Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ealing]
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shoe-fitting training course, Eleven shops gave their
assistants refresher courses in shoe-fitting from time
to time, but nine never did.
Table V - Details of the Fittings of Children's Shoes
in 25 Shops
No. of Shops | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Fitting by assistants | All | 14 | ||
Some | 8 | |||
None | 1 | |||
Whether trained | All | 16 | ||
Some | 6 | |||
Untrained assistants fitting in busy periods | 8 | |||
Training by | Manager | 16 | ||
Firm | 4 | |||
Course | 0 | |||
Refresher course | Periodically | 11 | ||
Once | 1 | |||
Never | 9 | |||
X-ray machine used | 8 | |||
Value of machine | Great | 0 | ||
Little | 8 |
Part VII - Eight shops used an x-ray machine for
fitting, but they all agreed it was of little value,
Discussion
Though there are many criteria that can be used to
define a well-designed shoe0 only two were used in
this survey, A suitable children's shoe was defined as
having a rounded toe and a straight inner border. All
the 25 shoe-shops stocked such a shoe,
Other surveys have shows that to fit a high proportion
of children's feet there must be at least
three width-fittings to every half-size (Craigmile,
1953), The Somerset survey, carried out with the cooperation
of CI arks shoe firm, stated that with their
multi-fitting range of shoes, 92% of girls and 87% of
boys could be properly fitted in winter, and 98% of
girls and 95% of boys with summer sandals (County
Medical Officer, Somerset, 1953), The Satra House
Research Report (RR98), "'Dimensions of Children's Feet,"
showed that a range of five width-fittings would cover
95% of children's feet and three width-fittings 91% of
children's feet This Ealing survey shows how poor is
the stock of width-fittings in the shoe-shops, for
less than half of them stocked three or more widthfittings.
Though well-designed shoes were found to be adequately
stocked for the age-group 3-11 years, fewer
shops catered for the 11 - 18 age-group. This infers
that men's and ladies' styled shoes are usually sold
to this age-group,
A very poor stock of shoes of the larger sizes was
found in the shops. This obviously adds a further
difficulty to the parents of children with big feet,
and, in the case of girls, encourages the purchase of
a ladies9 style shoe
Inferior Styles of Girls' Shoes - A girl's shoe is
made to look "pretty" or "fashionable" by altering the
basic details of a well-designed shoe in one of the
following ways:
(a) The site of the strap in a bar-instep style is
changed from the side of the shoe to the back, doubled,
and fastened by a button across the front of the instep,
The toe shape remains unchanged,, but because of the