicating their cordiner donors.