Rushden Research Group: Wilkins & Denton

Wilkins & Denton

W H Wilkins & George Denton 1905

The Birth of a Dynasty (1840-1908)

The foundations of Totectors as we know it today were laid in 1885 with the formation of Wilkins and Denton. The roots of this union however stretch back some forty-five years previously, to the day in 1840 when the remarkable Mr Benjamin Denton of Stanwick announced his intention of opening a bootmaking business.

A potentially hazardous decision but one which Denton approached with optimism and determination.

Locating suitable premises has always been a perennial problem in business and Denton fell prey when he failed to obtain the land he had earmarked in Higham Ferrers.

However, being a man not easily put off, he persevered until he secured a building in Rushden High Street.

Shortly afterwards, his new shoemaking business was trading. It was later followed by a complementary currying business (the process of filling vegetable tanned leather with wax for waterproofing and Wdurability), which itself traded successfully until the 1930's.

Advert from Shoe & Leather Record 1892-3 - 'Postmen's Boots'

Rushden Echo, 27^th June 1924, transcribed by Kay Collins

A New Company, Messrs Wilkins and Denton (London) Ltd., has been registered with a capital of £10,000 in £1 shares (2,000 7 per cent. cumulative preference and 8,000 ordinary), to carry on the business of boot and shoe manufacturers, importers, exporters, and dealers, leather dressers, etc. The first directors are H G Wilkins, St Albans, boot manufacturer (managing director); G Denton, Tilbrook, boot manufacturer (director of B Denton and Son Ltd., Rushden); F R Munt, Winstead, Northwood, Middlesex, leather merchant. The directors’ qualification if 500 shares.

Extract from the Centenary Booklet, 1985

W H Wilkins

Previously B. Denton was selling direct to a wholesaler, but now there was a distinct linking of the production of the footwear and industrial distribution via Wilkins and Denton.

Over the century that followed the operation was to be refined and perfected leading to the excellence of Totectors today.

Operating from the London premises, to which footwear was supplied from the Rushden factory.

Wilkins and Denton soon acquired contracts to produce large quantities of army boots, slip-on shoes for the inmates of asylums and sandals intended for native workers in the African Colonies.

The London premises were a typically shrewd investment. They provided an excellent marketing base for the thriving B. Denton and Son and, being spot on the border of the City of London and its neighbouring borough, were subject to two different sets of rates and regulations which gave Wilkins and Denton the best of both economic worlds.